001I'd like to call the March 11th board of education preliminary budget hearing and special action meeting open. Um if we could have a m moment of silence flag salute 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. The Open Public Meetings Act. In accordance with the provisions of the Open Public Meetings Act, a public notice of this meeting has been sent to board members. All district schools, the Herald news, suburban trends, the record, the messenger, West Milford town hall, the county superintendent's office, the board attorney, cable vision of Warwick and West Milford TV77, and posted in the administrative building. Copies of the board meeting calendar resolution were provided to all local media, town
002hall, township library, and all district schools. Roll call, please. Mr. Schultz. Sure. >> Uh, Mr. Stovich, Mrs. Dwire, >> here. >> Mr. Mr. Jurgensson, >> this isn't working here. >> Mr. Lippy >> here. >> Ms. Lockwin >> here. >> Mrs. Markwart, Mrs. Rakano >> here. >> Mrs. Van Djk >> here. >> Mr. Garina. >> Thank you, Mr. Schultz. Uh, superintendent report, Dr. Kitchen. >> Yes. Super superintendent report this evening is uh going to be our budget presentation. So, uh, Mr. Schultz and I will be doing that together. >> All right. So, tonight we're going to be going through our budget presentation. Obviously, board members, we have um had significant conversations about this in each of our committees and and um this is a process that goes back into December is really when it starts when
003we have our early meetings um with different departments and buildings and so on to just begin discussing expenditures for the upcoming school year. Um again, this is for the 2526 school year. So that starts July 1st to July 1st. We're going to go through a lot of the specifics here this evening um just to go over exactly what it is uh that we're presenting to you. Uh I'm going to go over a handful of slides here. A lot of the specifics Mr. Schultz is going to be sharing with you. Uh but I will start with some of the highlights of the budget for um for this year. So a couple of things that I that I want to make you aware of um on these highlights. So the first is the maintenance of uh we're
004maintaining all of our current program offerings. So the courses that we've been offering, we are offering I know that has been a real big focus is not allowing uh our budgetary situation particularly with the cuts over the past several years to uh have a a significant negative impact on the uh education that is provided here in West Milford. So maintaining all of our current programs uh was the goal and it's incredibly difficult to do that uh with the uh with the loss of funds that we've had and the inflation of all different costs some of which we'll be we'll be highlighting here as we move forward. But that's where we're at with that. Um the other thing in in an effort to try to be as fiscally responsible as possible to the taxpayers we've really
005tried to maximize outside revenue sources to support our programs. um a lot of different grant opportunities. I know we've discussed many of them here, but we're using grant funding to support uh some of our computer science programs. Um we've really tried to increase our tuition students and our special education programs, particularly here at Highlander Academy. Um and with an increased focus on that going forward as well, because obviously that that is an additional revenue source that can help offset some other costs. Um yeah, we are utilizing the revenues from food services to offset some of the other expenses. That's something that Mr. Schultz um was was able to to make happen. It was really helpful to us uh this year, but it's another highlight going forward. Um and and similarly, this is something that is
006new is we're we're looking to use more of our SAC programs revenues uh to help offset the cost of some of those expenses. So, um, it just it's a it's a difference in how the money is allocated, but it does make a big difference in trying to be as efficient as possible with the money. Um, and and actually another one that I know we discussed here is uh Mr. Schultz was able to uh work with our bank to increase the interest rate that we receive by doing a multi-year agreement. Um, those are it's a significant dollar amount. Well, I don't remember what the what it average out to monthly, but we were getting a a large dollar amount that we'd never had before as a revenue source just from interest on the accounts that we
007that we have with our bank. So, that's a big one. And then another highlight, again, you've been made aware of this particularly recently, but uh some increased opportunities for our students through our Highlander Pathways program at the high school. Um, but there is no added expense to that because it's programs and courses that already exist. to all we're doing is finding ways to maximize the um the effectiveness of the program we have and the opportunities it creates for our students as they leave uh us in 12th grade. So again, those pathways which we're hoping to increase over the next couple of years are just opportunities for uh students to get these um industry recognized credentials when they leave us because of taking these specific series of courses. So that's really exciting. uh we have a
008limited need for largecale projects in this upcoming budget. You know, we've had a few things that um that have come up. A lot of them are things that have already been budgeted for. Um so like the UGL septic project, there's already been money budgeted for that. Um we still don't know what the what the exact cost is going to be, but there is money set aside for that. And then the UGL window and door project is something that we have the ability to use uh to utilize capital reserve for. That's what that's there for. Your capital reserve is there for those capital projects. I know that we would like to see a healthier number in capital reserve for the size of the district and and some of these long-term projects. Uh it's part of what
009we're discussing in the in the updating of our long range facility plan. But again, the money is there to be used for things like this. So it doesn't fall on our annual budget. It doesn't fall directly to the taxpayers in that way. Um we have some smaller scale maintenance projects that we're going to be doing but things that don't have a significant impact on the overall budget and um again like I said we're using capital reserve funds for some of these other projects and part of that is related to those school security walkthroughs that we were able to do with the state police where they were identifying projects that are important for us to be doing and we have the funds and capital reserve for those. Uh, another important one we wanted to draw attention
010to is the Digos Fields uh, turf project. As you are aware, um, you know, it's a conversation we've been having in conjunction with the town. It is in this budget. So, you'll see that project show up in the budget, but it is not being funded by the district. It's district property, so the money has to come through us, but we are actually going to be receiving money from the town for that. So, um, that's a zero sum for the district. This is a a graph I'm sure you are very tired of seeing. Um it just shows you that, you know, from 2017 18 until now, the district has lost about $9 million. Um we have bottomed out. You know, we've got a little bit more. We got about $300,000 more for this coming year than
011we did uh this past year, but um that percentage increase is based on a much smaller total dollar amount from the state. So therefore, the increase in total dollars is a much smaller amount. Um it's it's not something that is a a large portion of our budget at this point. Um most of our budget is funded locally and unfortunately this is really the design of what the state was intending to do to districts like ours. they were trying to put it back onto uh local taxpayers in these S2 districts. We fall into that category. It's very frustrating. Um and it's and it's really challenging. We hear some of these other districts that are receiving all these extra dollars and they don't know how to spend it all, whereas we're trying to scrape together every penny
012just to maintain our current level of programming. So, it's stressful, but it is a good reminder about how much money has disappeared. and and just think about the increase in costs in your own personal lives just at the grocery store um any you know your utilities everything over that same span from 1718 until now um to lose that much on the revenue side. It's really really challenging for us to maintain the uh level of education in the school district with that much less money when things cost that much more. And again, you can kind of see those uh percentage changes. It's just a, you know, another way of showing you how much money we've lost here. So again, it's about $9 million that we have less than we did um you know, several years ago.
013>> Yeah. over the course of the cuts comparing 1718 to 18/19 versus uh next year, it's a total of over $45 million of state aid. Should we have remained at the 1718 rate, it would have been $45 million more that the district could have had available through state aid to spend on schools projects and anything else that the district needs that we've had over the last number of years. So you see the first couple of years they took $400,000 in 201819 and it just gradually got more and more and more to the point where we were over $9 million down like Dr. kitchen said when he got to the 23 24 year 24 25 and then for 25 26 next year we got 300,000 back but we're still 8 million over 8 million short from
014where we were 1718 I think if you just look at that total dollar amount of 45,000 million I'm sorry 45 million >> if if you uh you look at that total dollar amount of 45 million that would cover the cost of our entire longrange facility ility plan, all capital projects, things like that uh that we have upcoming. Um and that's that's aside from anything uh related to the actual education that we provide, programs that we have and so on, staffing needs. So, um it it's really it's challenging because all those things need to fit uh into a much much smaller dollar amount and and here we sit again $45 million behind where we otherwise would be uh trying to make it work. Uh this slide right here will just demonstrate some of the grant funded
015uh programs we've had that have also been cut over the last number of years. Uh most notably this current year we've lost over 231,000 in just title one funding. Uh it gradually went down from 2223 to 23 24 and then got more than cut in half for 2425. As you'll see all the other title uh entitlement grants they've also been slashed over the years. The only one that went up for the one year was title four and that went down this year as well. uh IDA has remained pretty consistent. Uh it went up one year and then it went down for this year. And obviously not sure where we stand for uh 25 26 yet on any of these entitlements, but I'm assuming it's not going to be more than what we got for this
016year. Another area the district's looking to focus on is extraordinary aid. We received 2.1 million in 2223 and last year we received a little under 1.2 million. So that's something the district's going to work very hard on to try to maximize the funding there. I know we're going to work with Dr. rest's office on that to maximize all the funding that we can possibly get for that. But also, there's no guarantees on how much the state will fund that grant. So, we can submit all the expenses that we have that will qualify, but we don't know if it'll be funded to the full potential that it could be. And at the bottom, I just highlighted all the ARPs grants that expired this past September. Uh in total it was over $2,696,000 between all between all
017the grants that we used for all of our project our programs to support the encore programs, STEM camps, many other things, mental health support, after school programs, summer programs. So that those are all items that we've either had to find into in the operating budget or programs that we can no longer uh support. Even looking at all of the even looking at all the money we lost last year, if you just compare last year to this year, um that dollar amount, that 271,000 you see in the bottom right corner there, uh that puts us near even with the state aid increase um of about $300,000, you're looking at, you know, an almost zero sum there um from outside revenue sources. you know, they they can say that they're giving you more money in this line,
018but if you're getting it taken away in other places, um, and we're still, you know, coming out behind. Uh, so this this chart here will show the comparison of the adjusted budget for the current year, 2425, versus what's proposed tonight for 2526. Uh, starting at the top, special programs, that's special education programs. Uh, there's a proposed increase to that for over 400 400,000, about a 5% change. Uh, regular education, that is pretty consistent. We when I went through the budgets of all the principles and supervisors and everyone that submitted it, we went through every account, every supply line, comparing it to year, what we spend over the past years and really trying to economize what we have available and what we're putting into this budget for next year. Uh, moving down the list, uh, tuition.
019Uh, Dr. Russ is working to bring back some of the out of district uh, tuition students that we have and our obviously our PCTI tuition. We had an adjustment for this year, but that went up a little bit compared to last year as well. But overall, we're projecting a a negative 1% increase in that line. um speech, OT, PT services. We're trying to keep that as consistent as possible to still have the services for the children, for the students, but trying to keep it as consistent as possible and as budgetary friendly as possible. Uh CST that had a slight increase of 3%. This all includes uh salary increases as well. So that's built into those numbers. Uh general administration, you'll see a large decrease in there. That's part mostly because in the 2425 number is
020included the uh contract award we just awarded to land. and I believe in the December meeting to continue the remediation and testing down at the transportation depot. That'll be that's budgeted and accounted for in 2425. It won't be included in the budget for next year. That project will still be going on, but we still need to budget for it because the funds have already already been encumbered. And also included in that is our audit fee, which rolled over into 2425 because the audit does not uh take place until after the school year ends. So, we usually don't pay that until the current school year. So that's the the biggest portion of that 222,000 decrease in general administration on school administration. The biggest portion of that is everything that's needed at the schools and then also
021the supply the uh salaries of the administration and teacher uh pardon me the principles and uh secretaries at the schools. Um central services that went down. We had a couple we had a retirement in our technology department. So what we budgeted there there's some breakage in there for a replacement. So that number has gone down as well. uh operations and maintenance. Um that number went down, but that included in that decrease is actually a large increase anticipated for utilities. Our utility providers are provide projecting somewhere between a 20 to 30 to 40% increase in utilities, which I'm sure everyone's seeing in their bills at home as well. But that's buried inside that actually line actually went down because these this is the line where we included what Dr. Kitchen mentioned earlier about the cafes. They're
022charged in there. We're not budgeting for that. We're charging that to the c the food service fund and also for we're trying to offset some of the custodial salary costs using some of our sack of revenue that we get. So that's part that contributed to the decrease in that that line. Uh student transportation it just continues to go up. The CPI for next year is 3.57. So we have a lot of out of district runs for special education for trips and we also have our in district drivers but we we would love to have more in district drivers that we would have available to do these runs because some some of these runs for out of district costs are 67 $800 a day. So a little plug here if there's any bus drivers out there
023would like to apply to West Milford please please call Trish Peru. Um, sure. Uh, one thing I want to highlight when it comes to uh the transportation. So, typically you'll you will when you're looking at out of district placements and so on, you'll have contingencies built in for additional out of district placements and um or for the routes that we haven't filled but we would like to fill. Um the the reason those are not so so we've tried to reduce this as much as we can. some of those things are not being budgeted for because our hope is on the out of district side, you know, the the the hope is that there's a we're we're higher than the average in terms of out of district placements. So, we think that um without putting those
024contingencies in, there's a few anticipated students returning. We're hoping that sort of creates those contingencies when those students return. And then with the regular routes, rather than budgeting for these additional routes, what we realize is that the the cost of some of the out of district routes can offset that because if we hire a new driver, it means we can take away one of the out of district routes and it's going to more than pay for the new driver. So we don't need to build in um additional contingencies for new hires because that'll take care of itself when it happens. [Music] Uh the next line down is obviously it's 51% of our non-personnel cost is employee benefits. Uh that keeps going up. The premiums keep going up and the contribution we're getting from our employees
025is going down as people are switching over to the uh educator health plan. So that plan I mentioned it during last year's presentation that's based the contributions are based on salaries percentages and the direct access and traditional plans which a lot of people are switching from are based on health benefit premium uh percentages. So, as the costs for the premiums keep going up, we're getting less back from the employees. I remember a couple years ago, Mrs. Francisco budgeted about 3.2 million. In this budget, I have about 2.3 million uh budgeted as the offset for the employee contribution for the benefits. And obviously, a lot of the plans are not different and people are as they word of mouth and they talk to their co-workers are switching over to this plan depending on their needs. So
026that's a very very large portion of of this budget and it's not just the actual premium inc uh increases it's that aspect as well. Uh other expenditures includes our encore program or bilingual program athletics co-curricular uh reading specialists nursing guidance media specialists and our departmental supervisors are in that line as well and that's a gen pretty consistent we that line actually decreased uh by a little under a percentage for this year for next year. uh facilities. The big fluctuation here, like Dr. Kitchen mentioned, is the amount we included in the budget for the Digos Field project that we're working on with the township. And as Dr. Kitchen mentioned, that's not a item that's coming directly out of our budget. We it's our property. We need to the funds have to come from us, but the
027township is providing the money for the field and the uh the lighting that is going up there. uh special revenue budget the 963 377 that is 80% of our entitlements from this current year for title one and IDEIDA because those are the only uh budgeted numbers we have available. So that's what the general guidance is to budget between either 75 or 80% of those grant entitlements. In our debt service budget, that is our debt payments that are due for the coming school year for the uh high school and middle school roof referendum projects that I believe expires in 2029 is the last payment scheduled for that. So overall including all those items, it's a budget from 82,970,223. And this chart here, this just shows a breakdown of uh all the expenses that I just went
028through as a percentage point of our actual budget. So you see special programs 9.7%, regular regular education is a little under 24%, uh tuition 3.6, uh related services 2.8, EH CH study teams 3.1 then you throw our administr our general admin and school admin when you combine that that's about 5% total of the budget for of the the two administration lines and then central service which is IT and the business office that's 1.4% of the total budget uh operations and maintenance is 8.3% student transportation's right around the same amount in the total budget of 8.6% 6% and then you get the health employee health benefits which I just touched on which is 23.5 that's almost that's actually more little under what we're spending on our regular education portion of our budget and then the other
029expenditures and then the facilities is 3.5 but that's obviously a little inflated this year because it includes the 2.7 million we've included for the Digos field project and this is pretty much the same slide this uh shows it in a different way. This shows the dollar amounts and the breakdown in a pie chart of the same expenses that I just discussed as a percentage point, but this shows the actual dollar amount dollar amounts associated with it. So, you'll see that the uh the benefits are a gigantic portion of it and regular education and then obviously to a lesser extent special education, but still 7.9 million of our total budget. And then these are all the it corresponds with the percentages that I just went through on the last slide. to show this a little differently.
030I know we used this slide last year. Uh salaries, the salary lines in our budget is 54% of our total budget. The benefits portion is 24% of our total budget. Uh we added the slide this year for the large amount for the township revenue for the field is 3% but everything else is 19% of the budget. So when you think of transportation, all the supplies, everything else that we need to make the district run, we have to fit somehow into 19% of this total budget that we have because basically salary and benefits is uh more than 3/4 of what that total budget is. Uh this is a breakdown of the revenues which obviously the same dollar amount on the other side 82,970 223. Uh the number of the tax levy as Dr. Kitchen mentioned earlier
031that is 82.5% of what our total budget is. It's coming from the tax levy. It used to be much smaller number when we had much greater input on state aid. But now state aid has dropped to where's this color? State federal federal aid is 8.06% of our total budget which obviously going back if we had $9 million to that. That's a much larger number that we've had over the last number of years. uh budgeted fund balance. We've actually, as Mr. Arasovich mentioned at our audit presentation, the amount of budgeted fund balance that we have has been decreasing steadily over the last number of years just because expenses have been going up and the amount of money that we've had available has been going down. So, we've reduced the amount of fund balance that we're using
032in this budget. That's about 3.2% of the budget. Uh tuition revenue is less than uh half a percentage of the budget even though we're trying to get as many tuition students here as we can for our Highlander Academy program. Uh, special revenues is a little over 1% of our budget. Uh, debt service, as I talked about, is a set payment from the high school and middle school roof project referendum. That's 73% of our our uh budget. That's the for the revenues and the state aid we received for debt service. Uh, miscellaneous, that's our miscellaneous revenues for our facility rentals. Uh, interest even as we talked earlier about the increase in interest that we've received, it's still less than a little over.5% of our total budget. And our reserve withdrawals for this upcoming year is uh
033we have 175,000 coming out of maintenance reserve to support our maintenance expenses and we're only taking 30,000 out of our capital reserve for the security for the allpurpose room doors at a couple of our elementary schools that were came up in our security audit. Um our fund balance or our balance and our capital reserve account. I would love to do everything I can to build that balance up. It's definitely not big enough for the size of the district and the amount of things that we can do to improve our facilities here, but we have to try to build that balance up so we can fund some of some uh large scale projects. That'll be in our long-range facility plan that's being updated right now. And then uh we also have the onetime revenue for this
034year for the field project. That's 3.25% of our total revenues that's coming from the township. So just looking at salaries by category here. Uh the main thing this slide is intended to show you is that the the money's going where you want it to go. The money's going into the classrooms. It's going to the teachers. Um and I and I highlight that for you. One because a properly functioning district, the money should be going toward directly towards the education. But you know obviously the concern when you see that number that high you want to make sure we are we have the appropriate number of staff members um in that category. And if you look at the bottom right corner, you can see these the ratio. So our district studenttoteer ratio is 11 to1, which is
035directly in line with the medium for the state. So we are we are where we belong when it comes to um you again having the appropriate number of teachers in the classroom and and we really don't have control. You know, you saw that in those increases and in those percentages, particularly with the benefits, um but also salaries. That's that's a massive massive chunk of our total budget. Um but keep in mind we do not have control over what those benefits costs are and and even the uh the salary increases those are contractually negotiated. So we have some control over those things but not on a year-to-year basis. So the only thing we have control over on a year-to-year basis is number of staff. And obviously our goal is to not negatively impact programs. So, we
036want to make sure we're as as fiscally responsible as we can be with the correct number of classes and sections and so on. Um, and we look at those things and we've done that at the committee level. Um, but what we're not trying to do is is uh reduce that uh those salaries by cutting a bunch of teachers and then resulting in a situation where all of a sudden, you know, we're far behind the rest of the state in class sizes and studenttoteer ratio and so on. Another thing I want to point out for you on this slide is you'll see the non-instructional aids there and it looks like it's almost nothing. Um that's something that is a a credit to Mr. Schultz. That is when we mentioned earlier um utilizing the uh revenues that
037come in through cafeteria and things like that. That's where those dollars uh are being utilized in the budget to limit the need to budget for the staff members associated with it. Right? So, cafeteria aids, things like that. So, it's a great job by Mr. Schultz of recognizing where he knows dollars are going to be coming in um and utilizing those dollars back in the budget so that we don't have to uh so we don't end up with more money than we need. Um basically what that's going to do is it's going to limit the surplus that gets put out at the end of the year. Um, but keep in mind that the surplus that gets put out at the end of the year that go that's what goes into capital reserve. You don't want to
038have no surplus. That's the money that goes into capital reserve. That's the money you use for those capital projects. But also, um, you know, we mentioned the budgeted fund balance. That's where those dollars are propping up future budgets. We're trying to bring that number down. Mr. Schultz has worked to get that number down from a much higher number a couple of years ago, but it's still a high enough number that it is of concern because when the when the budget doesn't spit out those dollars, you're going to have a year where you have a much bigger hole to to fill. Um, you know, if there's no money to put back into that budgeted fund balance, you're going to be in a lot of trouble there. >> Yeah, as Dr. kitchen just mentioned. Here's a fund
039balance utilization going back to the 1718 school year. Uh we used 2.9. We've been around 2.9 fluctuating up and down a little bit. We had those couple of years where we need basically to make the budget work, we had a budget of $4 million and over $4 million. Last year was 3.1 and this year it's down to 2.6. It's partially because we don't want to keep going to that revenue source. So we it's not sustainable to keep using your fund balance, but also because we have to because obviously we've had less with the cost going up and the less revenues coming in. We've had to do that in order to actually make responsible decisions for the district. I was going back to the last slide um was the non-personnel operating costs. Uh this shows everything
040outside of salaries that we have to pay uh include in the budget. So you'll see over 50% I believe it's 51% of our total non-personnel operating costs are health benefits. So that other 49% that includes the facilities uh cleaning repairs custodial needs uh that's the 1.9778566. Uh and then we have uh 1.2 million in there that's uh for the tuition costs. Uh 4 4.4 4 million that's transportation. Uh utilities and energy that's about 1.2. Uh 426 some of the other costs I mentioned earlier. Uh 2.9 2.9 is the actual tuition amount. And then you get to the supplies and the things everyone needs in the classroom. That is that is under that's the green tab right there. That's one little over a million dollars. Uh technology that's some most our biggest expense for technology is
041obviously our cyber security and our Chromebooks that we need for the classroom. That's a little under a million dollars. And then our insurance, that's not our health insurance. That's our liability insurance, workers comp insurance, property insurance, vehicle insurance. That's about 1.4. And that's just projected basing using about a 10% increase based on last year's numbers. I'm still waiting on the actual numbers what it'll be for next year. So, I'm really hoping it won't be more than 10%, but that's that's that number reflects a 10% increase. And in a 2.8 8 uh 2,866 that is the capital outlay that includes the 2.7 from the township for the Dagos field project and then the difference is some of the other projects and equipment that Mr. Glenn put in his budget for some groundseping and custodial equipment needs
042that we have as well as the facility projects at the uh at the schools. Uh this slide right here this shows our general fund tax levy trend over the last 10 years. uh in 1617 and 1718 there were 0% increases on the tax levy and truth be told I believe we're still chasing those 2% increases that we didn't have on those years. Uh the state aid cut started coming at that time and then the tax level went up to 2.75 and then 1.99 then 2.5 and then 2% and then 1.78 and obviously you see the large increase in 23 24 to 4.48%. That included a health benefit adjustment in that year, similar to what we're proposing for this year uh last year for the 4.73% increase. That was a health benefit adjustment and we also
043had that tax levy adjustment where we increased the budget by a million dollars after the budget was already passed, but we increased that in June to because the state gave us the right to raise taxes uh one more time to try to make our budget meet. And basically that was their lifeline. and they threw it at us was basically go to the taxpayers for more money for all the state aid cuts that we received all the years. We were authorized to go up out for 4.2 million for a total 9.9% tax increase, but the board felt that was way too much. So, we went out for another million that raised our tax levy. I think it was a 3.27 originally. So, we raised it to 4.73 with that adjustment. This 4.77% increase for this year
044in the general fund uh tax tax levy. That includes the health benefit adjustment, uh the use of bank cap from the 22 23 budget cycle. This is the last year you could use that and the 2% uh tax levy that we we normally can go up to. So just speaking to that a little bit, um so that that 4.77% um and you can see again the healthcare adjustment there being $1.6 million. That's not an arbitrary number. That is because of the increased cost of healthcare. So, uh, it's money that is necessary based on what it should cost us to run the district going forward. Look, I think one thing that's really important, um, and I know all of you are aware of this as board members. We've been discussing this, but I think it's important
045for for our community to know as well. Um, nobody wants to see the 4.77 number. Nobody wants to see a number that is that is higher than is necessary. the uh the only people that perhaps want to see those numbers are the people in Trenton down at the state level who have made the decision in cutting all of this funding and that they were going to require that funding to increase at the local level. Uh they weren't saying that we had more money than we needed. They were saying they were giving us more money than they were willing to and we should make up the rest ourselves. Um, so it's not surprising that the numbers are going up, particularly when you look at the increased percentages that you're seeing everywhere else in your life. Running
046a school is going to go up by a similar percentage to what everything else in life is costing with inflation. And here we sit where, keep in mind that 4.77% um is not an actual 4.77% of our total operating budget. All right, that's just the the local tax levy, which while that is the largest portion of our operating budget, um the the real percentage of increase that we have to work with is less than that in a time when most costs in your life are more than that. Um it's tough. It's it it's really really tough. It's not something that we're happy about. Um we've tried to find every possible dollar. um those you sitting in committee with us particularly ops and finance but really all of our committees as we've gone through and tried
047to find every dollar that we can try to find every place that we can take things away from this 4.77 um is not coming with the um you know Cadillac of of changes in the district. It's not right. We took a lot of things out, a lot of things out. You know, it's limiting the amount of classroom tech that we can purchase for next year, which is going to potentially cause issues down the line as we say, well, look, you know, we didn't we weren't able to put as many uh new devices in. We're going to end up with some more obsolete devices down the line. Uh that's student devices, that's classroom devices. Um again, we're not adding a lot of capital projects. Well, that could start to stack those projects up down the line.
048So, it's it's it's concerning that we have to be at a number like this that we're putting in front of you, but the reality is that for the past several months, we have been working to get that number as low as we possibly can, and this is where we're able to get to. Uh there just aren't a lot of other dollars to be had. Um, as you are aware from the conversations we had we've had in in committees. [Music] >> So, moving forward, here's the budget calendar for the remainder of the budget season. Uh, obviously tonight, March 11th, is the presentation for board approval of the preliminary budget. If the board were to approve this budget tonight, we'd be able to send it down to the county by next week. I have to get a
049lot of other uh supporting documentation together before we send it down. So, it's due on the 19th to the county. Uh, the county has until April 21st to approve the budget and then we can advertise the uh preliminary budget. Uh, April 29th is our scheduled public budget hearing for the final adoption of the budget, assuming everything goes well with the county and everything gets approved. And then obviously on May 1st within 48 hours, the board has to post the district budget to the district website uh for a public's view after it's been adopted. And this just reiterates that the user friendly budget after it's uh adopted will be posted to the district website. And uh yeah, that's pretty much it for the presentation. So if anyone has any questions, feel free to to ask. Another
050question here. >> You can hear me now. Yeah. Too much won't work. Is that right? Bunch of cuts. Um, couple things I'd like to see if you can clarify for other people and myself and things like that. We have on here, not to put you on the spot, you've got a couple different percentage increases. Total operating budget you noted as 4.75% district budget 3.84% tax levy 4.73 with 4.77 as a uh debt services >> right just kind of put that in and speak for anyone at home and anyone like myself who may not >> sure uh the overall budget increase is 3.84% 84%. That's the slide that we showed on the budget comparison uh slide showed current to propose. That's the total budget including debt service and special revenue 3.84%. Uh as Dr. Kitchen just
051mentioned, the 4.77% increase. That's just the general fund tax levy piece. So that's just on the tax levy portion. That doesn't include our state aid. So the net of that with the state aid and the other increases and decreases comes out to the 3.8 uh 3.84%. and the 4.73, if you'll notice on this slide, the debt service payment due for next year goes down $7,260. So, our need for the tax levy to offset to offset that payment is actually less than where it was last year. So, the 4.77 in the general fund and that's with the decrease in the debt service for a total overall tax levy increase of 4.73%. So the general fund tax levy is going up with the proposed uh 3,118,393 that service going down 7,260 and that nets out to the
0524.73%. >> Okay. So the the overall budget is going up by 3.84% but we're only we are I can't use the word only. We're increasing taxes by 4 >> 4.73 over >> 4.73 because that's a small part of the budget, not the entire budget. >> Correct. One other thing I'd like you to to emphasize a little bit here is looking at the budget comparison that you did the line items. >> Mhm. >> We have uh 179.25% increase in facilities. I know you mentioned that. Go back there. There you go. >> Yeah. >> All right. So, you've got um a 2.866 million budget this year for facilities when in actuality if we weren't doing this project with the town we would have a decrease. So it's something in the neighborhood of 20 or 30%. Right? Cuz
053that's even more even more than that. Yeah. 2 2.7 is strictly the Diggo steel project. So that other 166,000 that's what we have in there for equipment that we need and the other small projects that we're planning to do. >> So we're only spending 166,000 this year on that on those items and the town is covering the other balance. Correct. Yeah. They they they included some >> Let's get that out loud. It's not us. >> Yes. the township in their 20 in their 2024 budget, they included an appropriation. I believe they sent out a notice as well with the tax bills that went out last year where they included 1.2 million in their budget last year as part of the project for lighting and engineering study. And now they're looking to hopefully they haven't done
054their budget presentation in our budget yet, but they've informed us that they're looking to include some more funding this upcoming 2025 year for on their budget to offset this project. So overall, it's a $2.7 million roughly project that we're budgeting for to offset the township's contributions. >> I I should have started this with I'm very impressed, Dr. Kitchen and Bill, with the work that your staff has put together. I've seen it from where it started to where it's gotten now, and some very, very sharp pencils and some very sharp minds. So, thank you. >> The credit goes to Mr. Schultz. Mr. Schultz has done nothing but try to go through and find every dollar he possibly can for months. So, while I'm more than happy to take praise on things like this and stand up
055here and talk through because we've had the conversations, uh, the reality is Mr. Schultz is the one who is who has really really worked day and night to get this done. >> In that case, then I'll thank Mrs. Schultz. >> Tell her I said, "Hey, what if you say >> that's how your marriage last?" >> Um, Billy, thank you for this. It It's excruciating. I know it. And I did I went line by line. Um, I know enough about the district and the community to know that unfortunately it's unacceptable. The county is raising us this year. The township is raising us. We raised taxes last year twice and I don't know how much more the community can take. Um, I think we need to have a further discussion about the ELA mini courses at the
056high school. I think there could be a savings there. And um classes that are fewer than 10 students, I mean, we have to it's heartbreaking, but I I think these are terrible times and we have to have we have to have more we have to have more to give the community than just what we're giving them. Um I also have another question. Are staff members still being offered incentives not to take um the benefits? >> Yes, they are. >> And how much is that? >> That is $2,000 for every staff member who's eligible for benefits who decides that they don't need the benefits and proves that they have other coverage. >> Do you know offhand how many staff members that is? >> I believe the number believe it was about 100. >> Okay. Okay. All
057right. Thank you. >> Yeah. Just to that point, the maximum allowable uh amount to offer is 5,000. So, uh obviously >> 2,000's good. >> She wants to cut it. >> Then it'll increase that other number. >> Exactly. It's going to increase the insurance by a lot. >> I I I that's where my question lies is it's in the insurance. I'm very concerned about the uh state program because it's supposed to grandfa it's supposed to uh come due sunset this year and we have no idea how that's going you know how that's going to impact the district. Clearly the state is not going to take on that impact. We are going to have to do that which I think is going to really >> knock us in in the increase in the in the benefits. You
058feel that that 10% is even going to be realistic? >> 10%. Uh so 10% >> the 10% increase. >> Yeah. 10.26 overall. >> Yeah. >> I think that is talking to our benefit provider. He's quoted us somewhere between between 7 and 9%. So I think that compounded with the decrease in the contributions that we anticipate. Could be maybe we get lucky and not a lot of people switch this year. Just going on trends over the last number of years. there's been a steady decline of people switching plans like you like you said, Mr. like uh back the the goal of this EHP plan was it was sold as it was going to save districts money and I don't see how that's possible and I don't see how they're going to the state's going to have
059an actuary prove that to anybody because >> the PL the plan costs aren't very different but the contributions are huge the amount of differences >> to appease this this the teaching side of it which which I understand because it it it lowered the amount that they were because >> when you looked at income to to what it was costing somebody. There are teachers who are senior teachers here who have been with us for years and years who were paying more more in benefits and they were make they were taking home less than they were maybe 5 years before that and I don't know if it was really put out there to us that that's what was going to happen and I and I I understand it. >> Yeah. And the unfortunate thing is there's nothing
060we as a district can do about it because it's a state law and we have to follow the percentages that they lay out in their guidance and until it sunsets and they tell us what the next steps are pretty much just have to deal with what comes. So while certain things like benefits the percentage certain things like benefits the percentages that you see and that are budgeted for um are anticipated costs but they're not arbitrary, right? So, so it's not Billy saying, "Oh, well, you know, this is what I think the trend is going to be." And we there are experts that that guide him um through our providers and things like that and they tell us that's not and that goes for more than just benefits. It also goes for your utilities, things like
061that. We're told what we should be budgeting for uh based on what their anticipated costs are. They're not always right, but they're usually pretty close. So, uh you know, sometimes we do a little better, sometimes we do a little worse. Um that is a huge problem because that means the dollars don't exist. So, uh, obviously, um, you know, 10%, we've seen numbers, uh, many districts have seen numbers that are much higher than that, um, that what is it, it 10 point 10.26. We've seen numbers that are higher than that before. Um, but again, it's based on what we're being told is the appropriate amount to budget for for that for next year. I I do have a question too about um about the utilities because I I don't know about everybody here, but my utilities
062have almost tripled and my my electric has almost tripled. I I I I was completely blown away by that. So, I'm I'm a little concerned at what rate you're going you're the rate. I mean, between that and and fuel and the fact that I I mean, I I hope if there's anybody out there that wants to drive a bus that they please come in and sign up to drive a bus here because the the contracted runs that we're paying for is unbelievable. Great. >> So, I I you know, those are I I think that you can't stress that enough, >> right? >> And we cover CDL costs. and uh it'll be part of next week's meeting, but we plan to with our energy uh consultant, we plan to go out to auction if we're working
063authorized at the 18th meeting. We have an energy auction scheduled for the 20th to see what kind of rates we can get for the next uh next multi multi-year cycle. >> Let me go back to a couple things here on the the energy thing. That's one of the reasons we need to get the capital projects done up like UGL with the windows and right >> because you're literally like anyone will tell you we all had that debt is that close the windows and that's really what's happening here. Uh but more to Terry's point with some classrooms that we have that that may have less students than would be optimal for us. I I don't think we can get rid of looking at them many because then you'll have teachers either not doing anything or you
064want to put other classrooms with 20 and 30 students in high school like somewhat correct on that point from what you've seen. >> Yeah. So, so we try to schedule as efficiently as possible and at a secondary level. So, middle school, high school, you're never going to have a perfectly balanced schedule where all your classes have the same number of kids because we have different offerings. and and and MW, I know you're fully aware of that, but I but I think um it's important to make note of because you're going to have some classes that have fewer kids just because there's less kids that are uh qualified to take certain AP courses, things like that. Um, so if we have a class that has 10 kids in it, 11 kids in it, cutting that class
065doesn't necessarily save any money because cutting that class, unless you can save a staff member, you haven't saved any money. You've just placed a greater burden on other classes while also limiting the course offerings that you have. So with that in mind, as we go through, we really try to make sure we're as efficient in scheduling as we can possibly be. Um, look, one of the things that I know we have discussed is is looking at our scheduler, right? Our student information system is our scheduler and is is it the best tool for creating that balance because there are other options that do exist. We want to investigate those things. Doesn't mean we're making a change. That's all to be determined, but I think we need to make sure we're as efficient as possible when
066we're scheduling, but you will never have a perfectly balanced schedule at the secondary level um and have appropriate offerings for a competitive high school. So, I think that's kind of I think that kind of speaks to the point that you're trying to make. Thank you. >> Well, I I just want to point one thing out. Having a competitive high school doesn't mean you have to have many courses. That was a model that was okay in like the the middle '7s. It was gone before 1980 because kids need that traditional um schedule. And if they have that, you're getting the same classes. You're getting the same books, so to speak, but you're getting a whole year of education. You're filling your classes more evenly. And you might be able, I hate to say this, you might
067be able to eliminate a position or possibly two. >> I'm going to disagree. I'm going to disagree with that wholeheartedly. >> You don't disagree? >> I will disagree with you 100%. The some of these mini courses allow us to provide the students with a an opportunity to take courses they may not have otherwise. The opportunity to to do things in classrooms that we may not have been able to do. It provides opportunity for them to work with other students that they may not be in. You're talking about mini courses, not fully year courses. Those things, a course that only has a few students in it is a completely different subject. But if those teachers are fully engaged in their periods that they can work, you're not going to save any money by shutting down these
068courses. And you're going to take away things from these students. And I look back at my own high school career back in the day. I took many courses that got me places where I never would have taken it because I wouldn't have been able to fit them in and do other things if I had full year courses. So >> I'm not talking about electives. I'm talking about the genre courses. >> Genre courses. >> The genre, not the electives. I agree with you on the elective. I'm talking about the genre courses. >> So So my my response was more just on the on the broadest sense of of our ability to provide balanced scheduling. It's never going to be perfectly balanced, but the the discussion about what courses we should be offering, uh the discussion about,
069you know, which different uh sections we we'd like to see more kids in, that to me is a separate conversation. While I understand that it's impactful on the budget, uh I view that as a secondary conversation because our goal is to make sure that we're staffing as efficiently as we possibly can for a schedule that is as balanced as we can make it. But I don't know that that looking at individual specific courses is um is a conversation that is going to have some major impact on on how we budget for the high school because again I think it's it's it's challenging to say well we don't want to run this course and then assume we're going to be able to save an entire staff member. Our job is to make sure that as we're
070looking at staffing that we're doing those things that we don't have more staff members than we need. We have the appropriate number. But I think as we look and we sit down and go through scheduling, that's something that the district has done a pretty good job of over the past several years of making sure we are appropriately staffed, particularly as you've gone through those years of S2 cuts where you have kind of stripped down and you have fewer staff than you've ever had previously. But I think the the number I would point back to is that 11:1 studenttoteer ratio. We're directly in line with the average for the state. So we don't have some uh outlandish number of teachers for the number of students that we uh that we service. It's it it is in
071line with what the state average suggests is is appropriate. >> Brian, I just thank you so much for this uh presentation, Billy, because I know that you guys have worked so hard on it. Um, I just would like you to reiterate for our huge audience out here that without taking the 4.77% on the tax, right? Our us taxpayers, we live in this town, it's going to be our bill, right? What are we saving? We are saving cuts to the classroom. We are saving staff. We are saving people's jobs. There have been surrounding districts that we all know of that are cutting mass staffing. And we're not doing that with this proposed budget. Correct. >> What we're looking at is trying to make sure we're limiting the impact to students. Right. So So obviously the the
072fewer programs we have to get rid of, the fewer staff members we have to get rid of, the better we are in terms of what we're able to offer. So um if if we had to cut more out of the budget to get that number down lower, it >> it would touch the class. >> You would feel it. you're going to you I could not tell you there would not be a classroom impact um if we were taking more money. >> Thank you for that. I'm sorry. I have I just have a question for Dan. >> Dan, can you anticipate I mean this is only a speculation thing. Can you anticipate um how many possible students we could keep from going to PCTI with the Pathways um program that you've brought to us? >> I
073I think at this point it's probably um premature to predict that. I think next year we'll have a much better idea. Um, I did get it was a request recently to uh take a look at our existing West Milford students who are at PCTI and the programs that they are enrolled in. I do have that information. Um, we intend to, you know, reach out to all of the all of the Wester residents who are are in different classes and different schools and highlight our pathways. But again, I don't >> that's a wonderful program. I don't think we can predict that at this point in time. I think momentum will will gain um in the next year when we have that full year of of pathways under our belt and then also the ability to offer
074um offer more, you know, more opportunities. Yeah, I think to piggy back off of that point specifically, I think whatever that number is, we don't know how many we don't know what the interest is yet, but whatever the number is, I think it's safe to say that the uh number of kids that will stay here as opposed to going elsewhere will only increase when we offer more opportunities for them. So, as we add more pathways going forward, we're we're creating fewer and fewer reasons for them to choose to go somewhere else. So that's I think I echo your sentiment that it is a great program and I think that it has the potential to have a really positive impact on our own enrollment. >> Just so everybody understands that might not understand what a pathway
075could provide for West Milford. Would we be able to then not only retain our students but also um get tuition students for these pathway programs also? Is that something that could be in the future? I I mean I don't I don't want to ask I I feel like that's I think it's a fair question. I don't know that we have any idea what it's going to look like until we actually see it rolled out for our own students. So Dan, I don't know if you have any comments on that, but I feel like right now we we want to we want to roll out the pathways for next year, see what the level of interest is and then figure out uh you know do we need additional sections because we're able to do these things.
076Does it mean then we can pull from other sections that we have where uh there is a reduced interest? But the goal is to make sure that uh we are appropriately servicing the students that are looking to have these career pathways, career recognized credentials when they leave high school so they can go into the workforce. And the more opportunities that exist like that, the fewer kids need to seek them elsewhere. [Music] >> Any other questions? All right. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Great job, guys. Great job. [Music] Thank you so much. [Music] Thank you, Dr. Kitchen and Mr. Schultz. We will go on to public comments. Is anyone signed up to speak? Mr. Schultz. >> Uh, yes. Jim Foody signed up to speak. >> Okay. Mr. Foody, I just have to say a little.
077Um, all speakers will have 5 minutes to speak until a period of 30 minutes transpires. Before speaking, please state your name, group affiliation, and address for the record. Members of the public who have requested to speak prior to the meeting will be recognized by the chair first. After speaking, all speakers are asked to sign the register provided and give their full name, group affiliation, and their address. All statements shall be directed to the presiding officer. No participant may address or question board members individually. All speakers are expected to have read the statement within the agenda regarding the regulations concerning public comments. Members of the public are reminded that they are legally responsible and liable for their comments. And this is on agenda items only. Uh Mr. Foody. [Music] >> Okay. Uh James Foody, my affiliate
078affiliation for West Milford taxpayer. Um, I came here tonight because I'm concerned of what's going on in in the town. And I kind of you got me with the 4.73% interest or tax levy. The town, I hear, is going to, and I hear the county is is doing that as well. So, you're close to a 9% tax increase, which is for everybody. that's it you can't go there. So, my my first uh thought that I wanted to say was you should look into Ponttonian from the get-go when I was on the board back in, you know, 2015 through 18 every year. Oh, they're going to next year they're going to make money. Next year they're going to make us money. And we keep running into these $100,000 losses. That's that's one thing. Um, but I
079this is what I think is most important. You know, you guys I saw in the in the budget presentation, you're going to put money into Upper Greenwood Lake uh school windows, septic systems, etc., etc. Um, I think you guys should all take a step back and say, what can we do here? My thought is, and I I hope you guys think about it because there's a lot of things that I proposed when I was on the board that you've actually ended up doing. So, looking at the schools in the district and the amount of students that we have, the audit report for last year says 3,17 students, I believe it was. When I add up the students in each school, including people, the kids in Highlander Academy, we're at 2950. All right. Now, if we
080look at the high school, which has a capacity of 1,800 [Music] 40 students, we have an enrollment of 923. I mean, that's we're at half capacity at the at that building. What I propose to you guys, and I hope you really think about it because you could get yourself in your pocket probably close to 6 to7 million in savings. That's that's a number that you guys should seriously consider. So, here's what I propose. I propose taking mccapen the students seventh and eighth grade putting them over at the high school. I then propose utilizing Westbrook school, Maple Road School, and Mccipin for our elementary kids. You got more than enough capacity and you've got excess capacity. So if God if we we grow some, you've got room to grow. And at the same time, if we
081grow exponentially, it's cheaper to add a couple of classrooms to each individual school than it is to have, you know, four or five elementary school, five elementary schools right now, excluding Westbrook. So, I mean, you guys could really put some savings not only in to the district, but in the taxpayers's pocket. This is just I mean, we're the highest in the nation in this in this county. And that that's it's it's getting to a point where we need to stop. We really need to think and and say, how can we do this? You could have one general campus, Westbrook, Backupin, the high school, and Maple Road. You could either lease the other buildings out, sell them, do something, but you you've got an opportunity if you sit back and and think a little bit outside
082the box instead of just trying to keep every school open and open. This was part of the reason why the state took so much money from us because we we were not being thorough and efficient with the education that this district was giving to its kids. So the state said, "Okay, going to take some money and take a little more. Take a little more." And hopefully the idea was that we'd all get on a bandwagon and save you, you know, the taxpayers and the district a lot of money. Didn't happen here. And that's why I don't know who it was that mentioned it. I think it might have been Miss Dwire. Other districts are doing a lot of staff cuts. >> It was me. >> It was you. Okay. >> I'm sorry. Yeah. >> Sorry.
083take but it it it's something that you guys should really take into consideration because 4.73 or 4.77 is just it's it's not a sustainable number. We we you need to sit back and really and if God forbid you want me to give you more ideas I could give you more. I could keep going and going and going, but you guys got an opportunity to save a lot of money if you think just a little bit outside the box. And I I hope to God that you consider it because you got no problem, you know, raising taxes 4.73%. you know, and if people in the district I'll be done in a second, >> okay, >> it's not like we got a a line out the door for 30 minutes, but um it it there's a couple
084of things that it does. One, it gets all the school the elementary kids together. It creates more of a pride mentality instead of kids coming from different schools when they get to McAPIN and then beating up on the ones they don't like. One, that's one thing. But the the money that we could save and run this district really, really, really well and put it into programs instead of, you know, thinking about cutting them. So I I I would hope and I'm going to keep coming back and hopefully I see something happen. Thank you. >> Thank you, Mr. Foody. Anyone else wishing to speak? Okay, seeing none, can I have a motion to close public comments? >> Close public comments. Second. >> All those in favor. >> Any opposed? Okay. Um so I believe there's no
085um changes to the agenda as proposed right Dr. Kitchen. >> Correct. >> Okay. So can I have a motion to adopt the agenda? >> I move >> as prop presented. >> I move to adopt the agenda as it's before us. Second. >> All those in favor. >> Any opposed? Okay. We have no um education on the agenda today. Um personnel, student affairs, Mrs. Rakano, I'd like I'd like to move items number 10.1 through 1012. >> Can I have a second? >> Second. Sorry. >> Thank you. It's okay. I headless. >> And this again is personnel. Any discussion? Give you a minute to take a look. Anyone? Okay, seeing none. Roll call, please. Mr. Schultz. Uh, >> Mrs. Dwire, >> yes. >> Mr. Jurgensson, >> yes. >> Mr. Lippy, >> yes. >> Mrs. Lockwood, >> yes.
086>> Mrs. Rakano, >> yes. >> Mrs. Van Dyke, >> yes. >> We have no hand carries for um personnel. So, operations and finance, Mr. Leipe. >> Yeah, I'm going to break this up a little bit. I'd like to move uh operation finance number 12.2. two only. >> Could I have a second? >> Second. >> Any discussion? >> This is on the budget. This is the budget vote, >> right? >> Seeing no discussion. Roll call, please. Mr. Schultz. >> Mrs. Dwire. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Mr. Jurgensson, >> yes. >> Mr. Lippy, >> yes. >> Mrs. Lockwood, >> yes. >> Mrs. Rico, >> yes. >> Mrs. Van Djk, >> yes. >> Thank you, Mr. Lip. >> Okay. Uh, now I'd like to move um operations finance 12.3 through 12.5. >> Could I have a second? >> Second.
087Thank you. Any discussion? No. Seeing none local, please. Mr. Schultz. >> Uh, Mrs. Dwire. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Jurgensson. >> Yes. >> Mr. Lippy. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Awood. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Rakano. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Van Dyke. >> Yes. >> Okay. We have no hand carisers for operations and finance. So, we're back to public comment, which is on agenda or non-aggenda items. Anyone wishing to speak? >> Second. >> All those in favor? I. >> Any opposed? >> Okay. We do not have a need for an executive session tonight. I'm correct. Right. >> That is correct. I do want to uh just make one quick reminder to the board as we're as we're wrapping up um our committee liaison reports. If you are uh committee liaison, remember we're putting those through board docs for
088next week's regular meeting. So if you uh you should have access to do it and I sent you the video showing you how. But if you have trouble with it, that's fine. Just reach out. Um Miss Conland will uh can help put things on for you. Uh but just reach out to me and let me let me know if you have any issues. >> I need private tutoring. >> Yeah, >> I got you covered. >> I I have something. So maybe maybe tomorrow when I get done with something, I'm going to come in and let open up my email and then she can train me. >> No worries. >> Okay, >> we can help anybody. >> Thank you. >> I'll give you a hint. >> Okay. At 8:11, could I have a motion to adjourn
089the meeting? Motion >> to second. >> All those in favor? I. Any opposed? >> Thank you.