001I'd like to call the meeting to order. And if everyone can have a if we could have a moment of silence, please. Please rise for the 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. In accordance with the provisions of the Open Public Meeting Act, a public notice of this meeting has been sent to the board members, all district schools, the Herald News, the Suburban Trends, The Record, The Messenger, West Milford Town Hall, the County Superintendent Office, The Board Attorney, Cable Vision of Warwick, and West Milford TV 77. and posted in the administration building. Copies of the board meeting calendar resolution were provided to all local media, town hall, township, library,
002and all district schools. Roll call. Mrs. Francisco, >> Mr. Stman >> here, >> Mr. Conway >> here. >> Mrs. Stevenson >> here. >> Mrs. Here, Mr. >> Here, Mrs. O'Brien >> here. >> Mr. Oinsky >> here. Mrs. Romeo here. Mrs. Van Dyke >> here. We need a we need a motion for executive session. I'd >> like to make a motion to approve the following resolution resolve that the board immediately goes into executive session for 30 minutes for the purpose of conducting agreements hearing. The executive session minutes will not be released until such time as privilege. Confidentiality is no longer applicable. >> I need a second. >> Second, >> Dave. All those in favor a roll call. Oh no. Okay. All those in favor. >> Any opposed? Okay. We will return in approximately a half an
003hour. >> Mrs. Romeo here. Stevenson here. >> Mr. Greeno >> here. >> Mr. Conlin >> here. >> Mr. O'Brien >> here. >> Mr. Van Dyke >> here. >> Mrs. Francisco, uh, special reports. Um tonight we have Tom Curry by himself from our our audit and um he is going to present the audit um at the last board meeting. We um accepted the audit report and accepted the um the findings. >> Yep. >> But Tom was had was not able to come. that you're here tonight to explain report and answer any questions that you have. >> Thank you, Barbara. Well, thank you for having me tonight. Um, so uh you received two documents. One is the uh black covered that's the AMR, the audit management report. The bigger one is the CAFRA, which is comprehensive annual
004financial statement. And what I like to do is go over, it's actually one exhibit in here which I go over pretty much every year and that's exhibit C1 on page 74. And what this is is the budget as um adopted by the board and it's on the budgetary basis because um every year I tell you that you're under the gap basis of accounting generally accepted accounting principles. Uh there's three different fund balances in here, but this document, the budgetary basis is what you make your decisions upon when you put together the budget. Um page 74, it starts off with the revenues. Um the revenues as um adopted, the modified amount and the realized amount or the actual amount and any excess or deficit. Halfway down the page starts the expenditures which go on for uh
005four pages. So um if you go to page 78, this is where your um your fund balance is. Now if if you remember every year I talk about the fund balance. It's made up of multiple components. Um so if you look on the very bottom where it says recapitulation [snorts] we have restricted part of fund balance. So your fund balance was 9.9 million. Uh of that 9.9 million 1,491 is your capital reserve. That's for um expenditures for capital items, bigger capital items than what you would rather than you would put in the budget like roofs and and additions to um classrooms and and clean up classrooms. Um you have a m maintenance reserve for um maintenance of course uh of $700,000. This kind of uh smooths out any m high maintenances in certain years uh
006so that you don't have to you don't have a fluctuating tax rate. It just helps smooth out um if you do have any maintenance items. Excess surplus of 2,971. What that represents is the um the state of New Jersey has the calculation for a 2% cap. Um, and it's a long calculation which is actually in the black book. Um, you can't exceed it based upon certain things like if you didn't use your extraordinary aid. Um, anything over that amount is considered excess surplus that and which is a good thing because I'd rather have excess surplus than none. Excess surplus for this year which was generated for the year at the end of the year June 30th of 2020 will go towards your 2122 school year mandatory by the state which is basically like anticipating fund
007balance to offset taxes. It's it's uh it was something the state put in to curve expenditures but actually it wound up to be um an amount that offsets taxes and it's pretty stable. So, it's it's like you would put it away yourself. Well, the state's kind of forcing you to put it away, but it's it's a it's a good thing. 2.9 million is roughly what you put in the budget every year. So, um it works out okay. Um the the next line, excess surplus designated for subsequent years, that was what was generated at the end of 2019. That's going into the budget we're in right now. Um the the next line item is encumbrances 630,000. Those are purchase orders as of June 30th um that we know we're going to expend in July and August
008of this year. Um so we put that money aside and um it gets spent. You have designated for subsequent years expenditures $913,000. What that represents is um ex extra money besides the extraordinary um I'm sorry, the excess surplus that you took out of your regular fund balance to balance this year's budget that we're in right now. And then what you're left with is the 2% uh number of um 1,755 that represents your 2% cap. So it's made up of multiple layers. So if you really ask me what your fund balance was, it would be the the 1,755. Everything everything else is pretty much designated for a specific purpose. I know that was quick. I mean, this this document's huge, but that's the meat and potato. This is really these these pages are are the best
009to look at. Uh if you want to see what what the district did, um you could look at any one of these CAFRAS in the state of New Jersey if you go on to the state New Jersey um New Jersey DOE. You just Google New Jersey DOE CAFRA and it'll bring you to the website and you can look up any district in any county and compare yourselves. You just find this page with the other audits and you can compare yourself with other districts. I do it a lot. Uh but that's me. I get bored on a Sunday. [laughter] So, um so really that's all I have financial wise. Um I just wanted to go over if anything your your your debt service, your your bond payables. Um [snorts] we have one issue right now. it.
010Uh the school bonds of 2016 uh they mature July 15th of 2029. Right now as as actually say as of June 30th your balance is uh 5,625,000. We roughly put away or we uh the principal amount each year roughly um 18 to 19 was $425,000 19 to 20 was 450. So, it's around that amount. And again, they come due at the end of 20 or the middle of 2029. You do have capital leases. That's for buses and things, but um those really don't factor in. You just pay principal and interest on those. Uh so really that's that's most of this whole document. um that makes sense to anybody because it's it's it's very when the state wanted to do Gazby's 34 governmental accounting standards board 34 and put us to um GAP accounting generally accepted
011accounting principles it changed everything and with GAP we have to wait for uh the government gazby 75 Gazsby 68 we have to wait for Gazsby 65 all the pension numbers that we have to wait for the state we used to be able to crank these audits out, present them. Now we have to wait for the state to give us numbers on pensions and postretirement benefits and it just slows everything up. Um, normally the audits are due like December 5th. It got extended this year till February 2nd or I forget what the date was, but it got extended extended um because the state because of COVID because people the auditors for the state couldn't get in and and do their work. So it got a little more extended. So this is the AMR. Basically it gives
012you the comments and recommendations that we had. Uh there were two this year. Uh which on a richer scale of 1 to 10, 10 being bad, they're like a two. Um it's it's more house cleaning than anything. Um 90% of my comments or recommendations for any school district are student activity related, cafeteria related or um the application for state school aid um asa uh related. Um so if you want it, you can uh follow me on page three of the AMR. So this one happens to be payroll. Um in one one instance out of all the employees in one instance an employee uh was included for reimbursement for TPAS TPA FICA and was not el that was not eligible for reimbursement. So what that basically means is that the state of New Jersey picks up
013the board chair of FICA. The employee pays 7.65%. The board has to match 7.65. 65 normally, but what happens is the state picks that up for certified teachers. So, in the software system, there's a a little button that you click when a person comes in and if it's a custodian, you uncclick it and say, "No, that person isn't entitled to it." In this case, it was a very gray area where it was a um an a per a teacher that came in that wasn't full-time. It was just um there temporarily and I think it just got what it it's it's you have to tick it. You have to untick that box. Um and and it was it wasn't done. So it it was just it that's the software system. You can't you can't change it.
014So it was just one instance that we found. Um so moving on this on page nine. So these are the um the application for state school aid which is a snapshot of your students as of October 15th of every particular year. Now it's a very very especially a district this size. It's a very complicated process to get the numbers right. I mean it's very hard. Um you have all different categories. You have everything. So in this case it wasn't assa related. It was actually DTR DTRS related which is the district report of transported resident students. So in in this one case there were multiple instances where regular education students were reported on the DTRS as special education without special needs transported. So it was just the wrong category. Um and and the categories eventually I
015don't know if it's ever going to apply um depending on the category the state was supposed to give us different money uh depending on you know number of regular students number of special ed students special needs k children um and it all was supposed to be tied into state aid that never happened we've been doing this for 10 or 15 years now and I have to the the district has to put these numbers together and I have to still audit them even though they're not they're not really tied into our state aid. Um, if you ever want to see the categories, it starts on page 11 and it goes on for three or four pages and that's basically the ASSA report. Um so um the the the district as you the district gets a um
016a single audit. So we start off at um generally accepted auditing standards which is the floor and being that we collect taxes. We go up to generally accepted government auditing standards. generally accept the government auditing standards is a higher level of an audit that requires us to look at the internal controls of the whole district and make sure there's no weaknesses. Um so that and and it's pretty hard um in a district. I mean municipalities are more prone to to theft and deviations than a district uh than a school district. But again we still is we still are required to look at the internal controls of the district because that's generally accepted government ordering standards. Then you go up to the single audit which is the highest level of an audit you can get. What
017that means is that the if you have expenditures in federal or state grants over $750,000, we have to test um certain programs and we have to do compliance testing. That means we we make sure we go and look at pretty much everything that has to do with that um with that program. Um federal aid was about $1.6 million of which 890 was um idea. So, normally we pick the bigger guys. Um, we look at salary and wages, we look at compliance, make sure we get a guide that tells us how to audit as um um and then your state aid was about $16 million. So, we have to pick programs out of that um and then test those. So, um the district gets a district this size gets the highest level of an audit you
018can get. Uh so we come in with what we call uh professional skepticism. Um and and it's the opposite of the judic judicial system where you're innocent until proven guilty. So we come in with professional skepticism and say everybody's guilty until we prove you innocent. Um so that's the way we go into to an audit and we and then we proceed. um the district, you know, West Milford is is a large district and we look at each each each um district differently depending on the size. Um so to have these few comments is is pretty good over all these years. And Barbara, Billy, the whole staff uh in in the in the district, it was very hard this year being that we can only have a certain amount of people here. Um we were picking
019up stuff, we were dropping stuff off. So besides the the you know the education side for the auditing side it was is pretty difficult too uh to get through it but we did get it on time. The audit was on time. Uh so that's all I really have unless there's any questions. >> Does anybody have any questions about the audit? If >> not thank you. >> Okay. Thank you. Kudos, Barb, to to you and your staff that I as always. >> It's only like four months, right? [laughter] >> He'll be back, right? >> All right. All right. Thank you very much. >> Thank you. >> Okay. Dr. Anamo, >> pull the screen down if you guys want to. >> Let me just stay behind it. Love you. All right. Good evening everybody. I'm going to
020stand try to stand by the microphone because I feel with the mask my voice might not be amplified enough for the for the cameras. But I am going to turn my back to the camera. So um hope that's not an issue Nate. Uh, it is. >> All right. I'll try to swing over here a little bit. >> How was that? >> Okay. Sorry, J. >> All right. Um, so we're here for our preliminary budget tonight. Uh, thank you all for coming. Thank you all for your support over the past during this throughout this whole budget process. We're not quite done yet, but we're we're getting close to the end. Um, again, thank you to our board of education volunteers that we we say that every year, but it needs to be said over and over
021again. These are volunteers who help serve to serve their school district and the community. And the amount of time they put in is what you see at the board meetings times about 10. So there's a lot of work that we do before the meetings, after the meetings, a lot of reports to read. Uh a lot of paperwork to go through and uh it is greatly appreciated. So the budget is very conservative in my opinion. It actually goes down yeartoear which is uh a trend we've had in West Milford. Our budget has been decreasing for the past few years. The total budget and the general fund are just about 1.4 reduction over last year. Our administrative costs are lower than the regional limit by about say $350 per student. Multiply that times about 3,000 students and
022you're looking at about an extra million dollar that is spent in the classrooms compared to some of our other some of our uh neighboring districts. Um, so we put our money into the classroom where it directly helps children. And by classroom, I certainly mean the media center, the athletics, the clubs, everything. Um, that's not administrative costs. Um, curriculum highlights. Uh, Mr. Novak, we have a couple pages here. If you could, uh, >> thank you. >> Uh, first, uh, first item we wanted to talk about was, um, you know, in language arts. I've spoken in this room probably every year for the last um five about our uh five-year plan for our um professional development um with our growth in readers and writers workshop. Um this is year five of that five-year plan. However, it's been
023a different um a different sort of year. So, we are anticipating that next year we're going to proceed with year five as it was planned for this year. um you know the work that we've been doing has been very obviously I don't have to go on about how different it has been um but also part of that is is a period of review um you know when you implement a plan over a few years we do every year when we when we have throughout the five-year plan is we um you know reflect and we we take feedback and we you know judge how the previous year went and you know with our literacy consultants with the work that our staff has been doing we've been able to adjust um a little bit each year and
024we are anticipating that our work from now until um literally you know probably standing here for this presentation next year we want to know what our next 5year plan looks like. Um early thoughts are that we are having a strong uh a strong emphasis on writing and our writing curriculum and the things that we can do to enhance our writers across the across the continuum K12. But we know from you know so many of the things that we do that it begins in the elementary schools. Um so that's the first bullet point. Um when I there's a few items on all of the bullet points on both slides where it talks about review of some of our programs review of MACUP and ELA review of word study program that refers to what you would find
025in the budget our um some of our summer curriculum hours as well as um you know support from our supervisory staff in in doing this work. uh we've completed our um our work in our implementation of this sadly uh word study program in grades three through five. So we're at a point now where we take a look see how we've um progressed in in in that and decide if that's meeting all the needs that we have in you know for those goals in grades three through five. Um, one [clears throat] of the tones I also wanted to um talk about across the board that might not necessarily be on the slide is that we are currently in the first year of sixth grade at Makipin. Uh, it's a very different again very different than what
026we thought that year would look like when we when we were planning it. Um, but we are in the process of taking a look at our, you know, comparing our original plans that we had last year at this time. um when we were talking about this major shift in in the district and then taking a look at what actually played out. And we've been having those conversations and we're we're pretty proud of what we were able to accomplish with sixth grade having them, you know, having that first year being moved into the middle school, the things we were able to do through scheduling, through courses, through through management. Um but we are taking another look because although we were able to functionally bring those kids in and and you know put those courses in place
027that we wanted to we just want to make sure that we are um going back to the drawing board and taking a look at how we intended it and making sure that we're moving forward in that direction. Um the next item with uh math, we are anticipating um partnering with conquer math which is a very um well-known uh well-known professional development group in uh in Northern New Jersey. Uh you can talk to any math supervisor around or mathematician and you ask about Conquer Math or Nancy Schultz and and they'll um they'll know who you're talking about. Um so we are anticipating beginning that process. um with grades three through four and then also uh to work with our teachers of algebra 1. Um in the middle school and um freshman year where we have you
028know a few different new initiatives that we started a few years ago but then led into uh pandemic learning. When we talk about uh seventh grade pre-alggebra, eighth grade algebra 1, what does a student coming out of um the middle school having had, you know, um a spring grade seven pre-alggebra like we had last year and an eighth grade algebra 1 like we had this year, you know, are we truly bringing kids ready for what it's going to be like in in a high school environment? So, um we're preparing for that. part of the training is going to be um you know taking a look at uh the skills that that we need to um you know solidify and and adjust. Um what we've also done um is we put in a high school course.
029It's not it's not on the slide, but we have a high school course for freshmen um which is a halfyear course. It's a uh so if you're a student in you know uh eighth grade algebra 1 and you're you know you passed you're ready to move on to geometry as a freshman but there's still some algebra 1 skills that we may not have conquered this past year through pandemic learning. uh we have a a halfyear course for students to take advantage of um as a freshman so that they're ready and and you know brushed up on algebra 1 skills concurrently with their um geometry learning so that they're ready for algebra 2 as sophomores. So we're trying to be very thoughtful now in terms of um what this last year and uh and a marking
030period have meant for our students and making sure that we're ready to receive them in in September. And a lot of that is supported um in in the budget with with the plans that we have. Uh star math is is a uh traditional item for our uh math um you know our math budget. Uh it is the series of assessments that we are able to take. Gives us data points that we're lucky to have right now. Um you know so we're very happy to have things like star math and um you know link it and some of those other assessment tools that we um that we traditionally have. Um, we have uh uh STMath, which was a new addition uh just recently getting going in grades K through 2. I have K through three on
031there. Uh, we haven't made that decision yet. We're still going to wait for um, you know, feedback and and, um, input from students, uh, parents and staff as we move forward to see if this is something that belongs in the third grade classroom or or not. Next slide. All right. [clears throat] >> Um also, so we are in the process of um hoping to implement the knowing science program uh first unit, which the life science unit this spring uh most likely after the um after the April break. Our staff um our staff is going to be doing some um weekly check-in and training with our science supervisor. We heard from her at the last uh at the last board meeting about this program. Um, so we are anticipating that the life science unit will be
032implemented at the end of this school year and that we can proceed with uh the next phase and the physical science uh unit for um next school year. It's part of a three-year phase in uh three-year phase in process. Um social studies, we are [clears throat] looking to implement new student learning standards. Earlier I mentioned about curriculum writing, summer curriculum writing. There is money in the budget to uh support having our um our our social studies teachers across the district taking a look at our curriculum, working with our our social studies history supervisor, myself to make sure that um we're you know not just implementing and putting it on paper in the curriculum, but making sure that we are making those adjustments in the classrooms through our resources and and the training for our staff.
033uh industrial arts is looking to, you know, update and make sure that all their equipment that's that's sort of an annual annual process that can be u pricey at times to maintain a comprehensive high school with all of those industrial arts programs, uh autoshop, graphic arts, building trades, those types of things. There's there's equipment that that can be pricey in that process. So, that's also supported in the budget. um music, art and family consumer sciences also in the probably the same um I guess the same situation as social studies where there is a recent implementation of new standards and we are in the process of adjusting and and looking um looking at those standards and and making sure we're doing everything that we can. Uh last item that I wanted to mention, I want to
034go back to um blanket. Um that's something that we support that I didn't have on the on the first slide. Um, I've spoken quite a bit in this room over the last few years about linkit and I just wanted to highlight one um, one benefit of it that we didn't anticipate. The um, not sure if you're familiar, the uh, governor requested a waiver for the state test. It was denied by the federal government. It was kicked back to the states to determine how best to, you know, honor this this uh, assessment goal. In the state of New Jersey, we are able to provide evidence of local assessments that we've completed [clears throat] that match our students against student learning standards. And having linkit in place is very easy for us to, you know, to, you
035know, pull pull the data we have from linkit and provide it to the state as evidence of us completing this type of process. If you're a district that doesn't have doesn't doesn't have linkit, you're, you know, scratching your head right now and and wondering how are you going to uh come up with this data or or other types of services like that. Um, you know, luckily we have common assessments and in um you know, many of our uh many of our disciplines. So um you know, having link again one more boost for for having that it was a unanticipated success that that really helped us out. That's it. All right. Thank you, Mr. Novak. All right, our budget timeline very similar to in years past. Um, we're, like I said, we're not quite done yet,
036but we're we're pretty close. So, today we have our state aid numbers about two weeks ago. We spent most of December meeting with our administrative team, principles, department, uh, supervisors to develop budgets in all different categories. Uh, we did have a budget discussion in January. Um, we had we we had a meeting snowed out in in February. Um but we do have ample opportunity between tonight and the public hearing on the budget to discuss the budget. Additionally, the board will have more opportunities in committee and at another board meeting. So the budget basics, it's split into two parts. Revenues is expenses. Revenues is our money coming in. Expenses is money that we spend and they have to balance. So every year our revenues go down but our expenses go up. So that's our fundamental problem
037that we we have it significantly worse than many other districts in the state because the new state funding formula called S2 cripples districts in the northwest region of the state in particular and transfers money to other districts that are more well funded. U and this is something that has really affected us the last four years. It's a seven-year phase in. So this is year four of seven. there are still three more years that we're going to have to absorb state aid cuts. All right. Um so for our revenues, our tax levy, local taxes, property taxes, whatever you want to call them, they're capped by the state at 2% a year. Our state aid is declining this year. It's just under $2.5 million. To give you ide an idea, and I'll show you on another slide,
038but the tax levy is capped to go up by 1.1 million. and the state aid is cut by 2.4 million. So right there you see a drop of 1.3 million. And that's if nothing else goes up. And we know salaries go up every year by a little bit. Health benefits go up actually by a lot, not by a little. The cost of running our buses goes up, fuel, energy, etc. Um so that's our problem. And the fund balance that our auditor mentioned before that is going to be start start to decline again. All right. So the yellow line was the S2 funding formula that was proposed four years ago and this is the schedule of cuts it was supposed to be. Uh this is cumulative. This is what we've experienced. So we saw in year
039two it already increased its slope. Year three and year four. So where does this project out in the next three years? Probably off the chart somewhere up in this range. it looks like if you kind of got the line of best fit. So, we don't know where it's going to end. We know where we are now and we know where we were. So, if you go back to 20089, which is not exactly the olden days, the state was funding one quarter of our budget. So, one out of every four dollars was funded by the state. This year is going to be 202122. It's going to be about 12% I believe. So it's been cut in half and it's going to get reduced another couple years. This is actual. This is projected these last couple years.
040Um so if the state gives us less money, the pressure is on local taxpayers to give more money, but they can't because of the cap, which is why we wind up cutting staff every year. Okay. So, our local tax levy is a cap not on the overall budget, but the local tax levy. So, it's 2% of about 55 million, not 2% of 75 million, which is where we're getting the $1.1 million from. And in this budget, somewhere between 75 and 80% of our budget, it's it's personnel um it's personnel. So, salaries and health benefits. So, when people say, "Oh, just cut supplies." there aren't enough supply is not enough supply money in the budget to make up that big gap. You wind up cutting uh personnel. This board and the board that proceeds it have
041done a great job keeping local taxes in check. The 10-year average increase is just about 1 and a.5% a year over the last 10 years. So this isn't just a one or twoyear trend. This is a 10-year trend. So the taxpayers in this community have benefited from this. In in a lot of other communities this number is about 2 and a.5%. So preliminary budget the numbers here and you can see the reduction in the general fund here. Um so the tax le goes up 2%. But the overall budget is is down 1.41%. These are the revenues and you can see the large cut in the first line right here. Uh we have another large cut here but this is the Miss Francisco this is the money from the turf field at the township portion correct
042restricted miscellaneous >> from last year. >> Yeah from last year. So that's why you see a large reduction here to zero. Um but the big number is the state aid and that's something again we're struggling with right now. our expenses because our revenues are down, our expenses have to balance our revenues, which is why we cut in pretty much every area on our budget. Some small increases in transportation, uh, co-curricular activities as well, but again, those are smaller budget lines anyway. And the tax levy impact on the average home for this year, it should be a 100. The average home is 242,300. That has not changed since last year. The average tax increase is $126, which comes out to about $10.50 per month increase over last year's taxes for the median home. If your home
043is assessed at more than that, you're will be paying more than this. If it's assessed less than that, you'll be paying less. All right? And again, the median is the middlemost. So half the community is assessed at more than that number and half is assessed at less than that number. And it doesn't mean that's what your house is worth. It's just that's what it's assessed at. So um we do get that from the township capital projects. Uh we think it's important to continually fund these projects year after year because if you get caught behind in your capital maintenance plans, you never catch up. So we do have a antiquated telephone system. Now, uh we are budgeting for an upgrade to that districtwide, which is more than just buying new phones. It's cabling and wiring. Um
044we have some continued abatement, especi Marshall Hill as well. So proposed cuts we are cutting in all these areas on top. Um professional development, athletics, supplies, clubs. Uh we have proposed cut of one administrator position, one elementary media specialist at the high school. Uh three positions uh art, social studies, and a building aid special education teacher. Uh pending some IEP meetings, but we should that should be one position. and districtwide a secretarial position and a music position. So, we're trying to spread these cuts out and many of these are through attrition. Somebody retires, we don't rehire in that position. So, you wouldn't necessarily see a person losing their job, but you would just see us not rehire where somebody retired or resigned. Um, so we try to spread it out so no one school or
045no one level uh has all the cuts. All right. And we do consider what we did cut last year or the year before. This way it's not consecutive years for all you know one small school. All right. So what does the future look like? Again this uh declining state aid is going to be another three years beyond this year um which will affect our fund balance which is a revenue stream in our budget. Our expenses go up every year. Salaries, benefits, special education, our building maintenance, etc. which puts pressure on local taxes and it does hurt our ability to fund capital reserve and maintenance accounts. Um we we just heard from the auditor and he mentioned those are accounts in the recapitulation of balances which we do have money in every year. Um and to
046make these cuts for next couple years we'll probably see additional staffing and program reductions. So, the next steps, we're going to continue to refine our budget estimates. Uh, between now and April 27th, we should have a a little bit better idea of where we're going to what those numbers are going to look like. And we do have a couple meetings for the board to we have two committee meetings, one in March, one in April, as well as a full board meeting in April and then the public hearing. So there's ample opportunity for the board to um ask questions, get involved, make make suggestions, etc. Okay. Any board members have any questions on the on the on the uh preliminary budget? Debbie, um Mr. Novak, if this question is for you, I just want to make
047sure I understood this correctly. because of LinkedIn, um, our students do not have to get tested because they're using the information from the assessments that are in LinkedIn. So, the kids do not have to go through the process to meet this federal uh, requirements. Correct. >> Right. Link is our is our program. Um the state of New Jersey um chose to not administer an assessment but to do a spring assessment um upload. So at districts were put on notice that they had to provide evidence that we have tested our students against the New Jersey student learning standards which is similar to what NJSLA would do. >> So link it link does that. So, in our in our growth with using wickets, um we we've been bringing that in as a tool to help us improve
048on the state assessment and to help our teachers identify, you know, where our students are meeting the standards and, you know, where the gaps are and to help our programs and that sort of thing. >> In this situation, we got lucky and that um we have assessment that our kids already took that meets all the state criteria. So, >> and we're done. >> We're done. >> Beautiful. Thank you, sir. >> Yeah. Alex, can you explain the tax budget from the past three or four years? Like what our percentage was in the comments? I'm sorry. >> Um I I'd have to, you know, open the PowerPoint. It looks like it's 2% here, just over 2%. 2% and this is about 2.5%. I'd have to open up the um the PowerPoint to see the the notes, but
049it's right around there. This is 3% 2% one. It's not that visible, but it's >> 2.5% though we we had a we had a leftover >> from one half year to the next, right? Correct. When we did it that year, there was no increase for a period of time. >> So these are these are 0.2 years of zero. So you're able to increase it by more than 2% if you were under 2% the year prior. >> Right. Um there were also some adjustments that were able to be with health insurance, but uh they pretty much eliminated any adjustments. We we've never been fortunate enough to have an enrollment adjustment because we've never, you know, you know, increased our enrollment from one year to the next. But we've had situations where we've been able to uh
050adjust our from our 2% pass because of our health insurance cost. >> I think Terry had a question. >> Terry. Oh, wait. Ray. Ray and then you Terry. Okay. >> So, I have seven but no I'm kidding but it is twofold. One is I think that um program actually I think was a real help for us. But are you still refining numbers especially when you look at um fuel costs for next year for transportation because it seems like we're seeing some of those things creep up. >> We have a lot of unknowns right now. Um I've I've said in the past that you know you're talking about something that's going to have it's not going to come to fruition for 18 months, >> right? >> So a lot of the numbers that were put in
051here were put in in December. Look how much your gasoline prices have gone up in the last 3 weeks. Mhm. Yep. >> So the the numbers in here are based upon what we were paying at the gas bill last year in November and December. Um our liability insurance has gone up significantly and we're still in the process of some of the things that they're asking us because we have to complete applications and and questionnaires and and this is the first time of course because COVID, you now have a liability that the insurance carriers are assessing. Um, and they're asking questions on what your protocols are. So, there's a lot there's just so many unknowns. Uh, so, and we're also going into negotiations. Um, for the negotiations team, we've gotten a an inquiry. we need to
052uh come up with shapes and negotiations for our four major bargaining groups. So yes, we're always looking to be able to refine I mean from February to this year uh this month. Um, I've been in contact with our risk manager for health insurance and because of COVID, surprisingly, um, health carriers are are pretty flushed with money because of the inability for doctors to see patients and elective surgeries being kicked off the as the picture. So, um, we think we'll be safe with an 8% adjustment from our prior, uh, year. Um, so, but again, it's it's a moving target. I mean, gasoline may double before September, right? >> We don't know. One of the other things that we're experiencing, and if you look at the chart with um that that kind of breaks out the different
053areas, you see transportation, the ation bud. Um, you know, when I first got here, there we had about seven or eight drivers that we drive our out of district special education students to your school. We only have two now. So, the students that still have to be sent out of district because we can't accommodate them here, we have to go out to bid for those roots. we can't provide those um roots ourselves and it always costs us more money then we have to go out to bid. So there's a lot of things about that. >> So you mentioned that 8%. The other thing is that I think a lot of people don't realize I think you said that PCTI was kind enough to reduce the number of students that they are thinking that they're going
054to take from West Milford to attend their school. But we besides the county, right, giving them money and the state Alex with PCTI did they get more money or did they get a reduction? >> They did not get a reduction. They got an extra 11 million. >> Okay. So 11 million >> on top of >> question. >> Yeah. So they got an extra 11 million. What what did we pay for students to to PCTI? >> Do you know that off? 11,364. >> Oh, how much? >> 11,3654. >> And and this year, this year's budget, we also have two students that are going to a charter school. So, we have to pay $44,42 for two students that are attending the charter school. >> Is that per student or the total? >> That's for the two students.
055So it's $22,2001 and if our per people pupil cost was $22,000 you hear about it. >> And are the teachers at PCTI? Are they in school now? >> Um they keep going in and out. >> The students >> teachers are not there though, right? >> Are there back? So, we're sending them a million dollars besides the 11 million that you said that they're getting this. I mean, I just encourage >> the people of West Milford to write, call, email um the freeholders, the congress, >> right? >> And I know we've done that, >> governor >> on behalf of the people of the town. The frustration is that we can't, you know, Mr. Curry talked about the ASSA. We can't count those students in our ASA. So, we get no state funding for the students that
056we have to pay attention to. So, that's the biggest um so we have to pay for them. We have to pay tuition for them, >> but there we we don't get any reimbursement for that, but we're paying the tuition for them. and PCCI is getting reimbured for that. >> So I mean I think Alex just pointed out the preliminary budget slide with the local tax level. Can you just pull that up? That was it. >> So the tax go back one more. >> No >> here. >> One more. >> Good. So we are paying about that 2%. Just >> PCTI yet they got $1 million. Mhm. >> Extra. Not not total. Extra. >> Extra. >> Right. >> On top of what they got last year. >> Correct. >> And we're paying county taxes on top
057of that. >> Yes. >> 2% >> what they're [clears throat] getting in addition to the money that they got plus the $1 million. >> Correct. >> I just want to make sure everybody understands that. Oh, yeah. That is where we are. Terry, I think you had a question. >> I have I have some concerns about this budget and they're really educational and I think we have to start considering um some of the things that are in this budget that are going to hurt our kids. First of all, um a media specialist is somebody who is a resource for children and teachers. And I don't think it's a good idea that that position is um being eliminated while you're adding an administrator. I know you're getting rid of two and you're talking about adding an administrator.
058And yet when our science supervisor spoke before us, she said that math and science are connected. Um, I would rather see I would like to see the supervisor still restructured and I would like to see that supervisor position replaced with the social worker because when our kids come back full time, I want to make sure that they are taken care of emotionally, physically, and academically. And I don't think that's going to happen unless we have extra help. The other thing that I'm concerned about is that you say that we're elimin eliminating a secretary, but yet in the budget there's a half a position at the board office. Um there are 941 students at the high school. When I started teaching in West Milton, um there were 1600 kids. There were no computers. There were five
059counselors. They did everything. Today there's access to compute. I don't understand why we're not looking at a reconstruction of guidance. Um the other thing is I understand the science budget because we're putting in a new program, but the social studies budget is really really exorbitant and I don't see any explanation for that. Um, and finally, Alice, you're not going to like me for this, but superintendent caps have been removed, so I don't understand why we're still budgeting for merit. And that's all I have to say. I do I do want to just bring one thing up. Um, no one is being ripped, right, in at this point in time. >> Uh, we right now it's it's through attrition. We're planning on doing it through attrition >> obviously as we get closer to >> Well, we
060have to know, right? >> Well, yeah. Well, we'll know more by April for sure. I mean, special education, we we typically have some movement there, but we do have some IP meetings to get through. Um, there could be a riff. We just have a new we have a uh a long-term sub >> that could that could be a riff there. Um but again it it could be a retirement between now and June which elim cause you eliminates the need for that. But other than these other positions it should not there should not be a a [clears throat] cut per se. It'll just be a retirement or a resignation that's not uh hired. We don't hire for it. And I I do want to tack on Terry on the uh the social order because I I
061I think that we don't really have foresee >> I don't know that we can know what's going to happen. You know, the sooner our kids come back in the building, I think we might start to see the social and emotional issues that we're going to have to deal with come September. But I I I think that that's got to be something that has to be in the back of our, you know, like as one of our call to things that we may really need. I I just I I completely agree with her on that. >> I do have a question, Dan, about the start strong test that we took. Is that able to be used at least for some of these evaluations for the kids? >> I don't know if that's valid, but we don't
062need it. >> Okay. >> We don't need it because we have >> Okay. you put on the request that came from the government and the 71 school districts that did it, >> right? Yeah. I mean, I think that that's also another page in our handbook here that we have that right in our playbook that we didn't >> Yeah, we other people didn't use. >> We're very comfortable with with how we're able to meet that requirement. Good. Um, Dan, I just have a question about um using link uh as an as an assessment artifact. I'm just worried that these results are going to be skewed because our kids haven't they haven't really had the opportunity to have the full educational experience in the past year. And what happens if they come back and they're really low?
063what happens with the with um the state and the federal government. What what what are the >> So I I don't know I don't know what sort of reporting they're going to do on the uploads that the district provides. I mean they can't in my opinion I think I said I don't know for sure they can't fairly judge district against district. If we're supplying them with a link assessment, which is a standardsbased assessment, and another district who doesn't have link is creating some sort of local, you know, local common assessment that they're going to have to do after the fact, I don't see how the state can can do that. Lumpy >> well, they punish us every year when they cut our state aid. So, >> yeah, I don't I don't anticipate, you know, they
064they they're not using it for, you know, teacher evaluation. They're not using it for a number of other measures >> and they're not using it for further reduction payday. >> I don't anticipate that. >> Yeah, that's more based on enrollment. Some I don't believe it'll have any effect on that. I think they're looking at that as two separate. They they didn't want to do tests this year. They applied for a waiver. They it was denied. So then they had to come up with something and this is what they came up with. It's the first time they've ever done it this way. So, we'll see what happens in the in the in the fall with this um with the reporting because we always report out on testing spring testing in like October. >> So, we'll we'll
065we'll wait and see. It's just hard to say. I don't think anybody has an answer right now, but we're ahead of the game because we have standardsbased assessments and not every place does. So we can say what a second grader knows in math compared to a standard as opposed to just saying what do they know in general. So >> is it a national standard or state standard >> for what? >> For comparing >> I believe they're going to use the New Jersey student learning standards. So they're they're not that dissimilar from New York, Connecticut, Massachusetts. the state standards. Every state has their own standards, but if you look at them side by side, they're not that different. Um, but the technically it's a state standard. >> Um, I have a couple other things. The first
066is going back to what um saying about PCTI. I read an article today um and it's in the news all over. I haven't read it on something someone said to me on patch.com. Um, Senate President Steve Sweeney was saying how um he'd like to have K to 12 countywide school districts. >> So, and he's been saying that a long time and it's in the news again today with an entire list of school districts that he would like to eliminate. >> Um, I was pleased to see that we're not on his list yet. However, it feels like we are. I said yes, but it feels like we are when we do compare numbers. And so, um, I absolutely, you know, I second what what, you know, my coaches have said here and that our community needs
067to be involved because if you want local schools and, you know, I mean, if we were here tonight talking about closing one of our six elementary schools, we have people out the door, you know, but, uh, here we have, you know, our, you know, Senator Sweeney saying that he wants to close the district and I don't see anybody coming out and I don't know of anyone writing letters. And I'm not seeing it on Facebook, Mom. So, I think people need to know that. Uh they need to know where the money is going. It's going countywide. It's been stated by our people, you know, by our governor's office and all them that that's what they'd like to do. So, to keep our home schools, we need to step up and people need to start. >> I
068I think I think the ultimate goal is for them to have 21 school districts, >> right? >> One per county. >> So, you'd have P County as one, you know, they don't start off that way. They start off with we're going to consolidate just these school districts >> and your district's not on the list and then we're going to consolidate these school districts >> and that that school is on the list, you know. So >> overall though, I think they want to condense it into countywide school systems, >> right? Um so that was my first thing. Uh Dan, you mentioned a halfyear course um in algebra that goes along like concurrent with uh geometry. Are there other half your math courses so that our high school students can use that as one of their courses
069towards graduation? >> Are there other half your courses apart from this? >> Yes. >> No. >> Okay. So, it's kind of like a remedial math that they're getting credit for, but then like let's say junior year there's not a halfear course to make up their three years with math, >> right? No. So, they'll still take a math course. They'll take they're going to take geometry. So, this is for students who >> I totally understand. I'm just saying to re to fulfill a mass requirement that isn't considered for graduation. >> Okay. Um do you know the current I know this is like you know the current grade uh the current credits for high school students to graduate school >> 127. Thank you. and we received a letter um that I was so happy to see that
070you're looking into adding more concurrent enrollment courses and it did say that it would come with a cost um and I don't know who to direct the question to but because it kind of is everyone um why would confirm enrollment why would there be an anticipated cost >> the anticipated cost is the support of your supervisory staff >> can you explain that I'm That's the team that's doing the research, reaching out with me to the community colleges. >> So, you're actually saying that it would not be within their current job that you would segment them to do something. >> No, no, not st. It's within their current job. Supervisors are in the budget. >> So, it's not a new item in the budget. you are budgeting for a supervisory staff and the ability for us
071to compete with a PCTI requires this administrative team that we can be able to offer concurrent enrollment, dual enrollment, more more of those types of things. >> We have the courses. >> We we compete very well with PCTI. >> Um but they're able to tap these little things called micro credentials. So, we are very um interested in being able to, you know, put that in our in our cap as well because as as Mr. Gino made a big point about, you know, our our local taxes, which I am also a taxpayer, our local tax increase is going to a school that's that's not here, >> you know. So, I think it's in our best interest to to support a robust organized administrative staff that this, you know, this isn't the work of a of a
072classroom teacher or a secretary or or a vice principal or a principal. You know, these are things that really help us to be able to, you know, put that mark out there that we're competing and that we're going to keep our kids from going to PCPI or other and as a charter school. Is it all right if we take the pres keep the questions but maybe let's put the lights on in this video. >> So just to heard you say that looking into concurrent enrollment and upping our curricul >> and so when we say that budget considerations have been made to further concurrent enrollment it's with keeping the >> personnel. Thank you. >> Can I can I just also jump on the social worker piece because I know just kind of going back we didn't
073wrote that up. I just want to mention that the two kind of pieces. The one thing I want to make sure that the board is aware is that this budget does sustain our current mental health professionals which I think is a really big and important piece because and I know that we talked about this with the board last year as well that at the elementary level we have eight mental health providers. the middle school we still have the five ele five mental health providers and the high school even still have 11. So it does still sustain those people. What I think has happened and we talked about this at the ed committee is we needed to do an audit of what we're currently doing with our providers and how can we be better at reaching
074more kids with the staffing that we have. So, I want you to know that I I'm confident that who we have in the budget, if we can keep them in, we will be able to accomplish that because you're right, the pandemic, our teams have been meeting every every Wednesday, there's going to be a need. The other thing that Barbara just brought to my attention again last week is that there's an extra, don't quote me on it, but about 42,000 or so that I can put towards mental health support, which we plan to use in the next year's budget. So what we may do is hire someone to provide some additional groups to help supplement some of the the deficit that we may. So I just wanted to make sure that everybody knows all of that
075information. And the last is that when you talk about mental health, you need to have a multi-layered approach. It's not just your social workers and you know Romeo that can that can reach all of the kids, right? It has to go through the teaching staff. You guys made a district goal about supporting teachers and students. We're trying to make this bigger so that it reaches more students because social worker may have one kind of case even if you add another one. It's you're not going to be able to reach as many students as if we can build it into what we do as a business. >> Go ahead. >> I was just going to say um as an educator myself, I think I'm starting to see um the unraveling happen um of children and I
076think that they are done with this. They are done with it all. We all are. And I just um would definitely highlight due to professional development with teachers. It is a district goal. I think it needs to come down to the teacher level to be able to spend time with the little people especially in the elementary level to teach them how to engage socially again because they are not going to know how. and Mar the next board meeting we'll be able to give you an update on the March 18th professional development for staff and the SDL day which we plan to do with the districtwide which is March 25th. >> Okay. >> So we'll get another update. I I do remember you telling us that there is that's a great point that you bring up
077Courtney and Liz had I've had conversation and I think a few of us have with Liz about about that and that she is working on the prof professional development end of that because of exactly what you were saying. >> Yeah. So our next profession development opportunity is going to be dedicated exclusively to social emotional learning. I think that is March 18th. So, we're in a in a planning process for that and we're putting the academics aside for the day and we're focusing on SEAL. It'll look different for K as opposed to high school, but we know it's important and we probably don't even know the depth of the problems yet, but we'll start to find out as we bring more and more students back. U which reminds me, we've been working on the return to
078school plan. Uh we sent a survey out a few weeks ago, uh first at the K5 level, then at the 612 level. So, we did send a a non-binding survey just to see what our stakeholders believed and felt about our return to school plan. So, we know where we were last March, almost a year to the day, where it was 100% out of school, buildings were shut down, it was a an actual stay at home, and we're looking to get back to normal where every student is in school every day. So, we're going to be moving further along that uh along that continuum. Um, I'll have an announcement out probably uh Wednesday or Thursday of this week which should explain in a little bit greater detail. We're still working out uh fleshing out some of
079the finer points in that letter, but we'll be communicating with the our staff and our parents uh this week with some additional information about the return to school. So, um what we're the ultimate goal for September is to have everybody back in our buildings. um we don't believe there's going to be a 100% virtual option for next school year like there is now. Um so families were able to select that option this year. I don't believe it hasn't been decided yet, but I don't believe that it will be there for September. So that's sort of this the step we're going to announce this week will get us further towards that goal. Like I said, we just have to flesh out a couple of the details and we'll have some more information out to the board,
080to the staff, and to the community this week. >> Any other questions on the budget? Kate, >> um I know that the updated budget increase um school and I'm just I want to know like what that line item is and is in the high school budget. I just I'm curious how much you're budgeting for um security for the high school. What >> security? >> Um it's I believe it's $100,000. >> Okay. I just couldn't find it and it wasn't >> not in there anymore. >> If you look at the memo, >> it was taken out. >> Mhm. It said that um Thank you. >> That's funding that we got this year. So, it's not going to fall into the budget >> for next year. >> The project will get the project will get done. It'll
081just won't be out of next year's budget. >> Is there any other questions? If not, I I time to open up public comment. >> Yes, I'm finished. Thank you. >> Okay. Uh public comment. This portion of the meeting is open to members of the public for the purpose of addressing resolutions on this agenda only. Members of the public who have requested to speak prior to the meeting will be recognized by the chair first. Each speaker will g be given five minutes for a period of 30 minutes and then time permitting other public comment limited to five minutes per speaker will be allowed until the 30 minute time period transpires. All members of the public speaking during the public comment period are asked to address topics listed in the agenda. All speakers are asked to sign
082the register provided and to give their full name, spell their last name, group affiliation if appropriate, and provide their address. Issues raised by members of the public may or may not be responded to by the board. All the all comments will be considered and a response will be forthcoming if and when appropriate. The board has asked that the members of the public be courteous and respectful of the rights of other individuals when speaking. Specifically, comments regard regarding students and employees of the board are discouraged. The board and the administration will not respond to them. Students and employees have specific legal rights afforded to them by the laws of New Jersey. The board is not responsible and is not liable for any comments made by members of the public. Members of the public should consider their
083comments in the light of the legal rights of those affected or identified in their comments. Members of the public are reminded that they are legally responsible and liable for their comments. Anyone wishing to speak uh under public comment. Good evening. Jessica Sprag, S P R A G-U one Burma Court, West Milberg. >> I first want to thank Dr. Anamone. >> Can you speak into the mic, Jessica? Just so >> Can you hear me? Yeah, that's better. >> Yeah, >> that's better. Thank you. >> I first want to thank Dr. for doing everything he has been able to do this entire year to keep our schools open. Where we see other districts throughout the state closing, we've stayed open except for a brief period for the high school. And I think this has been extremely beneficial
084to our children. I want to mention what Mr. Novak said about sixth grade and bringing up the curriculum. I think this year has been very difficult for the sixth grade going into MACPEN and even the seventh grade going in and not getting the full experience. I think it is so extremely important that these kids be able to go back to school full-time before the end of the year to get the true MCAPIN experience because they really haven't gotten it yet, right? They've only g been given a limited amount of time. There's half their friends that they don't see because they're in another cohort. We need to get these kids back sooner rather than later. I know there are certain districts that are waiting till after spring break. I think that's too long. I don't see
085any reason to keep these kids out any longer than they've been. Let's bring them back and bring them back quickly. I do also want to address the budget. You all may recall our budget did very well administrator an administration prior to this. We know that elections have consequences. You can do all the letter writing you want. It's not going to get you very far. It's your vote that matters. And we've got to get the right people in our state government as well as our local government to make sure that our schools get the funding that they need and that we don't lose our schools to some countywide program. Thank you. >> Thank you. Anyone else wishing to speak? >> Seeing none like to close public comments. >> All those in favor? I >> Any oppose?
086Okay. Uh, education. >> Oh, wait. We I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I missed the mo. We We need a motion to adopt the agenda. Is anything changed on the agenda? Okay. We need a motion to adopt the agenda. >> Like to make a motion to adopt the agenda as presented. >> Dave. All those in favor? >> I. >> Any opposed? Education. Mrs. Dwer. I'd like to move items one and two for approval. >> Second. Any discussion? >> Raycom. >> I was going to say the same thing. Thank you. >> That's why we moved that up to tonight so they could start tomorrow rather than two weeks from tomorrow. >> We have an incoming uh student at Highlander Academy from out of district. Yeah, we're very excited to kind of start that partnership and now the area
087wasn't aware of our program. So, it's I think that'll be great that now that area is aware that we do have this program >> and I think it's great to move it up tonight. >> Yes, absolutely. Absolutely. Start start. Yeah. >> Any other discussion? If not, roll call. Mrs. Francisco, >> yes. >> Mr. Stevenson, >> yes. >> Mr. Greeno, >> yes. >> Miss Oinsky, >> yes. >> Mr. Yes. >> Mr. Cofflin, >> yes. >> Mrs. Romeo, >> yes. >> Mr. Stillman, >> yes. >> Mrs. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Stevenson, uh, personnel, student affairs. >> Motion to move items 1 through nine. >> Second. >> Any discussion? >> If not, roll call. Mrs. Francisco, Mrs. Jameson. Yes. Mr. Romeo, >> yes. >> Mr. O'Brien, >> yes. >> Mr. Conlin, >> yes. >> Mr. Oinsky, >> yes.
088>> Mr. Green, >> yes. >> Mr. Stillman, >> yes. >> Mr. Flyer, >> yes. Mr. >> Yes. Uh, operations and finance. Mr. Ovashinski to move item for approval. >> Seconded. Any discussion? [laughter] >> Any discussion? If not rob >> Mr. >> Yes. Which one? >> You could anytime. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Romeo? >> Yes. >> Mine? >> Yes. >> Mr. Squire? >> Yes. >> Mr. [snorts] Coplin? >> Yes. >> Mr. Stillman? >> Yes. >> Mr. Van? >> Yes. >> Like to move item two. >> Second. >> [laughter] >> line 620 4. >> All right, let let So any discuss you have a dis you have a question on the budget? Uh >> uh moving budget line 640 >> withdrawal from what was >> capital reserve. So that's money that we're using it for the absence
089for these the certain things in our long facility that we can use capital. >> Right. So, when we were talking about the fields, that's totally up there. >> At this point in time, it is um but that would be a place that in the future you can use that money to withdraw. If we were going to address the fields now, we would have to do the engineering study. I think it would not make any sense for this district to appropriate a million dollars to do a field without doing an engine room setting to determine whether or not you're going to actually do what you want to do. And so we I had initially put in $106,000 just for the engine study. >> That's the turf >> to to to determine whether or not we could
090put a second third field in. >> Right. Right. If you scratch that, what about just doing updates to the fields that we have? >> Well, we couldn't use capital reserve money for that at this point in time. We would have to amend our long range facility plan to include um a turf [snorts] field in our long range facility plan. So, that's a process. Um we would have to send it down to the Department of Education. It would have to be approved. But using capital reserve, the board is always determined to do that. You don't need to wait for the budget to do that. So you could discuss it a little further. We have extra money in June. We can make a big deposit in the capital reserve and come June you could say, "Okay, let's
091submit the paperwork to the state so that we can do this project." and then you could appropriate capital reserve money to do the engineering study and if it's successful then you do appeal. So you don't have to wait until next April for or to do it. You can you can do it but it's the outside of budget process >> but it could be something that we keep on the operations and and um finance right where we will >> yeah I mean I could explain it more next week so that you have a better understanding >> I think that that would be appropriate >> worry about fields I just want to update the disasters that we have >> and that's something that we can discuss in in in operations >> we can discuss in operation pling
092Because don't forget this budget can be amended. >> Yes, because this is just our preliminary budget. >> I mean there's not a whole lot to get rid of [laughter] unfortunately. But uh any other discussion? If not, roll call. >> M Oinsky. >> Yeah. >> Mrs. Stevenson. Yes. Mrs. Romeo. >> Yes. >> Mr. Burino. Yes, >> Mr. O'Bri. >> Yes, >> Mr. Silver. >> Yes, >> Mrs. >> Yes, >> Mr. Con. >> Yes, >> Mrs. >> Yes. Back to public comment. I hear this uh public comment. This portion of the meeting is open to members of the public having a legitimate interest in the actions of the board for the purpose of addressing any subject matter pertinent to and or directly related to the operations of the West Milford Public School District. Members of the public
093who have requested to speak prior to the meeting will be recognized by the chair first. Each speaker will be given five minutes for a period of 30 minutes. Then time permitting other public comment limited to 5 minutes per speaker will be allowed until the 30 minute time period transpires. All speakers are asked to sign the register provided and give their full name, spell their last name, group affiliation if appropriate, and provide their address. Issues raised by members of the public may or may not be responded to by the board. All comments will be considered and a response will be forthcoming if and when appropriate. The board asks that the members of the public be courteous and respectful of the rights of other individuals when speaking. Specifically, comments regarding students and employees of the board are
094discouraged and the board and the administration will not respond to them. Students and employees have specific legal rights afforded to them by the laws of New Jersey. The board is not responsible and is not liable for any comments made by members of the public. Members of the public should consider their comments in light of the legal rights of those affected or identified in their comments. Members of the public are reminded that they are legally responsible and liable for their comments. Anyone wishing to speak? If not, >> not public comment. >> I need a second. Ray. All those in favor? >> I. >> Any oppose? We we we need executive session. >> Okay. Um, so I need someone to make a motion for executive session and >> for legal. Will we be adjourning from there or
095do we have to >> um I don't think any action's been taken right. >> Okay. Okay. All right. Go ahead. Uh who who was making the motion? >> Okay. Go ahead. >> Motion to go into executive purpose. The executive session minutes will not be released until such time as the privilege or confidentiality confidentiality is no longer applicable. >> Second and we will adjourn from the from executive session. >> Will be taken. >> No action will be taken. Okay. All those in favor I. Any opposed? Okay.