WTPS Board of Education Meeting: March 20, 2025

001Okay. He was there. He left the head early. He wasn't Okay. So, he can want to cross him out. Yeah. And I'm just going to wing it because Good evening everyone. The executive session of the Wayne Board of Education regular meeting of March 20th, 2025 was convened in the conference room of the administration offices of the Wayne board of education, 50 Nellis Drive, Wayne, New Jersey. Statement of compliance setting forth day, time, and location was read in accordance with the requirements of the open public meetings act and a roll call was taken. The meeting was recessed and is now being reconvened. I ask everyone to please stand for the flag salute followed by a moment of silence. I pledge algiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which

002it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Thank you everyone. Please be seated. Dr. Tobeck. Okay. So, good evening. The board has several committee reports this evening. Our student representatives have some exciting news from both of our high schools, and Mr. Moffett will share his budget presentation. So, we have a lot on tap this evening. We're also going to be recognizing eight retirees for their dedication and many years of service to the community and to the Wayne Township Public Schools. This week, the district completed two standardized assessments which have a significant impact on student achievement and progress. The New Jersey graduation proficiency assessment finished at both high schools with juniors completing this important milestone on the way to graduation for next spring. Both high schools report that students were focused

003and prepared. We appreciate the teachers, counselors, support staff, and administrators who supported our students through this process. The second assessment which wrapped up this week was the annual access 2.0 0 assessment given to district multilingual learners. Students in grades K through 12 enrolled in our ESL program were required to complete four testing domains to demonstrate English proficiency. Over the past few years, thanks to the work of our excellent ESL teachers, multilingual learners have been demonstrating great progress in their language development. Um, I just like to point out during my HIV report, which I'll give in a few seconds, the district is going to report continued decline in HIV cases thanks to the work of our teachers, counselors, and administrators working with the students to teach emotional regulation, conflict resolution, and to reinforce decision-making when facing

004challenges. The district continues to invest all investigate all cases of bullying, but reports and findings of HIV cases are down significantly from the last two reporting years. Also today, there was a special event at Wayne Valley High School. School hosted a connections alumni open house which involved seven alumni students returning to Wayne Valley Connections program to speak with current students. They shared their experiences with transitioning to college and to the workplace after their time in connections and how their skills that they learned continued to support them. The program offered a mentoring opportunity to current students and allowed a showcase to highlight the success of the program. As far as the HIV report goes, there have been six incidents of HIV that were investigated since my last report, and only two of those cases were deemed

005to meet the criteria of actual HIV incidents. That concludes my report. Thank you. Uh, we'll have our student reps reports right now. Addison. Wayne Hills hosted the NJAPT physics Olympics competition. Over 250 students from 16 different schools from all over North and Central New Jersey came to Hills and participated in the competition which included six different physics base and mechanical engineering challenging events. Wayne Hills and Wayne Valley each had two teams participating in the Wayne teams made strong showings. Wayne Hills team one came in seventh place overall out of 38 teams. Photo and fine art students from Wayne Hills participated in the William Patterson annual art star exhibit. This is a jured exhibition for high school juniors and seniors. We were so proud to showcase art and photos by the following students. Seniors Avery Saper,

006Angie Ver, Natalie Lewis, Jeannie Lee, and junior Zana Brock, and Jana Perman. A special congrats to Jeannie Lee for winning photography entitled Ice Queen. Timothy Turv and Ethan Kim qualified for the American Invitational Mathematics Exam. AIM is a challenging 15 question competition. Students who are participated in the AMC 12th and ranked in the top 10 to 13% of all contestants receiving invitations to AIM competition. Journalism students visited Monontlair State University to learn about podcasting from the faculty and students in the school and media and communications and toured the campus sat in a lecture from a professor on the topic and visited the studio. They were able to learn additional school skills to improve their productions and they pitched a podcasting idea to the staff. The trip was a part of a grant on the ongoing

007partnership with the New Jersey Civil Information Information Information Information Information Consortium. On Friday, March 7th, five members of the Wayne Hills Quiz Bowl team attended the Colonial Arch Quiz Bowl tournament and achieved second place honors overall among many of the N oh sorry among many of the other New Jersey high schools. And they competed against led by senior captain Edward Schulman. The senior seniors Chris Mandelli and Karolina Sanchez, sophomore Sawyer Hins, and freshman Jason Schulman excelled in the initial three rounds as well in the very challenging quarter, semi, and final rounds to win the first ever achievement for Wayne Hills. Matthew Palphante is an unstrung hero. Matthew is never without a smile on his face and is always kind and pleasant to everyone to whom he comes in contact with. There is no person in

008the building, including those in administration, the custodial team, or the cafeteria workers, who is unfamiliar with Matt, and they each always look forward to interactions with him. Matthew has faced significant physical and mental challenges in his young life and strives to overcome them. He is dedicated student who always tries to do well. He participates on the Wayne Hills bowling team, plays on the Wayne Hills Unified Sports teams, and is also a member of the Stars Club. Congrats to our Wayne Hills FBLA members. The following awards and chapter accolades were earned in the 2025 NJFBA state conference and competition held in Atlantic City, New Jersey from March 10th through 12th. Miss Null 15 years of advisor service. Aaron Han gold member award. Wayne Hills FBLA chapter website award of merit. Wayne Hills FBA gold seal award

009of merit. Wayne Hills Community Service Challenge third place. Alzheimer's Association donate donation fifth place. Santiago Gonzalez, NJ State officer, community service VP representing New Jersey. Isabella Gil, business communications first place. Lexi Guavz, business ethnics first place. Shashank Sony, opening event progress video first place. Sinuk Pike, opening video progress first place. Raphael Enriquez, opening event progress video first place. Mark Shavenz, computer gaming and simulation programming. Fourth place, Ryan Assad, entrepreneurship. Fourth place, James Gagus, financial statement analysis. Fourth place, Santiago and all the students who place first through fourth have earned spots to compete in the National FBA conference in Anaheim, California this June. We are so proud of them. And that's it. Thank you, Isabella. As spring approaches, Wayne Valley students continue to show their drive and pride. First, our world language department has exciting news.

010The Italian class will be taking a trip to Italy over spring break. Students are elated with this development within the program. They will get to take all the knowledge and studying they have been doing outside the classroom. Have fun students. Wayne Valley Theater will be putting on the production of Mamma Mia the musical. The show will take place on Friday, April 4th, Saturday, April 5th, and Sunday, April April 6th. Seniors Craig Lacrosse and Delila Morelli will be starring as Sam Carmichael and Donna Sheridan and junior Charlotte English as Sophie. Tickets are online now and available for purchase. It is sure to be an amazing performance. On March 10th, Wayne Valley celebrated one of their seniors, Francesca Diovani, as she was named the Wayne Valley 2025 Pay County Unsung hero. The event highlighted many high achieving

011students who take the initiative when helping to make their school a better place. Congratulations, Francesca. Wayne Valley Culinary has had a very eventful month. First, they competed at the 2025 NJ ProStar Invitational. This was our program's first time competing. Students were tested on skills such as precision precision knife cuts, kitchen cleanness, and final presentation. Valley's team was awarded fifth place overall and are looking forward to furthering their skills for next year's competition. Our very own chef Pindelus Dcasta was honored with two thou with the 2025 NJ ProStar Educator of Excellence Award. Congratulations to both the students and chef P. Now Culinary Col now culinary is excited to be preparing for the 17th annual culinary competition presented by Mascino's Food Services. The event will be at Wayne Valley on Thursday, March 20th. Come see the amazing

012food the students of Wayne Valley are cooking up. On March 11th, students the students of the adventure leadership program took a trip to the NJ Rock Gym. These students serve as mentors in the project adventure classes and are chosen by faculty to help represent the leadership responsibility and teamwork the course demands. The Alps leaders were able to enjoy a higher level of climbing and explore the amazing challenges in a new setting. Wayne Valley Photo has been showcasing now throughout town. Recently, Wayne Valley Photo created a new display at Neil's Pizzeria across the street. On the walls, you can see work from different photo classes and photo club. Thank you for the endless support. Saturday also had their debut this month. Middle schoolers were able to come see our amazing school, learn about different programs, talk

013to current students, and find their interests within Valley. Specifically, students were able to get a peak into our fashion, auto, photo, graphic design, biology, music, robotics, and game design opportunities. The seventh and eighth graders had a great time and took advantage of discovering the opportunities ahead of them. Wayne Valley art student Lauren Tulle was nominated as a fresh perspectives candidate. She is a senior in AP Studio Art. Her piece titled Colored Glasses will be featured in a museum with the contestants. Congratulations. Lastly, spring sports are upon us. This week, practices have begun as well as triyous for the team. Good luck to each athlete as they prepare for a great season. Thank you. At this time, we will have our second public input on the budget. Mr. Muffet. [Music] Good evening. Thanks for joining me.

014Um would like to um start the conversation with this is the second u in public input on the budget. We had our last one at the last meeting. Um, and this is the beginning of the submission process to the Department of Education. This is where the administration finishes up the budget, uh, balances it, and submits it to the county. The county reviews it. It's still subject to change. U,, there's some changes over time that need to be made. They're made at, uh, the hearing, uh, with the hearing at, uh, in the future. So, what I'm going to do is dive right into our presentation. Um and uh right now if you can think back to a couple meetings ago, we had Kathy Mantel from our external auditor and uh this is where I start the

015budget process. Uh you end one fiscal year and you go into the next fiscal year. She came here and she uh let us know that um we were on solid foundation as far as footing um but that there was some issues with uh generating surplus. So uh the healthy position here is that we have money in the bank as they say. So, as we all know, when we have our own uh families, you put money away in your savings accounts uh with the idea that if anything happens with uh you know, income over time, maybe your spouse loses a job or uh is in between jobs and you need to you know get through a hard uh time, you would then tap into those resources. So, that's what the healthy position is. Uh we have

016about at the bottom of the screen, you'll see about $9 million. I'll go over uh some of the adjustments to consider, right? So that you start uh where last year's ends, right? So um our surplus 2% at the end of the year is roughly about $4.5 million. Uh that is roughly 2% of our total budget. Total budget is roughly two $200 million. That is a good thing having money in the bank, right? 2%. Uh the board has worked hard to uh sock this money away as well as re uh really uh utilizing these reserves, right? So, they've built this reserve since I've been here uh to help do two things. And that's the healthy unhealthy part of it. Healthy is our our money in the bank is great, but it's not growing, right? We're not

017putting those deposits over time into these reserves. That's the caution that I had at the beginning since we generated about half a million dollars, which is really a fraction of a percent of our overall budget to put into reserves at the end of last fiscal period. Uh that was a concern I had just coming right out of our healthy savings account. we weren't generating additional money to put into our reserves. So, capital reserves you'll see here. Um, and I'll just update because what I had to do is I had to predict you know what we've either have already done at the the the board level as far as withdrawals taking money out um and try to factor that in as I create the budget. Right. So, the capital reserve uh is about million8. We took

018about 350 to replace uh ceiling and roof over at Tunisay. Um so that will leave us roughly a million5 u maintenance reserve again we built that over time at 3.6 we took out about 270 uh in some uh site work and some monitoring uh at Anthony Wayne Middle School as well as Lafayette. So those were things that happened to us the beginning of the year. I think you all remember kind of Lafayette when we opened school, right? Um so that we knew we took withdrawals for both uh those projects. Um which is where I'm at, right? So the question is in my in my experience how much money to have the sock away. Uh at this point I would say you do not as a board want to continue to utilize this the way we've

019utilized it in the past. The board has been very careful to build these with the idea that as we put money into it roughly the money that we were putting into these reserves that we would be able to withdraw them to use for various things like emergencies like Lafayette and also secure additional funding like rod grants. So, we were able to take some withdrawals in the past on for rod grants to get 40% grant from the state of New Jersey. We don't have those funds available in our savings anymore. That's kind of basically uh deteriorated as far as um having to have additional resources outside of our normal operating budget to deal with facility related issues. That's one of the reasons we went out for a referendum. So currently these trends are troubling and uh

020that's the thing that is most uncomfortable with this budget process is u the areas outside of salary and benefits are the things that funds shift away from. Right? So that usually leads to areas of facilities you can't maintain or provide the resources necessary to continue to maintain your facilities moving forward. So good news, bad news story. Although we do have a decent amount of money in the bank, we're not generating and we're not putting money in to therefore generate uh future uh resources for future projects or emergent issues. So that's a that's a concern. Again, it's a whole transition from the way we used to do business over the past eight years where we were putting money away, saving it, and utilizing in the future. We're not at a point where you want to continue

021to do that. Important dates moving forward. Uh this is a calendar comes out from the state of New Jersey. We obviously work on the budget year uh every day of the year pretty much. When you end one, you start the other. So really the the things I'd like to highlight is the state of New Jersey, the governor comes out uh he has a budget message. He provides us uh the I the state aid numbers that happens roughly around February 27th. Uh then we have to frantically go in finalize our budget with the revenue side um to come to tonight where we finalize it and submit it to the county office. Um outside of that, April is for their review and May 1st is the next public hearing where it'll be finalized. Any adjustments are final

022and uh it would be presented to the board for adoption. Some other influencing factors as I already talked about with our reserves and the surplus position um you do some simple math. I know we've been talking about at the board at pretty much uh a lot of the meetings that we've had is the biggest push salary and in salary and benefits. So, if you're if you're averaging over a 3% increase on salaries and benefits this year at about a 15% increase, you need $8.9 million just with those two areas. Just those two areas. So, right out of the gate now, my resources kind of evaporated and then I'm still staring this in the face. So, you have 8.9 and you still need other things. You need to uh present resources for the stu uh student

023services. You need uh student transportation related to student support services. And you also need to expand uh special education and other educational programs to continue to evolve and improve the education delivery system. You need all these things. Again, these are major areas that you need to budget for. The the the foundation of educational services right here. Then what I do is I then start accumulating all the hard increases that I know about. I know PCTI tuition adjustment is going to be $656,000 this year. Significant difference from last year. significant number to absorb in our budget. Utilities, electricity specifically up across the board, but 15% in aggregate, you're talking 335. Hard increase. It's not I can't I have to I have to budget for that. There's no way around it. Certified tuition adjustments, adjustments for tuition

024rates for students that are placed out of district, they have a process where after a couple years, if it was too low, they have a chance to come back to a district and ask for certified tuition adjustment. They do, they present it, we have to pay for it. that I know already is $150,000 property insurance casualty and all that 10% increase hard increase 177 those are things that I have to deal with things that I'd like to do is lease purchase payments right so that's a vehicle we utilize to find uh finance some of our computer technology uh our vehicles our buses we've used that every year uh we had some needs in the uh technology infrastructure we squeeze I mean there's a lot more that we wanted to do but we squeezed a little

025bit more into the lease purchase payment that we have annualized. Uh we increase that by 175 curriculum instruction. Again, things like textbooks, software licenses that need to be renewed every year on a a constant basis on a cycle with different subjects. We needed about $330,000 just to start. All right. So now I I get some of this information at the beginning of the year because you can calculate the 3% increase on your tax levy, which is property taxes. Uh so you have that number. That's pretty good. wait for formula aid. Uh luckily this year we benefited from that adjustment at $739,000 roughly. Um that was a change the governor has presented. It's not finalized. I mean it's pretty good to bank on if I could use the term. It is subject to negotiation when the

026state uh budget is finalized in June. But right now the state of New Jersey is telling us we can uh count on $739,000 increase in our state aid when we enter all our um salary and benefit information. It automatically can generate an adjustment to the tax levy cap. So, it's in addition to the tax levy cap for property taxes that generated our increase in that that increase in benefits that we talked about earlier was close to a million dollars was $928,000. So, uh that those were positives, negatives, uh semi, we were told about semi uh to pretty much forget about most of that revenue. That's a federal dollars. Uh so that and X aid, how we have to budget for X aid, which is extraordinary aid. It's not part of the formula aid. It's specifically

027aid tied to uh special ed needs from the district that documented on an application basis that's submitted outside the budget. We received that money at the end of our fiscal year. Uh but we're anticipating the both of those categories a loss of $237,000. Again, doesn't, you know, doesn't get better. I will say the LPA the lease purchase application we talked about again year after year we do this because these are things we have to get uh you have to continue to replace uh and provide computers so we have uh 600,000 to the one onetoone computer program and we were able to keep that moving forward uh we had additional resources uh related to staff computers and we had infrastructure needs for facility cabling so we were able to get that in we had some uh

028like I said we increased that by about $175,000 um and then We're back to the cycle of the buses. The buses age out. You have to get new buses and cycle them in. So, you have three new 54 passenger buses that we need and two 24 passenger vans. Uh and then we have equipment and vehicles, snowblowers, uh panel van, those type of things. That's about $100,000 for vehicles and equipment. Um reserve activities. Some of what we talked about uh again through the year again through this day. $200,000 uh for the ceiling and a partial roof, which is an extension of the Rod Grant. You see below, Anthony Wayne Middle School and Wayne Hills uh storm water uh due diligence. That's $70,000 there. So, those were again withdrawals uh this year, withdrawals, maintenance reserve, uh rod

029grants, right? So, these are the group of five that we were able to find uh get approved and fi actually fund uh four of these at this point. Um, so you're looking at another partial roof at TD AP. You have another uh partial roof, Ryerson roof, as well as the chimney flu up hills. That's pretty much ending up. That's going to be closed out relatively soon. Again, these are rod applications already approved. Uh 40% grants from the state of New Jersey. Your revenue sources 90 90 cents on a dollar. you're getting uh local tax levy which is the property tax and you get roughly 10% in others and 8.75 is is state aid going to the the where the expenditures are um just look at my notes here because I have a hard time with

030that and this will be pro provided a copy of this will be uh available on our website after this meeting tomorrow morning um so you can look at this a little closer the uh expens expenditures. The majority of the expenditures go towards uh employee benefits, academic programs, and student support services. That's about 78 cents close uh with the other facilities representing about 8% 9%. What's the impact on u the tax rate within the town? The average assessed value is the middle number which is 231,227. That's average assessed. Um, and you see $283 annually, 2358 monthly and about 78 cents daily. And as you see, you have the uh various different little scale that you can apply to your own residence. Again, it's assessed value on your tax bill. So the summary right now uh tax

031levy total is 171.6 goes up to 176.0 that's about a 2.54 increase. State aid the formula aid that does not include extraordinary aid uh increased 6%. Estimated federal aid, the semi what I was telling you about is not is the reduction of of 88% down to $18,000 roughly. Total net operating budget again operating budget is where pretty much our or the day-to-day operations come from isuh 194 million.5. So that's an increase of about 2% 1.95 to be exact. That's our operating budget. That's mainly our biggest area. You do have other uh flowthroughs. So you have non-public programs which is state category of aid that uh is funding for parochial and private schools within our geographic area. That's about $683. Federal aid um I know you hear a lot of that today in the news ESA

032and IDEIDA funding from the federal government is $3.4 million. Um charter school, we do have to pay uh for a couple students uh at currently placed at charter schools. That's $32,000 we're required to budget for that. Uh we do not have debt service as you all know. Our last uh payment uh fell off uh last year and that brings our total budget uh tenative budget to 197.8 million. Next step as I as I suggested uh this is all submitted to the county office upon the review and approval tonight. I'll move it forward to the county office. they will take their time reviewing it, reviewing program information, enrollment, appropriations, revenue. Uh we have to clear a whole bunch of edits to get it to submit. Uh that goes to the county office. They're in the process

033of reviewing it. Um once uh they have some conversations with us on certain items, if we want to change it or uh if they suggest another way to handle it, we'll make that adjustment and then that'll be uh prepared for u u advertising once they approve. Um and then that's all presented in the newspaper and our budget uh hearing on May 1st. And again, it's all subject to change. Everything in my presentation tonight is subject to their review. So budget trends. So uh facilities again, I know coming back to it. Um funds available again it it's the $500,000 we generated. Um I don't recommend that we use any of the reserves. Um now that $500,000 just to remember uh we were up at $5.6 $6 million a few years ago that we were generating at

034the end of the year for for the the savings account, right? So that's that's that's gone away. Uh we have uh a real struggle here between salary and benefits, right? Pulling because they're usually uh they outpace the growth of our uh revenue. So that will pull resources away from non salary related items. Uh and that usually means uh facility and technology those type of areas. Um, so a maintenance uh reserve, again, I wouldn't touch that either. That's at 3.7. Uh, the good thing is we're continuing and it looks like the rod grants right now that we have moving forward are funded fully. And it looks like budgetarily we're okay. We don't look to see to have uh a need for additional resources for those, meaning like change orders to those type of things. Um, but

035right now they're pretty good. They're be moved forward. I would say if you needed any money from uh the capital reserve that would be probably used for any type of budget changes you need on the rod grants. um next generation science uh standards in the labs. That's going to continue to stay on hold like it was last year. And uh again, the facility department is on a emergent health and safety type scenario again next year to really just deal with issues that affect the classroom uh and and no other major projects that are budgeted for. Um lastly, just wanted to remind everybody pre school is still active. Um, we took a withdrawal in the past. Again, one of those things that we talked about um from Capital Reserve, $4.3 million for the envelope. That's I

036think when you drive by, you kind of see the pointing pretty much done. The roof's pretty much done and windows have been going in. So, that's keeps rolling on. It looks like it'll be this summer that it's ready to finish. That continues to move forward. Uh, we reclassified recently about a million dollars because we had an issue with the boiler within PNINS in the old section. So, that that's a million-dollar project. Uh tonight you'll have uh an action in front of you to award a bid related to that. Um you have uh four classrooms that we renovated uh and I just said we kind of more restored them that they're online that we were able to inhouse. Uh we're going to continue to move upstairs on the top floor. Uh that's going to be paced

037with the project on the envelope as that moves forward hopefully for next year for September. We'll have some space upstairs if we need it. Um, and then the good news I I think we heard in in December where two preK facility grants were approved by the the state of New Jersey and uh that again that's a 40% grant from them in both areas. So you have an elevator lobby project as well as you have an actual renovation bringing it up to the old section bring it up to to today's standard. So you have that still under discussion at the board level on on the financing of that. So uh preaching school is still part of uh of how we're planning uh for the future. So, I just wanted to just remind the people in attendance

038and the board that that's still active and moving forward. Other than that, I I think at this point I was going to have uh Dr. Tobach come up and say a few things related to staffing and other budget concerns. Okay. Thank you. So before we get started, I would like to just take a moment to recognize Mr. Moffett. This is his final board vet meeting before he walks off into retirement, rides off into the sunset. So I'd like to thank we've been working together for a long time and I I certainly have enjoyed working with you and it's I'm sad to see you go, but I do want to say that I appreciate all the work that you've been doing to get the budget together in a very short timeline with a whole lot of

039challenges. So I appreciate that, Mr. Moffett. Okay. So, um why is it that the superintendent would be doing kind of a separate budget presentation and that's kind of unusual if you many of you come to these meetings regularly and when you come to these meetings Mr. Moffett usually talks about the budget and he did a very nice job of talking about the budget and helping people understand the basics including a lot of the facilities work. My purpose for talking about the budget tonight is really to talk about the impact of an enormous budget gap that ultimately existed that had to be closed. Okay? And so I'll get into a little bit of an explanation. Um sometimes my job is is not easy and um some of the one of those times is when you have

040to deliver news that is not going to be well received in the community and this is one of those times. Okay. So, let's get started. So, we talked Mr. Moffett did talk a little bit about the budget timeline. Um, really there's nothing new there. We know where we are. May 1st is really the primary meeting that um where the finalized budget is voted upon and we also have our staffing plan. So the staffing plan is basically the rehiring of all the employees in the district, all the other employment actions that are being taken by the district for this year and leading to next year. That all happens on May 1st. So it's a big meeting. So we're still a little bit away from that, but that is really um I guess a good timeline to

041understand because a lot has to still happen between now and then. Okay. So, what I wanted to share is an example of kind of what happens in a house, right, in in your own personal budget. And so, what I did was I basically picked out like a $100,000 as an amount, right? So, hypothetically, if ultimately that amount starts and there's a 2% increase per year, you can kind of see how that grows. And but you could see by year 10 that's $22,000, right? There's a gap. So, and you can see the difference between the 4% increase, right? So, you can see that gap keeps growing, right? Now, school districts across the state were aided with that gap. So, it kind of disappeared for a period of time because of two things. One, there were co

042funds that were flowing from the federal government. So a tremendous infusion of cash allowed us to cover a lot of things. Yes, we had more expenses, but the fact is we also had funds to do some other things. And the other part of it was increased state aid. So 2024 was the first year that our state aid formula was actually fully funded. So it's been a very long time, but there was a buildup to that. And so every year you saw significant increases in state aid. This year we have a little bit of an increase in state aid. uh most of it's for special education. Um so it has to has to be used. It's not it's not that you could use it for any purpose. Um so you could see that we're now past

043where that circle is, right? And now that gap keeps growing and it's not going to stop. That will continue to grow. And why do I say that? I say that because the same math that's shaping this year's budget will shape every budget in the future. The gap will continue to grow and it's just the beginning. In other words, this is now a difficult time not only here but in many other districts. So, with regard to the New Jersey property tax cap, which I understand is taxpayers, the 2% cap protects taxpayers from um significant increases. and you can plan a little bit about, you know, what your tax situation is going to look like year after year. But the the other reality is on the district side is that a 2% tax levy cap in a

044district that is heavily reliant on taxes like Wayne, Mr. Moffett just pointed out that 95% of or so of our budget is paid for by local taxpayers. Is it 90? It's 90 property tax property taxes. Sorry, 90. So the the whole point being that we are heavily relying on property taxes. That number is not going to change very much yet. When was the last time anything went up by 2%. Fuel costs, energy costs, employment costs, insurance costs, there's nothing that increases by 2%. So all that added together leads to situations that are playing out across the state of New Jersey. So here you could see in Middletown, right? They're facing a huge restructuring in their district. They're converting a middle school to an elementary school. They're closing schools. They're taking some pretty drastic action because

045of the same things that are influencing this district. Here in Lakewood, the board of ed needs to take a loan just to basically keep their buildings running, right? They they have some serious problems. That's what's going on this year. They're looking for next year to basically take out another loan and what I guess this there's a state monitor there who's determining that that's irresponsible. So there's a lot of conflict in that community over the school budget. Here in Hillsboro you see some more information about basically a significant reduction of staff members and Hillsboro is a fairly large district. I don't believe it's as big as Wayne, but nonetheless, there's tax increases and there's a lot of other cuts that are coming. And this is following a year where the superintendent said last year was their

046doomsday budget. It was a year where they already had to cut a tremendous number of positions. They're back at it again. And if you want to read about it, there are similar problems that exist in Cherry Hill, in Jackson, New Jersey, and Bridgewwater. So all these districts that are all for the most part relying on property taxes. So that's one thing that you'll probably find is common among all these examples I'm giving you. Okay. So what happened is um Mr. Moffett kind of put together some of the things that were driving the increases in our budget but he didn't quantify them. Right? In the end there was no final number. So added together we put an estimate of about $1.5 million. That's the increased costs that we have which seems like an enormous amount of

047money. Um, and it is it's tremendous amount of money and it's even more of an obstacle when you look at the most revenue that the district can raise is about 4.4 million, right? So, what does that mean? It means there's a big budget gap. As of March 6, our budget gap was about $7.1 million. Okay? Today, the budget we're working on is zero. Right? Here's the hard part. that doesn't happen without lots of other actions that you have to take to close a budget gap like that. So, is the budget balanced? The answer is yes and no. Of course, what we submit is balanced. We're not the federal government. We can't just, you know, borrow money endlessly. There's really very little in terms of what we can do as a district, but we live within

048our parameters. And so, yes, there is a budget that's going to be balanced that'll be submitted, but the question is, how do we carry out all of these different actions that are needed to get to where we need to be to balance the budget? So, in other words, the worst part of the budget process is really ahead of us. Submitting a budget, putting it all on paper, that's not easy, but it's a whole lot easier than than what comes in the coming weeks. Okay, so what am I talking about? Um, well, I'll get to that in a second. One of the things that we did as a district is we looked at where are we outliers. So, there's a document out there called the taxpayers's guide to education spending. It reveals the following. And um,

049so I have a little example there, right? If you go take a look at this document, you can Google it, you can look at it, you can compare Wayne to every other district in New Jersey, make sense of what we spend. But there are some good things and bad things. So, if we're really efficient, that means we're number one, right? That's the most efficient district in the state. But the question is, when it comes to classroom supplies and textbooks, is it good to be the best in the state? Everyone's think like, go ahead. What is it? Is that good to be the most efficient when it comes to spending in on classroom supplies and books? No. No. No. We're a school. We want to spend our money on educational supplies. We want to do that,

050right? We want to make sure our students are equipped with the things that they need. We want our staff members to have all the resources they need. So, you don't want to be the most efficient. But there are some other things. Do you want to be the most efficient when it comes to legal services? The answer to that is hopefully yes, right? You spend as little as possible on legal services. And in our situation, our number continues to grow to now being a situation where there are only 10 districts in the state that spend more than I mean, I'm sorry, there's every other district in the state other than 10 that spend more on legal services than we do. In other words, we're getting close to leading the state in spending for legal services, which

051is something we'll have to work on. We also lead the state in spending for extracurricular activities. So, of the 96 school districts that are comparable to Wayne, we're at 96. We spend more than anybody on extracurriculars, which is a good thing and a bad thing. It's what makes Wayne Hills and Wayne Valley really truly full service high schools. There's something for everybody, but it's also very expensive. And so, that's the part of it. We spend about twice what other what what other comparable districts are spending when it comes to extracurriculars. Okay. So now we go to the part that's a little more difficult, right? We have to make significant reductions and we had to reduce the budget by $7 million. So how do you go about doing that? That is a tremendous amount for a

052district of this size to go through um and to reduce. So some of the reductions privatization of before and after care. Okay, so that's a significant thing. that the board would have to do, but ultimately there's some level of subsidizing that we do now and this would end that. The paytoplay for athletics and extracurriculars, that is a step to be taken to ultimately increase revenue in a way that would support our extracurricular activities um but without harming any of the programs themselves. In other words, we would be in a situation where everything continues as it is, but there are some fees. Speaking of fees, user fees for groups that are seeking to use our building. So, right now the board of ed with custodians and things like that, they subsidize the use of some of

053our facilities for different groups. So, we would need to charge some fees to recoup some of those costs because in the end there is a there is a cost involved. We have a number of software subscriptions that we have that we've gone through and we've analyzed the usage of those subscriptions. And so we found about $200,000 worth of software subscriptions that we can cancel and um things like things that you're used to using um things like so thought exchange is one of them at the district level, right? We have um let's talk that's another thing we would cancel because it is outside of our our core mission. Um the other thing is replacing the Wayne PD contract with an in-house security program. Right now we have about a $1.2 $2 million contract with the Wayne

054Police Department for class 3 officers and school resource officers. Okay. Um that when you consider the fact that we're a school district is is quite a quite an expense especially when you're in a budget crisis. So the idea is that we would be moving to an in-house security program where ultimately so no one's suggesting no one's suggesting that we wouldn't have security but we would rather we would be in a better position to do that inhouse and have our own um staff to do the security and there are many districts that do that right say county tech is an example Jefferson is an example there's many districts that have their own in-house security program and that would save us quite a bit of money um then the other thing is so if people say well

055you know what about the referendum did the referendum lead to any of this answer is no the referendum did not lead to any of what we're facing this year because you saw we still have a significant number of projects that we are funding we're moving ahead with we're trying to continue to do um everything that we can based on our pre-existing plans but what does it mean in the following year it means nothing there is no money there's nothing so all the projects that we would normally have scheduled all the things that are in our long range facilities plan. So we have a a plan that goes out for many years. None of that is fundable because you saw there's a huge reduction the amount of money that we have in our reserves and that

056will only continue. So yes, we have some money in the bank but we also have a situation where um in the end most of that can't be used for our operating budget. Most of that can't be used for any of the expenses that we are going to be experience experiencing this year. You can't use the money for that. And now the hard part the hard part is there is a significant reduction in force. So when you have a situation like this um you start and you have to start at 50s. You have to start start in the board office because in the end we always look to protect our core business. Our core business is education. Our core business happens in the classroom, not at 509s. That's the reality of it. So, we have a

057number of positions that we're reducing there. We have a number of other administrative positions that we will be reducing. We have support positions that we are reducing. We have um about a dozen education instructional positions that we'll be reducing. We have a number we have 18 retirements and those are people we're just not going to be replacing. We have three vacant positions that exist now. we're just not filling them. There's other vacant positions already for this year that, you know, due to retirement or people leaving the district, we're not replacing those positions to try to do everything that we can to um, you know, to save as much money as we can for now. And hopefully we're able to, at least at the end of this year, have maybe a little bit more of a

058fund balance because that's really not a lot when you think about a district of this size. A few million dollars if you have a boiler go, if you have a natural disaster. I mean, yes, you have insurance, but there's limits to insurance and you can wind up in a situation where you need that money. And you also have situations where the state comes along with grants, right? And so the idea is that they'll give you 40%. Right? But you have to have the 60%. But if you don't have that 60%, can't do it at all. It's nothing. So the other thing that's happening as a result of the referendum is that a lot of this work that we um we need to do. Um the the hard part about it is that right now it's

059going to go ahead in some cases. Like we have we have work that we're going to have to do because based on a crisis that breaks out, but all that is going to be done without state aid. So that's that's the unfortunate part is the 40% loss of state aid. um when after after the referendum, the unfortunate part is we looked at if we came back with a referendum of hund00 million and if the issue was the impact on taxpayers, um we did that analysis. We looked at the loss of state aid and what we learned was that ultimately your average taxpayer will save about $360 $367 a month. So that's what all this added up to is that the taxpayers will save $3.67 a month as of the ref referendum not passing, but you

060lose a lot of state aid. And essentially what we lost was a free school. The referendum and the state aid that we lost would have covered the cost of a school that we desperately need, especially with the increased enrollment. So that is um that's where we are. And so that's why I did a separate presentation for Mr. Moffett because I felt it was super important for the public to understand more about what's happening with our budget because it's also time for the public to comment. And so if the public wants to comment, if you didn't see this, the public would not know about the impact of what's happening with the budget this year. You wouldn't understand the gap. You wouldn't understand what had to happen and you wouldn't understand some of the things that are

061about to happen with regard to reductions. So at this point I think that's the end of the presentation. So board members questions questions for Dr. Tobac or Mr. Moffett Mr. Yeah. No, I just wanted to ask uh is this district budget Q&A also going to be on the web as well? Okay. And I just wanted to thank you, Mr. Moffett, for your work and your contributions. And uh do you have any parting words for the district? I I I will say I thank you for the opportunity to serve uh the community here in Wayne. It's been uh welcome me with open arms. Uh I enjoy my time here. Uh we've been through a lot of trials and tribulations and uh you know we have great team to to weather the storms if I could say

062and I do appreciate that. Uh and thank you for all your support over the years this board and prior boards. Thank you very much. Anyone else? Bill, I want to personally thank you. Um, I've been with you for over 10 years now and the work that you do is endless. As you said, we the one budget ends, next one starts, and that doesn't talk about everything else you do on top of that with facilities and personnel and all those things. Um, I I thank you for what you've done for this district because when you came, we weren't in too good of a place uh financial well, not financially, business office wise where you've taken the business office and moved it up to an award-winning business office in the state of New Jersey. Thank you very

063much and I appreciate your your time here and I appreciate your friendship as well. Mrs. Landry, I also would like to say to Mr. Mafet, thank you so much and thank you for being so helpful to me personally um being a new board member a while back. Um I just really appreciated your guidance and your support and thank you so much for the hard work that you've done and the way you present it and articulate all of the details that are so important for our community to know. And also Dr. Tobach, thank you for that very thoughtful presentation. That's very very important. and everybody who lives in this community um are all stakeholders. So, this is all information that's um really important and to be very informed about. Thank you. Anyone else? See no one.

064Thank you. Mr. come off of revisions to the agenda, please. Yes, sir. We have a few tonight. Under T emergent human resources, um number 10, approval of appointment of district staff. We're going to resend. Number five, Michelle Barry, B A R E, LTR, uh counselor at Anthony Wayne at March 27, 2025 or as soon as possible. U salary of $60,985. Step one, MA on the guide. Um number 13 we'll be adding uh again it's T mergent human resources number 13 withholding of increment that reads as follows. Resolve that the board of education upon the recommendation of the superintendent approves to withhold the employment and adjustment increment for staff member number 9571 with good cause beginning with the 2025 2026 school year. We are adding number 14, approval to return from administrative leave. That reads as

065follows. Resolve that the board of education upon the recommendation of the superintendent approves to return employee ID number 9571 from paid administrative leave at the discretion of the superintendent. Number 15, we'll add as well and that reads, it's an approval of administrative leave. That reads as follows. Resolve that the board of education upon the recommendation of the superintendent approves that employee ID number 0628 be placed on administrative leave as of March 7, 2025 with pay for good cause. And finally, number 16 will be adding again to T emerent human resources and that is an approval of termination and that action reads as follows. Resolve that the board of education upon the recommendation of the superintendent approves a termination of employee ID number 0628 effective May 7, 2025 for just cause. That ends the changes to

066tonight's agenda. Thank you. At this time, we'll open the meeting for public comment on agenda items only, including the budget. This portion of the meeting is open for citizens for comment on agenda items only. Residents are asked to state their names, addresses, and subject matter. Comments may be limited to three 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 all business. Do I have a mover? Move. Second. Anyone from the public wishing to speak on agenda items only? Here we go. Public input on the budget. I have infinite time, right?

067Just checking. Good evening, Kathy Kuzanne. I came to give just a little history lesson for the new people on the board and for the community at large. In 2008, we had a recession. In 2010, Chris Christie was elected governor. The state was out of money. The schools weren't getting funded. I think the first year we were offered our state aid of what was it, Don? $150,000. Not 10 million, $150,000. And in exchange for giving up the right for the community to vote on the budget, we were given a 2% cap. That was enacted immediately. And the reason for that is the community wasn't supporting the schools any longer. Every budget was failing and cuts were constantly being made. And that's a sad thing to say, but it's the facts. um for the next up to

0682018. So that was another eight years where we slowly incrementally worked up to oh I don't know about 4 million per year and that that was toward the end of that 8-year period. So that's when Steve Sweeney and the legislature decided to enact S2. S2 was enacted uh to restart the school funding formula, but again incrementally over a five or sixyear period. We would eventually get up to our 10 million which happened oh what last year. Okay. So imagine all of that money that we never received had we gotten that money. The kind of shape we would be in. So this fiscal cliff that we're at now would have happened years ago if it weren't for those people over there specifically Mr. Moffett and Dr. Tobeback for the money-saving programs that they brought in house

069which are too many to list for the grants the sound fiscal management what they did with the COVID money to make sure that we use that money to increase our technology to uh increase our infrastructure all the things that would have generally come out of our budget was coming from the COVID money so that our general fund could remain intact and carry us over for a few more years even while we were grossly underfunded. Um the other uh aspect we we created a position for Mr. Burkholder back there. We call him our idea title ones are because before him we were losing money from the federal government because there was really no one who had that in their job description and it was under Dr. Tobach's leadership that he decided we needed this. I mean

070think about it 3.4 million a year. I think that pays for Mr. Burke Coulter's salary just a little bit. You know, it maybe some some change to spare. Um, but it's just the team in general that I couldn't be more proud of to have worked with all those years because again, we would be in worse shape. And there are districts in far worse shape than us. Um, that would constantly come to meetings. Oh, I found grant money here. I found uh a freebie here. And you know, they just work so well together and they were always enthusiastic about doing that. But I know, come on. I'm the only one here for God's sake. You know, the hundred people from the community that were planning to show up uh decided to give me their time. Um,

071but yeah, I'm really here to thank Bill and but more importantly, you know, the mayor was bragging at the last council meeting how he was going to help you all out with the school uh space at his new money sucking community center, but he didn't mention that he was going to charge you for it. I just thought, you know, you like to know he was mentioning that he was going to do that for you out of the goodness of his heart. But most importantly, listen to Matt Gordano. You have to make tough choices, but don't make them to get reelected. make the right choices. I'm not running again. I know you're not, but it's your mantra and you should listen to it. Anyone else from the public wishing to speak on agenda items only? Make

072a motion. I may go ahead. Seeing no one else, I make a motion to close. Mr. Jana second, Mr. Fellowship move on. Do I have a mover for the agenda? Somebody else. Mr. Pow. Mrs. Landry. Any comments on the agenda? Seeing none. Roll call. Could I just have the motion first? I have M. Mr. Jano. Mr. I make a motion to move the entire agenda in one vote. Second. And I have Mrs. Lamandre as a second. I'll now call roll. Please. Mrs. Lamandry. Yes. Mr. Paul. Yes. Mr. Bacos. Yes. Mr. Alquinn. Yes. Mr. Battershell. Yes. Mr. Faber. Um, no. On third on uh human resources tmergent human resources um 14. Yes to everything else. T14 is recorded as a no. All remaining are yes. Mr. Gardano, yes. And Mr. Pavlac, yes. Motion carries. Uh, at

073this point, I would like to welcome our new principal next year at to stay, Jacob Cabins. Mr. C Mr. Cabins was a vice principal at Wayne Hills and he moved from the top down to playing on the ground. Um, it was amazing. We saw videos of him being chased around the playground by the students and he did a good job keeping up with them. The best was this uh Halloween when he dressed up like a dragon for Halloween and on Monday he d dressed up as a leprechaun. What more could you ask for an elementary school principal? Jacob, thank you and glad to have you. At this point, we have a number of retirements. So, I'm going to start to my far right and we'll go all the way down to the left. All right.

074Tonight, I have the pleasure of reading for Lorraine Bender Greinets. After 25 years of dedicated service, we celebrate the incredible career of Lorraine Bender Greinets, whose passion and commitment have made a profound difference in the lives of our students with multiple disabilities. From the moment she stepped into the classroom, she brought patience, kindness, and a deep sense of responsibility that has helped shape so many young lives. Her ability to connect with students and provide unwavering support has made her an invaluable part of our school community. Beyond her work with students, Lorraine Bedner Grein has been a source of encouragement and positivity for colleagues, always ready to lend a helping hand and share a kind word. Her dedication to creating a nurturing and inclusive environment has left a lasting legacy that will continue to inspire others

075for years to come. She has not only been a power professional, but also a mentor, a friend, and a role model to all who have had the privilege of working with her. As she embarks on this exciting new chapter, we celebrate all that she has accomplished and the countless lives she has touched. While we will miss her presence in the classroom, we know she has earned this time to relax, explore, and enjoy all that retirement has to offer offer. Congratulations, Lorraine Bender is on a well-deserved retirement. Thank you, Mrs. Landry. I have the pleasure of reading about Joseph Turzo. After 25 years in Wayne, Mr. Joseph Turzo is retiring from Wayne Hills High School. During his 25-year tenure at Wayne Hills, Mr. Turzo proved to be an asset to the social studies department and the

076Wayne Hills community as a whole. In his time in Wayne, Joe was a lead teacher for the social studies and world languages department and happily volunteered to teach freshmen so he could help them acclimate to the high school. Joe was passionate about his love of America and worked tirelessly to help students understand the importance of patriotism. Additionally, Mr. Mr. Terszo was also a longtime student council adviser. He helped foster school spirit and assisted the Wayne community by organizing food drives, blood donation days, and countless successful spirit rallies that created and cherished and created cherished memories for our students. Although Joe's professionalism, warm smile, and eagerness to help will be immensely missed, we are happy to see Joe spend his retirement enjoying time with his wife, his dog, and the rest of his family and friends.

077Congratulations, Mr. Batterish. Vivian Vicky Ryder. After 30 incredible years of dedication and service in Wayne, we celebrate the well-earned retirement of Vicky Ryder. She began as a CPA at Pines Lake Elementary School. After only one year, she then became a par professional. As a par profofessional in preschool, she has touched the lives of countless young learners, helping them to shape their first educational experiences with warmth and patience. She worked at Packenac and then moved to Brnness Early Childhood Center for the past 5 years. Vickiy's kindness, unwavering support, and passion for early childhood education have made a lasting impact on students, colleagues, and families alike. Her ability to nurture young minds and create a welcoming and learning environment will be dearly missed. As Vicki embarks on the next exciting chapter, we wish her endless health, joy,

078relaxation, and new adventures. Congratulations on a remarkable 30 years of service to the youngest year learners in the Wayne Township Public School. Thank you, Mr. G. Dan. This one's a special one uh for me personally. This is uh Alan Geel. All great things must come to an end. While this is a famous quote, as I write this, I am unfortunately feeling the mixed emotions of this reality as we congratulate Mr. Alan Geel as he now officially now officially completing his last four months as physical education teacher at the George Washington Middle School. Throughout his 41 halfyear career, so many members of the George Washington Middle School and Wayne community were fortunate to know Mr. Geil as a teacher, a coach, and a friend. This year marks his 13th year. I have had the pleasure of

079working with him and have served as his principal. In this position, I've witnessed firsthand Mr. Geisel's commitment to our school community, his caring for our students, and the leadership he has provided in and out of the classroom. As a teacher and coach, Mr. Geel instilled the values of physical fitness and teamwork. and he has also shaped the character and determination of countless students. His knowledge of physical education sports had a lot to do with his success. However, so much of the success was the result of his ability to connect with his students. Mr. Gel's enthusiasm for teaching was contagious, making even the most reluctant students find enjoyment in his classes. I can testify to that one. his students experienced the collaboration has developed with competition and experienced the personal growth takes place through the challenge

080and healthy competitions. While there is no question Mr. Geel has contributed to and served as a leader of our physical education department, he was also a leader within our school. In doing so, Mr. Gel continued to model professionalism, respect, integrity, and all that he did and in each of his interactions. His consistent modeling of what a caring leader looks like has and will continue to be a standard at the George Washington Middle School. It goes without saying that George Washington Middle School is a better place because of all that Mr. Geel has done for our school, the students and staff. As he finishes the year in prepare for a new school year, we know that we do so with a lasting influence that is left by one of the most professional educators I have had

081the pleasure to work with. We thank Mr. Geel for all that he has done at our school and look forward to finishing his final chapter together as we continue towards the end of the school year. Thank you for everything. We will miss you. And on a personal note, he was my uh daughter's gym teacher and my son's gym teacher. And if you have a young daughter who's 12 years old and not confident in themselves, this is the kind of person you want in their corner. So, thank you, Mr. Geel, and good luck in your retirement. Thank you, Mr. Pizzakas. Josepha Josephine Vigorito retired from the Wayne Township public schools on March 3rd, 2025 after more than 15 years of dedicated service. Josephine began her career as a van aid in February 2010, assisting students with

082special needs on their daily rides to and from school. Her commitment to these students was unwavering, as she often chose routes with the same children each year to witness their growth and ensure their rides were as enjoyable as possible. Josephine's knowledge and experience made her a true asset to the transportation department and she will be greatly missed. In addition to her role in the transportation department, Josephine also served as a cafeteria playground aid at Albert Pacoon Elementary School starting in 2019. Throughout her years of service, she became a constant presence in the lives of the students, supporting them during lunch and recess and ensuring their safety and well-being. Whether helping them navigate the playground or offering a kind word, Josephine made a lasting impact on the school community. Her dedication extended far beyond her job

083responsibilities and she helped shape a generation of learners who felt valued and cared for. On behalf of both the AP Tune School community and the transportation department, we extend our deepest gratitude to Josephine for her years of service. Her contributions have left a lasting imprint on both the students and staff and her presence will be greatly missed. We wish her a retirement filled with joy, relaxation, and fulfillment. Her outstanding support and dedication to the special needs students of the district will be hard to replace. From all your friends and co-workers, best wishes for a long, happy, and healthy retirement. You will never be forgotten. Mr. Faber. I have the honor of reading the retirement for Giovana Zeissa. On a personal note, three of my daughters had Miss Ziza as a teacher in their second grade.

084And she definitely had a tremendous positive impact on these girls and the way that they view school at a very early point in their educational career. And to this day, they still love school. And a lot of that is because of having teachers like Miza. The other thing I want to say is this was written by Britney Kadam. And I'm saying that and you'll understand why because I don't want to make it sound like Miza is a lot older than she is because something you didn't hear. So after an impressive 27 years of dedicated teaching, Miza is retiring, leaving behind a legacy of kindness, care, and love that is unparalleled. I have had the distinct pleasure of working alongside Miza for many years. I was eas even even lucky enough to have Miss Ziza as

085one of my fourth grade teachers when I was a Randall Carter student. Obviously not me. I can confidently say that she embodies everything one could hope for in an elementary school teacher. Ms.'s bubbly personality, kind heart, and inviting smile are the reasons why students want to come to school and learn. She's able to create an environment where students feel safe, special, respected, and loved. Miss Ziza has a remarkable ability to connect with her students, making each one feel valued, appreciated, and understood. The memories she has created with her students are ones that will they will carry with them for a lifetime. Beyond her exemplary work with students, Missa has also built a positive and enduring relationships with her co-workers. Her collaborative spirit and welcoming attitude have fostered a nurturing community at our school. Missa has

086expressed that Randall Carter has become her second home and we are so incredibly fortunate to have had her as one of our own for so many years. Miza is truly a one-of-a-kind teacher and without a doubt the sweetest person one could encounter. Her contributions to our school and the lives of her students will not be forgotten. And I am confident that she will continue to inspire and uplift those around her in any future endeavors. Congratulations on your retirement. You deserve it. We will miss you. Sincerely, Britney Katzdam and the staff of Randall Carter. Thank you on a personal level, too. Mr. Paul, this evening we have uh we would like to take a moment to recognize and celebrate the outstanding career of Michelle Hughes, who's retiring after 33 years in education. 20 of those years

087dedicated to the students of Wayne as an elementary band director at JFK Elementary School and Packen Elementary School. Throughout her time in Wayne, Michelle has been a passionate and dedicated educator, inspiring countless young musicians and fostering a love for instrumental music. Her work has extended beyond the walls of her schools as she has played a pivotal role in directing the all Wayne jazz band, offering students the opportunity to expand their musical talents and and collaborate with peers across the district. Under her leadership, the elementary band programs at JFK and Pachanak have flourished. Through her patience, expertise, and unwavering commitment, she has helped shape the musical journeys of our fourth and fifth graders, instilling in them not only technical skills, but also a lifelong appreciation for music. Her her influence has left a lasting impact, and

088the echoes of the melodies she nurtured will be felt for years to come. As she embarks on her retirement, Mrs. Hughes looks forward to broadening her her horizons and exploring new opportunities. While we will miss her talent and educa and dedication, we are grateful for the legacy she leaves behind and the positive mark she has made on our school community. On behalf of the Wayne Township Public Schools, we extend our deepest appreciation and best wishes to Mrs. Hughes for a happy, healthy, and fulfilling retirement. Thank you for the music and the memories. Thank you. Uh finally tonight I have the distinct privilege of honoring a truly remarkable individual, a remarkable teacher and a remarkable person who will be who will be retiring at the conclusion of the school year and who has deeply impacted our

089Wayne community. Mr. Matt Paterno. For the past 20 years, and indeed for the last 35 years at Wayne Hills, I've had the honor of witnessing firsthand his transformative influence that Matt has had on our students and on our schools. As many of you know, Matt Pno has made the decision to retire and pass on the baton to the next generation. Personally, I've always been struck by Matt's extraordinary passion for music. It's not just a job for him. It's a driving force. It's the kind of passion that ignites a spark in others that inspires students to reach beyond their perceived limits. Matt doesn't just teach music, he embodies it, and he shares that vibrant energy with everyone around him. He is also without a doubt one of the most passionate people I've ever had the pleasure

090of knowing. And that passion coupled with his exceptional teaching abilities has propelled our music programs in the district to unprecedented heights. Under Matt's direction, our music programs have flourished. He is incredibly proud of the music department that has been built in Wayne as well as the wide range of experience it has provided to our students. He was he has cultivated an environment where students just don't learn notes and rhythms but where they discover their own musical voices. The countless awards our programs have received are a testament to his dedication and experience. More importantly, the success of his students speaks volumes. Matt has opened the door for countless young musicians, guiding them towards prestigious schools with scholarships in laying the foundations for fulfilling careers in the arts. Think of the countless concerts, the hours of practice,

091the sheer dedication it takes to achieve the level of excellence we've seen under Matt's leadership. He has built a musical skyscraper in Wayne, a structure of knowledge, skill, and passion that will stand for generations to come. As a reminder, Matt leaves us with this thoughtful quote. Music expresses that which cannot be put into words and that can which cannot remain silent. And that in essence is what Matt has given us. a voice, a means of expression, a legacy that will echo through our halls for years to come. He he he extends his best wishes for the future success of our school system, community, and music department. While we are saddened to see Matt retire, we know that his legacy will endure. His passion, dedication, and unwavering belief in the power of music will continue to

092inspire all in our community. Matt, you you may be leaving us, but the foundation you built remains strong. Your influence is woven in the very fabric of our music programs. We as a community wish you all the best in your well-deserved retirement. and from the entire board, we wish you success and ha in ha in retirement and we thank you for what you've given us. On a personal note, I've known Matt um for a long time. Um a quick story, uh one day Matt calls me up and says, "Don, listen, I have this idea." He goes, "You play in a bagpipe band. you're g how about your bagpipe band plays with my concert band and we'll do a piece together. So I'm like, "Yeah, Matt, sure. No problem. We'll work it out." Well, I didn't

093know the regalia I'm going to go through here. It was I felt like I was in boot camp again. But again, what Matt has done as the not just the band director at Wayne Hills, but for the entire music program in the district and he has taken that program and he's taken it under his belt for a long time and he has directed it and that's why we are where we are today. Uh can I ask the uh student reps to read the u donations please? Um, thank you to the Wayne Education Foundation for funding a donation of $1,000 to PECC and each elementary school and $2,000 to each high school for a total amount of $14,000. Thank you to James Fallon Elementary School PTO for donating to be used for field trips. $261. Thank

094you. Is there any old business? New business? Board member comments. Oh, I'm sorry. I jumped it. Uh, 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 five minutes per person. Members of the public are discouraged from speaking negatively about an employee or student. The board bears no responsibility for comments by the public. Comments regarding employees or students cannot be legally responded to by the board. Other comments may be responded to by the board tonight or at a subsequent meeting under old business. Do I have a mover? Move. Second Dan, Mr. Pishell. Anyone from the public wishing to speak on any item? Kathy, you get five this time. Uh, good evening. Suzanne put up Wayne,

095New Jersey. I basically came here tonight to say goodbye to Bill. You've been great. I'm just sorry that um you're leaving, but I understand I we all retire at some time. I know I did. Um I was watching the bud budget presentation from home and it's like death from a thousand cuts and it's not going to get any better. Moving forward, you're going to have to make some really tough decisions. Back in the 90s, Wayne decided that it was going to continue supporting two high schools. Will that become untenable? It saddens me that we're looking at getting rid of our class 3 officers. They're members of our community. I think it's great to have them in the schools, but I understand Um, and I want to thank Bill and Dr. Tobac for, excuse me, Mr.

096Moffett and Dr. Tobac, um, for leaving Wayne in comparable good position. I mean, seems like every other week there's a news story. East Orange is can't it needs eight or nine million dollars every year. Lakewood, New Jersey, asked for a loan from the state. I don't know when they're going to pay it back. I Middletown, New Jersey is looking at closing three of its schools. I'm sorry. I think the basic problem is the way we fund education. I think it's wonderful that we have a terrific vocational technical school right over the hill from us. However, when students elect to go there, we have to send our tuition money up there. As residents of Wayne, we do not get to vote on what they put in front of the county commissioners. If the county commissioners decide

097it's a good idea, brand new STEM Academy, then it gets built here. We have to go and beg the taxpayers to put extra money out of their pocket and invest it in our schools when we have done so much. the early childhood center. Full day kindergarten is like putting $10,000 or more dollars a year into a young family's pocket. Around here, daycare centers are $1,200 a month. So, and that encouraged young families to move into our township. I don't know what the answer is, but I wish we could come up with something a little better than having referendums defeated. And I appreciate all the work that everybody does. I appreciate our administration, the work you do day in day out. Our families do through the PTO and everything are so supportive. Our families in Wayne

098are wonderful. Our teaching staff is remarkable. And I just I'm just sad that public education is going that way. Can't help it. So, thank you. Thank you. and Izzy. Nice to see you. Former student. Good night. Thank you. Anyone else wishing to speak? Seeing no one, I move to close. Second, Mr. Geno. Now, any old business? New business. Board member comments. Mr. Gardeno. Mr. Moffett, it's been an honor and a privilege working with you, sir. You are the epitome of professional. Uh, this is literally like having an allp pro quarterback retire from your team. Now, we got to go out and find another one, and that ain't going to be very easy to do here. You made shoes very tough to fill, but your audits were phenomenal and really not comparable to anybody else in

099the state, so I don't know how we're going to do it here. So if you hear like breaking glass in the middle of the night and somebody throws some chloroform over your face and you hear a chain, know it's me bringing you back the chain to the desk here. Not so much you're going to be missed. And that's it. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Bish. So Mr. Moffett, I think you've been a pleasure to have around. You've dealt with many issues um both on the financial and the facility side and across the board. Uh and I think that's been an absolute pleasure to have you here and you will definitely be missed. Um in addition to that, I did want to say um in general to uh the the budget that we have, right, it

100is going to be difficult. It looks like from the beginning of the budget like it paints a very rosy picture. The audit that we did painted a rosy picture but mentioned that we don't have any debt which is a very rare position for a school business for a school district to be in. Right. It is going to get more difficult over time. that gap that uh Dr. Tobac put up for 22,000 is not 22,000 for us. That's at 100,000. We're up to nearly uh sorry that was at 100,000. We're up to nearly 200 million. So that's going to be significantly more as that starts to impact onto us. Right. I want to make sure that we don't get too much of a rosy picture on what it is that we're really looking at and the

101the the decisions that we're having to make some of which you see up there as well at the moment. Um this year has started significantly better than last year and I I really want to thank Mr. Aloqu Quinn on the board as well. He's been a good bre fresh air uh around all of that. Um but I have been pressured twice to try and drop the ethics charges that we have in place at the moment. That's a little disappointing. Those aren't on me for to be able to go through and resolve. That's for the board to determine how to handle its unprofessionalism from last year. Um and in addition to that, the superintendent search um that was moved back to 7:30 um on Saturday when we had agreed to start at 9:00. So, I will

102unfortunately miss the first candidate and that's going to put me in a difficult position of having to vote no to that candidate on a lack of information. And then I found out that that movement back to 7:30 was actually just to allow time to have the board get a free breakfast. Um, that isn't something that I think is suitable use of taxpayers money for something that is a few hours of interviewing some people on a Saturday. Um, but considering the free dinners that we seem to be continuing to get as well, that's not a good thing either. I do think we should be looking to be more fiscally responsible considering the area that we're in with the budget. And it's not just the township that we should be asked to feel that pain as well.

103It's easy for us to be able to go and get our own takeout if we want to or even use our in-house caterers to be able to get those things as we used to before co. Thank you. Anyone else? This is Landry. Mr. Bacus, I just want to say congratulations and happy retirement to all the announcements today, everyone who announced that they were retiring. I uh especially want to thank uh and and wish uh Mrs. Zissa a happy retirement as three out of my four kids uh had her as a second grade teacher. and in her last final class, uh my youngest uh dean will be uh in her her final class. So, that's that's pretty cool. Um and it's very sad uh today as we present the budget that's going to be delivered to

104the county. Um it's a $198 million budget. And what we've been hearing since the referendum failed was, "Well, what are you guys doing? What are you guys doing? But we haven't heard, you know, what's the board doing? I mean, I can assure you that it's been top of mind. I mean, this is it came in here, right? There's going to be 40 riffs, 40 reduction in force. That's 40 layoffs that we're going to have here in Wayne, 18 retirements as Dr. Tobac showed, and 10 non-renewals. There's consequences. you know, the uh the mayor was saying, "Oh, you know, they were crying about the referendum, but you know, I haven't heard anything else." Well, you know, this is the impact. So, we're looking at user fees for the groups, you know, to use our buildings. User

105fees that will increase the Wayne PLA, Boys and Girls Club. This is this is the impact. We're looking at paytoplay for athletics and extracurricular activities. We're number one in the state. Niche gave us an A for our extracurricular activities in our sports. We have the most scholar athletes out of any high school. Some of these families, including mine, will be paying more than the referendum would have cost. Could have been avoided. people thought we were making things up. So, um, it's a real impact. You know, this is reality. Um, and, um, also I want to say I don't eat breakfast, so I wasn't aware that 7:30 was uh, for breakfast. Uh, you know, we are taking the superintendent search seriously and, uh, we're going to find a new successor. Thank you, Mr. Favor. Mr. Moffett,

106having been on the finance committee for the two years that I've been here, it's been an absolute pleasure to work with you. I mean, the amount that I've learned just about the way school works and limitations has been tremendous. So, thank you for all of that. Um, you know, I just want to raise an interesting point that may have, you know, people may not have got the gist of when Dr. Tobach was talking about why we didn't come back for a hundred million dollar referendum. And that was because the difference in cost was about $36 a year for the average taxpayer. So to get $70 million less in $75 million less was only going to save you $36 a month. That's why we didn't come back because as a year I'm sorry 30 $36 a

107year. So for all the mayors yelling screaming about it was going to impact taxes come back with 100 million. Could you imagine if we would have came back and gotten almost half the money and only saved the taxpayer $36? I mean, that would be irresponsible. But again, you know what that all that means is that now we have all these projects that aren't coming. And unfortunately, our buildings are aging. So, the likelihood of some other big problem popping up is greater. And we have $10 million sitting in the bank to fund those issues. So, just like we found that we had a roof leaking that's going to cost us, you know, I don't know, half a million dollars to fix, there's mold that has to be remediated. These things come up and when you're talking

108about the size of this district, $10 million does not go very far. So, you know, people need to think like remember that we're not just doing things because we think it's, you know, what we want. It just it wouldn't have made sense for us to come back with another referendum for half the price and only save you $36 a month a year. I'm sorry. So, you know, that's the answer to that one. Are we still trying to figure out what we could potentially do? Yeah, we're exploring other avenues and you know, but this problem is only so the gap that we had this year is going to be larger next year. This is a an unsustainable model for running any type of situation where you know your revenue is only going up 2% and your

109costs are going up you know 3 4 5 6%. It is not sustainable. So how it's going to end up I can't tell you but it's definitely getting harder to make the decisions because this year we were able to do it with minimal impact to the education and the teachers and things of that nature. That's going to get harder as years go on. And another issue is now, you know, we were told we weren't going to have people start moving into these buildings until uh July of 26, I think it was. So, we thought we had a whole another school year. Well, we just found out that there are people set to start moving into some of these buildings next month, June June of this year. So, we have to also now figure out how

110we're going to absorb those extra students that we were told weren't coming for another year and potentially another 3 months in time for the school year next year. So, you know, this is why, you know, when we talk and we try to say things and one person comes out and says things that, you know, and fights so hard, clearly he wasn't giving you the right message and giving you the truth. And that's I'm speaking about the mayor because here we are now. We know that we're going to have to have space for these students that are moving in earlier than we were told. And you know, the referendum couldn't come back and get a lower number because it wouldn't have done that any good. So, be careful whose information you listen to because we didn't

111have a vested interest in lying to you. Thank you, Mr. Paul. Uh Mr. Cavens, congratulations. Good luck on the uh the new role. Mr. Moffett, uh you know, I echo the sentiments of everybody up here. It's been a pleasure. Um, you know, I didn't have as much time working with you as some of the other people, but the time that I did have with you, you know, I appreciate it. Um, and I definitely didn't know about any breakfast on Saturday that we were moving time for. I thought it had to do with scheduling, but I hope it's delicious. Excuse me. Um, Bill, again, thank you. I think anybody, Mrs. Kazam, Mrs. Putup can attest to what I'm gonna say. I think I talk to the business administrator, Mr. Moffett, more times sometimes than I talk

112to my wife um constantly and along with Dr. Tobach, it never ends. Um and I again I thank you when you came here prior to your getting here. Um I do remember a former BA who Dr. Tobeck called me up on a sun on a Sunday in January. And when he calls me on a Sunday, it's not good. Usually he goes, "We have a problem. The BA we have here can't do the budget." Okay, we have a problem, but since you've been here, the financial uh position you have put us in and not is excellent and not to your fault what has happened here. And I want to echo the uh sentiments of my colleagues here. The budget next year is not going to be any better than this. When Dr. Tobach and I initially

113were talking with Mr. Moffett months ago, you heard Mr. Moffet sit here and say, "I'm concerned." And in the 10 years I've been that he's been here, I've never heard those words out of his mouth. Well, you're seeing the concern now. 7 million. And the administration did a good job. We said, "Listen, we're going to start at the top from the crown down. The last place we want to take from is the classroom. You can only do that so much. With what's coming next year, there's going to have to be some really tough decisions made. And I'll tell you now, they will not be popular by any means." And but the board's going to come to have to come together and make these decisions for what the best of the district is, not the best

114of individuals. This budget stayed away from the classroom. We're not losing any academics out of it. We're reorganizing things a little bit and sliding some students around. But come next year, if we're looking at a seven eight million dollar gap, it's only coming from staff. There's not not a lot to cut any place else anymore. The rising costs are killing us, right? Um we have one of the best school districts in the state and that's why we're being transparent tonight, coming out and saying, "Hey, listen. Here's here's where the cuts are coming from. I we did not want to do like some districts are doing just pushing it through and at the end of the day come in uh May May 1st, oh by the way, here's the cuts. No, we want to be fully

115transparent in what's going to happen and we have been tonight. You don't have to agree with us. That's fine. But again, if you don't, I'm willing to listen to you. Tell me how to get to $7 million. As Mrs. Kazan said, we got cut down to $150,000 one year. We were making 5,000 $500,000 cuts at a time. You never regain back. When the budgets went out to a vote and when they got defeated and they came to the town council who did their due diligence, they were cutting anywhere from 1.75 million to $2 million with a 2% cap. You're not making that money back. And it compounds year over year after year. You can't do it. I've health costs going up 15% and I could only raise the budget 2%. gasoline. Look what gasoline is.

116Diesel fuel is even higher. So when you compound all these things together, that's why we are where we are. And we're not alone in the boat. There's a lot of other people that are making really tough decisions this year in other districts. And I hope we don't have to get to the point where we say, is it sustainable to keep all the schools we have open? Because if the we keep coming up with seven 8 million cuts every year and one thing, when you start cutting classrooms, that means class sizes go up. That's it. You know, people say, why do you cut athletics? The cuts there, you're not spending $5 million on athletics. Not even close. We took pieces from everywhere. Everybody, every um department had a pitch in. So I I I don't want

117to, you know, do a doomsday uh scenario here, but I can tell you I I don't want to be honest with you. Next year doesn't look good. And the same thing, we don't know what's going to happen in Washington now. How much federal money we're going to lose. Are the grants going to stop? Nobody has an answer as to what's going to happen. So, we're put back in the limbo again. What's going to happen? What are we going to do? We don't know. We have to take it a day at a time. And hopefully by some miracle the folks down in Trenton get their act together instead of funding all these pet peeve projects that they want of everything. How about they look at the schools, start paying and give everybody their fair share. You

118think about the amount of thou uh dollars we pay in taxes to train to Washington and figure out what we get back. Not much of anything. So with that I will take a motion to adjurnn. Motion to close. Second Mr. Batter. Good night everyone. Thank you for coming.