001I'd like to call the meeting to order. >> Um, if you could take a moment of silence, please. And please rise for the flag. 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. [Music] In accordance with the provisions of the open public meeting act, the public meeting has been sent to board members, all district schools, the herald news, the suburban trends, the record, the messenger, West Milker town hall, the county superintendent's office, the board attorney, and cable vision of war and posted on the district's website. Copies of the board meeting calendar resolution were provided to all local media, town hall, township, library, and all district schools. Roll call. Mrs. Francis, >> Mr. Stillman
002>> here, >> Mr. Conley >> here, >> Mrs. Stevenson >> here. >> Mrs. Dwire, Mr. Gino >> here, >> Mrs. Fritz >> here, >> Mr. Ochinsky >> here, >> Mrs. Romeo >> here, Mrs. Van Djk >> here. He wasn't going to be here. Dr. Oh yes, good evening everybody. Before we get started with the budget presentation, uh we do have uh two Eagle Scout presentations this evening. We have Mr. Cooper and Mr. Kirer. Mr. Cooper was here first, so I'm going to ask him to come up to the microphone and give us a brief explanation of your Eagle Scout project and how you think it can help our school district. Thank you. >> Uh good evening. Uh my name is Ryan Cooper. I am from Troop 114. I'm a life scout out of uh St.
003Joseph's Church. Um, I've been playing baseball all my life, ever since I was 5 years old. I enjoyed the sport and I've learned so many lessons out of it. It's, uh, taught me about teamwork as such as scouts. It's, uh, improved my character, improving, making me a better person. And I felt that I should give back to the sport. I played even in freshman year and it was a great experience, but I feel like I should give back to the sport by creating dugouts up at Digos Field behind Makipin. I want to create two uh two dugouts and I want to fix up the memorial behind there. Make it look nice and improve my community. The dugouts will protect the players from bad weather and even from the sun and uh from feel making them
004feel hot and I just want to improve my community by doing that. And I feel like it'll be a good imp uh improvement to the community. >> Awesome. >> Thank you very much, Mr. Cooper. One quick question. You said you're a lifelong baseball fan. I I would be remiss if I didn't ask you for your thoughts on the Houston Astros cheating scandal. >> Um, >> you're on the record. >> Can't say I agree with it. >> You have an honest face. Thank you. >> And now Mark, would you like to come up? >> We'll share every other short. That's fine. >> Thank you. We can Yeah, we can. >> That's right. Hi. Thank you. >> Hi. Uh, my name is Mark Kezer. I am a life scout from troop 151 out of Oakidge, New Jersey.
005And my Eagle Scout proposal is I wanted to make a pavilion up at the turf um for all sorts of sporting events and any clubs. I would like to use it to shield them from shade or from the sun and the elements so that they're undercover. Uh they can for like vendors so they can use to uh buy or uh sell things during events. Um, it's going to be a 14 by 14 feet or a foot uh structure. Um, and I wanted I would do it to uh give back to my community for I've been at the turf. I play uh lacrosse and football. So, I'm usually up there for games, practices, and other events. So, I want to give back and show them that uh yeah, I just want to give back to the
006community and help with uh with making the turf like better for people so they're not they're protected from the elements and stuff. >> Where where are you where where's the village? >> When we walk up through the gate, it's going to be to the >> to the right spot >> where I think where the storage containers are now. And we're probably going to move those out cuz we don't really need those anymore. We have the storage underneath the bleachers, >> right? >> So, that'll clean that whole area up. The containers will be out and the pavilion will go in. It'll freshen up a little bit. >> That'll be a great spot, too, cuz a lot of the the younger groups that meet, they when they get done, they're always talking afterwards. So, that's a great
007spot. >> There's no break from the sun up there when it's really >> No, it is. It's really needed up there. That's great. >> Or rain. >> It can be brutal. Uh, and if you look on page three, there's actually like a picture of what it would look like on the top. >> Very nice. >> And >> are you going to be asking some of the younger boy scouts to help you? >> Yeah, >> I have one for you. >> Definitely do have them. >> All right, great. Thank you. I can use all the help I can get. >> Got it. >> Thank you. Sign it. >> This is your copy. I signed it already. >> Thank you. Thank you everybody. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> I'll call you Mark. >> All right. Before
008we get to the uh preliminary budget presentation, uh I just want to update the board and the community uh on the uh what used to be called Corona virus, now they're calling COVID 19. Um, so last Thursday evening, we received a memo from the department indicating uh for the first time in in my lifetime, I believe, that if the school district was forced to close by the state department of health or the local health officer, if we had a plan for distance learning that we could have that plan approved by the county and once it's approved by the county in the event that the school district is closed, that we could count those days towards our 180 minimum. So we had an early dismissal today. Our staff members were given a little bit extra time.
009We borrowed from the faculty meeting that was originally scheduled for today. So the staff members had a probably two to two and a half hours to start planning uh long term in the event that the district does close. Um probably more we're looking at about two weeks of planning to start with and then we can take it from there depending on how bad this outbreak uh becomes or or hopefully doesn't become. Um so that's the plan as of right now. Um, I sent the plan in today to the county office. I'm waiting to hear back. Um, hopefully we'll get that approved. If you want to look at it as a continuum from 12th grade on the one hand to, you know, kindergarten or even prek on the other hand, the 12th grade is going to
010be almost all digital online learning similar to a college. Whereas the kindergarten is going to be mostly all journals, workbooks, things of that nature. And it's sort of a sliding scale. The older they get, the more online it'll become. and the less paper and pencil it will become depending on the age of the students. So, uh we're also looking at what we can do for our special needs population. Um different therapies we have to take into consideration uh as well as some of our special subjects. Um you know, what do we do for second grade art? How do we get that 35minute lesson delivered to our students? Those are some of the hiccups, but we we believe we have the core subjects covered um from all grade levels K to 12. We're just looking to
011tweak now. And it's a living plan. It's a living document. It's broad enough that if a teacher wanted to change a lesson plan or two between now and then, they would certainly have that freedom to uh so long as our core standards are delivered and our students are learning. Okay. And next up, if the board wants to move, we have our uh preliminary budget presentation. >> Did you want to do date? >> Oh, I'm sorry. Um Mr. Oshinsky also. Hey, as you mentioned, as uh everybody's seen that we're getting an additional almost $2 million cut this year, about half million more that was than was anticipated originally um from the state. I uh part of the operations committee and also the legislative committee drafted a letter that was sent out to the commissioner of education
012today. Um to Dr. Lamont Reple, Commissioner Replet, Commissioner of New Jersey Department of Education. Dear Commissioner Replet, it was with great dismay that the members of the West Milford School District Board of Education received the news of the recent changes to the school funding formula in school years 1819, 1920, and 2021. Our district has been forced to approximately 3.5 million in cuts to state aid with the promise of a loss of up to 5 million more in school years 2122 through 2425. These reductions are in the process of decimating our school district. While other districts may have the capacity to mitigate the reduction of the increased local property taxes, the township of West Milford is a se at a severe disadvantage in this respect. This is due to the negative impact of the Highlands Water
013Protection and Planning Act. The act that has has had upon our township enacted in 2004, the act protects drinking water for over 5.4 4 million people, nearly 60% of New Jersey population, and also help serve New Jersey's dwindling open space. While the benefits of this are not dispute, it has not come about being a costly burden to the residents of West Milford. Property taxes are high, local businesses are suffering, and the constraints posed by the act few, if any, options available to address these issues. The local residents have lived up to their part with additional septic costs, building restrictions, and extremely limited development options. the economic relief portions of the act, the Highlands Protection Fund, Highlands Municipal Property Tax Saving, Watershed Off, Transfer Development Rights, and other compensation guarantees for the most part have not
014materialized and are effectively broken promises by the state to the residents of Les Milford. Recently, there's been a glimmer of hope from the Highlands region is being recognized and may be addressed. The introduction of the greater highlands of Highlands economic development plan by Senate President Sweeney and Senator Baroo back by Congressman Gothimer would be a big step in helping the region. This year is legislation introduced on numerous occasions by Senator Konio and now with bipartisan support bipartisan support hopefully progress has been made. We realize the effects of the act are unique to us and were not factored into a funding formula. Still the fiscal impact of the act need to be acknowledged. And why did the recent recognition of financial problems caused by the act noted above? We respectfully request that consideration be given to
015a review of the district's funding in an effort to stem the potentially devastating impact on our schools. We'll look forward to reviewing these issues with your staff. It was also copied to Governor Murphy, Senate Education Committee, Assembly Education Committee, uh, Senate President Sweeney, Senator Dachio, Senator Rojo, Assemblyman Croach, Assemblyman Weber, Congressman Gothimer, uh, West Mford mayor and Council, uh, the executive director of New Jersey School Board Association. I want to go out to New Jersey and the West >> Dave, I want to thank you so much for for that. Um it it is important that people know that we we've been talking as a group and we're trying to do whatever we can. Um Dr. Anamone and um Mike um Mr. Conlin uh Jay Stillman and uh who else was with that's it and uh
016Mrs. Francisco were were with me. We went and met with Senator Pacio in his office. He he has taken on our fight and we're hoping that maybe that will help bring our our district up to light in um the Senator Sweeny's eyes and we're very thankful and we are continuing to do more. It would be helpful too if any residents would like to write letters to the senators and to the Senate president and the mayor and the governor of uh New Jersey and let them know what's happening to West Milford. But thank you so much for putting that letter together and getting it out. to show you tomorrow. [Music] Is it cold here? Oh, come on. Good. She has an iron. [Music] Good evening, Board of Education, members of the uh public. We have our
017preliminary budget presentation this evening here. Um want to thank Barbara and all the uh all the administrators for helping out with this uh put this budget together this year. We're not quite done yet. We still have about six more weeks until April 28th, but we're almost home. So, thank you for the board of education. So, the budget itself, right, is going down this year, year over year. um the total budget goes down by about a quarter of 1% and the general fund is down by 38 of 1%. So year-over-year the budget has decreased that's largely due to a cut in state aid. Um this year we have united costs that are lower than our regional limit. There's North Jersey, Central and South Jersey. North Jersey has the largest the highest uh limit per pupil. That's
018largely because the cost of living in uh North Jersey is greater than South Jersey. So we're spending about $300 less per pupil. Our administrative cost with over 3,000 students. That's about a million dollars extra than in the classroom. Not to say administrators aren't doing work that's in the classroom, but not directly. So the bulk of this money is in the classroom. It's teachers, it's teaching aids, it's people along those lines. a couple of highlights. Mr. Novak, want to jump on it? Sure. >> Uh, so in this year's budget, we have a a number of projects that we are, you know, currently working on and then looking to finish going into next year. Um, I always like to point out the um our work with our reading and writing uh workshop consultants for balance 5-year plan.
019Next year would be five years of that initial 5-year plan. And um within that is the continued work with the regulars that we have been training which are grades uh have been grades 3 through 8. And next year we are going to be we started with a little bit with second grade this year. We could be continuing with um more grades K through two finally getting um in on that training. Uh we've also been in the process of piloting word study programs in grades three through five. So next year's budget will include the purchase of a program once we uh have completed the process of deciding uh which which program we're going going to. That is a replacement in grades 3 through five of the traditional traditional spelling program. Um we're also going to continue
020our use usage with the link benchmark assessments. Uh we talked about a lot of that about that in this room. Uh we've seen great success to this point and hopefully we see that continue success when we get our results for um our upcoming spring assessment. Um but the bottom line is we've seen a greater commitment to uh standardsbased instruction and standards based conversations with our uh staff and our administration and and you know really looking directly at the standards that we cover. Um taking a look at math for next year. We've also spoken a lot in this room about the aging out of our current math program and what our uh what a reasonable replacement cycle would look like. Um so we are going to be starting a K5 pilot program. Probably not going to
021affect uh all of K5 next year. We're going to start in our um in our younger grades. We have a committee in place and we're expecting that we're going to be looking at some programs throughout the uh course of next year. That comes at a cost. In the past, the publisher would um give you materials to try out. They don't they don't do that anymore. So, we're looking at three different publishers. We're going to be looking at three different sets of pilot materials to try out in our classrooms uh throughout next year. Uh we're also going to be continuing with our link benchmarks as I mentioned with our our ELA discussion um for for math. uh in science next year as you know what um with the move to McKabin move to Makabin one of
022the I guess bigger ticket items that we discussed in the process was that the idea that we would have to retrofit classrooms to be used for science instruction uh that would include lab tables the basic science tools and equipment safety safety materials the um you know the cabinets for the goggles and and all those all those types of things that go with it. Uh we also are in the I guess second um second year of our phasing in the um biochem physics for all uh program where we are going to be um having more students having access to chemistry and physics going forward. Um so we are going to have to adjust some of those classrooms in our lab settings to make sure that we have access to all materials you need for those uh
023for those courses. Um two of the unknowns uh social studies and and fine and performing arts. We are expecting um large updates to the standards in social studies and fine and performing arts. They have not been updated in in many years. Uh the state has alluded to it in the past, but it seems like they're finally at a point where they're going to be updating the standards. when you update the standards, um that's where we end up having to take a look at do our materials that we have now address those standards and can we can we make an adjustment or do we have to look at uh look at new programs. So um that's that's the anticipated cost that are um you know built into next year's uh budget. Uh our last line is
024talks about data analysis. We are going to be continuing with the use of link and the use of Renaissance and and a number of those um uh tools that we have online to access data and let the end user which we're calling the the classroom teacher let them have access to their student data and be the keeper of that knowledge and be able to foster those conversations and look directly at their classes performance year over year and be able to pinpoint those specific learning standards. So, we've seen great success with it so far and we're going to continue with that next year. All right. So, our budget timeline, I said we're uh almost done here. We're at the preliminary budget. We had some we had some budget meetings in the winter. Got our state aid
025about two weeks ago and we're sending the budget into the county office later this week. About 6 weeks from now, we have the final budget, the public hear budget. That's in late April. between now and then we have a operation the finance committee next Tuesday we have a board meeting the Tuesday after that we have a operations of finance committee meeting in early April we have a board meeting the 21st of April and then the public hearing on our budget so you have about six weeks and multiple meetings either full board meetings or committee meetings between now and then all right so our budget basics um So our budget, if you know the big budget book, they break it down to two halves is our revenues and our expenses, our revenues are going down and
026our expenses are going up. Uh most notably salaries and benefits. So that's a overwhelming majority of our budget, probably 3/4 I would say, of our budget is rising at a rate that's much larger than our revenues or um so we have a tax levy which is typically capped at 2%. This year we have we're using something called bank cap which should make it over 2% 2.5%. Um but our other revenues are going down. Our fund balance is going down. Our federal title money is going down and our state aid is going down dramatically. A little bit more on that in a minute. And our expenses are going particular salaries and benefits. So state aid reduction. This is what Mr. Oinsky wrote his letter about. But two years ago in July of 18, I guess it
027was, they adjusted the state funding formulas. Actually, after we did the budget that year, and they gave us this calendar of cuts. It's probably yellow might not be the best color for this graph. I'll change that for April, but >> we were told that we'll be losing this much money cumulatively over seven years, and it's going to land right about 7 million over seven years. And this is the actual. So, it's going up. The cuts are increasing at a much more dramatic rate than we were told two years ago. Um, so there's no telling where we're going to be in 2024 25. I don't think we're going to land there. We're halfway there now. We're going to be somewhere up here 9 to 10 million because overall that's the big problem right now that we're
028dealing with and it's a mystery every year. How do they come up with this number? is over request now from multiple districts and states to get the funding formula not necessarily make any changes to but just to look at it because we don't have that formula I for one would love to see how they got this number here down from here how they increased so much we know our went down a little bit we know that um but there's another piece of the formula called the local fair share which is what the department says this community can afford to spend on schools and if you're an affluent community, they say you can spend more, you spend a lot. If you're a less affluent community, you can spend very little. I think they have us listed
029as being more affluent than we are. So, they're asking us to pay a higher percentage. So, um we know the enrollment's dropped and it continues to drop, but it doesn't seem to be this dramatic. So, something's not right. We'd love to get a look at the formula and uh hopefully we will. So this next slide is basically the same slide in reverse. This is the state aid as a percentage of our budget. This is actual and this is projected over last uh couple years and the next couple years. So the state used to cover a quarter of our budget and we think when this is all over it'll be closer to about 7 or 8%. So just between then and now it's about 10%. 10% of the budget just disappeared and gets crowded out and
030that's why we're that's why we have staffing cuts because we're in cuts instead of so our tax levy uh this is a local tax levy not the overall budget. So the overall budget 73 million and tax levy is only 55 million. So it's 2% of the 55 million that's 2% of the school budget. That's 2%. So when we say we're going to increase the budget the taxes by 2% it's about $1.1 million which doesn't even begin to fully make up for the state a fun nonetheless we've done a great job this board over the past nine years the average in nine years is just under one and a half percentage point increase so nobody likes to pay taxes um it'd be hard for me to say that the taxes are high in the community because
031of the schools There are very few districts that have a tax levy increase over 9 years that low. I'd be shocked that there's one in the district and one in the state. So it's less than a one and a half%. Okay. Now the preliminary budget the actual numbers the tax levy is 57 million which is up 2.5%. The extra.5% is money that was not taxed during this year here. So, we're able to borrow that money for this year to get it over 2%. And you can see the general fund is down just under half of 1%. Okay. Revenue bar. This breaks down a little bit more. Can you explain some of this here? We've discussed how fund balance is declining and you can explain why it's not declining as much as originally thought. Um before
032I get into this um chart, I want you to like take a look at the budgeted fund balance. Um and I realized about an hour ago that I pulled a number and I don't know where I got it from, but the audited the actual audited amount >> that's this number here. >> Yeah. The actual audited amount was 1,475 765. Not. So, it's a difference of $8,000. $8,67. >> Can you say it one more time? >> Yes, it's 1 million 475 765. >> Thank you. >> So, uh we'll make that correction for next time. But in last year, the the budget that um we're currently working in, we had a budget for balance of $2,499,981. So you can see that there's a million dollar gap right from there. >> So that's last year's here to this
033year's here. >> Yeah, there was a million dollar gap. So um we have the cut in in in state aid which was larger than what we anticipated. Uh you can see that um based upon the extraordinary aid application that we put in last year, we're increasing our revenue by $25,000. um because we think that we um have the ability to capture money from the state. They have put more money in for special education and this past year they also gave us a larger percentage of the costs that they allowed in as excess costs. So, um, this is anticipated, but we don't know. We won't know the $725,000 that we used as a revenue last year to support the current year's budget. We won't know if we've achieved that number until August of this year. Because
034in the spring, in May, we have to s submit an application tracking all of our costs, our extraordinary costs, our one-to-one nurses that we have for students. um our our tuitions that are over $40,000 um onetoone aids that we have to place because of IEPs. So once we track all those course costs, we're hoping that we can get to the $725,000 that we use to support this year's budget. Anything in excess we're able to to use in the 2021 school year. Um, so based upon the applications that we've had for the last year in Portuguese, we feel comfortable increasing it to $750,000. So that's giving us a little bit extra revenue to support the 2021 budget. So let's get to budgeted fund balance. Um, we had a million dollars less than last year. Well, when
035I took a look at some of the expenses that we had, the big one is the EIT. We have um uh $5 and we have over $500,000 that we have to pay this year in um bond in in repayment of the the bonds that were sold. So, The the theory behind the EIP program is that you take the savings that you're achieving and that's what's supposed to pay back your costs. It's not supposed to be money that you have to raise to pay those costs. The ESP program began in December of this year. So, it makes sense that the savings that we're achieving from December through June of 2020, we have to be able to capture those savings and we have to use it to pay the note that's still in October. That savings would
036normally if we didn't use it to enhance our budgeted balance. You could see a number of 905910 which actually is 913477 977. I can't even see what the glass has 913977. That's additional money that we're going to take from this year's operating that we're not using and we're going to roll it into the 2021 budget to support that instead of letting it drop into fund balance and use it in 2122. It's a little confusing. >> Yeah. >> But we have to take the savings that we're generating now, which is about $335,000. That's what I'm anticipating about $335,000 that's going to have to go toward paying back that note next year. Um we also had um all of our contracts have been settled now and we had um one collective bargaining agreement that has been uh
037negotiations ongoing for a couple years. We have money set aside to pay for the retro for that um for that final contract. And out of that we have 110,000 that was left. So now we're 400 335 + 110. So that's 445. So $445,000 of that $913,977 is actually monies that we know we're going to have left over that we're going to need to use in next year's budget. >> The balance is going to come from um we had a number of leave absences this year. So, um we're just we know that based upon our payroll projections, we're going to have um a significant amount of money left in payroll and we're we would like to use some of that money um 468,900 almost $469,000 to support the 2021 budget rather than letting that money fall
038into excess surplus and use it in 2122. It's a gamble that we're going to have when the audit is completed in June of 2020. It's a gamble that we're going to have at least the $1.4 million that we started out with to put into the 2122 budget. We'll be close to it. Maybe depends on right now. I think we'll have some energy savings over and above our east because of the weather that we've been having and we're constantly monitoring um expenses so that we can try to save money as much as possible. So that's why um instead of a million dollar gap from the 249, we're only going to have a um $110,000 gap that comes from one year to the next. Anybody have a question about that? I know it's >> it was very
039overwhelming. >> It's kind of crazy. Barbara, is the East running on track, do you think? >> I think that they're on track. Yeah, but it's a it's a process. It's going to take a lot of work is going to be done this summer. Uh there's some um part some some replacement parts that need to be um manufactured that we haven't gotten yet. So um but I think a lot of the lighting has been done. Um, so I think that we are we are seeing some savings, but the fact remains that we have to take money that we're anticipating. That was the whole premise of this whole project. >> Mhm. >> And it's a $575,000 note due in October is a lot of money. We have 335,000 that I believe is going to be coming out
040of the current year's budget and the balance of that note has to come from our expenses in the 2021 budget. So, I've reduced our electrical and our um natural gas budget to put that money into paying back the note in October because that's where it's supposed to come from, right? And hopefully by June of 2021, we are not in a deficit in those accounts. >> I I take it and you're always good about this. you're going to keep us aware as we go through the year where we are standing. So that >> Absolutely. Okay. >> Um >> so you said 335 that is due this October and then the balance will come >> next year. >> 335 is savings >> um from the savings >> estimated we that we'll save between December and June of
041this year >> which we will roll into the next budget to cover >> the balance. There'll be a partial covering of the payment. The rest of the payment is going to have to come from our expenses, gas and electric. >> Gotcha. >> For the 2021 budget. And if you look at those numbers, and I can point them out to you, you can see where I've reduced it so that we can pay back the last thing I want is to have us have to raise taxes. to pay back that bond because that was not of this program, >> right? >> Um and yes, you have to guarantee the savings, >> but the guarantee is only for the first few years. If you haven't achieved it once the project is done, you're not going to achieve it
042for the rest of the time. And this is an 18. This is a bigger note than the roof replacement. So, >> are any of our notes coming? >> No, cuz the only thing we have outstanding now is the roof replacement and this um this this one for the energy program. That's all we have outstanding in that services. Um the Medicaid reimbursement has gone up from last year. This is a number that the state of New Jersey tells us that we have to achieve. And so there's quarterly reporting that has to be done and it has to do with our um the services that we provide students. We've um been very diligent about meeting that requirement because if not they put you on a corrective action plan and they remind you if you have not submitted
043the things that you need to submit. Um tuition is basically the same. Um when I when I look at revenues, I look at what we've um brought in over the last three years and I kind I average it so that we have a sense of whether we're on track or whether we need to adjust. Um our tuitions are um students that we bring in from other districts and our prek program. The gened students uh pay a tuition to attend the prek program. um transportation fees. Right before you get to that part, um I just wanted to mention about the tuitions. You're going to see on tonight's agenda under the education section that our climb program, our ABA autism program for the first time, so last year in April for autism awareness month, our teachers came
044out, they presented on our autism program, our climb program. We talked about the benefits of the program. The families discussed with you just all of the the positive part of the program of being in West Milford in the least restrictive environment. So, we were not ready to take tuition students as of last year. The board asked us about that. But I do want to say that now the program is recognized at the county level. So, I do I know Miss Pierce while you're here. I want to just thank you and the teachers and the staff for that because we were able to um receive our first tuition student in our climb autism program and it's on tonight's agenda. >> I know uh Dr. McCu is marketing a lot of our programs. We've had some sight
045fittings from neighboring districts who are looking to place one or more students in one or more of our programs which should help us achieve some of those numbers. Yeah, today actually Vernon came um to see our Highlander Academy and so thank you for setting that up. And then um Bloomingdale is scheduled next week. So it's a good thing. >> And you'll see the tuition number climb due to Dr. McQuade and Miss Pierce's efforts. So thank you so much for that. >> climb. That's right. Climb. >> Yeah. Climb. >> Okay. Transportation fees. Um, as you all know, we have a a big bus garage and um we have mechanics and they service our buses, but they also service other districts buses so that we get a revenue from them doing that. um miscellaneous revenue. Those are
046um things that we really don't anticipate but seem to materialize like rebates that we might apply for um um rentals uh for different um facilities um and other things that come along throughout the school year. And we usually have a pretty steady stream of of miscellaneous revenue. Um this year we've added the restricted miscellaneous revenue category and that number is significant because that's the township's contribution toward the 10th field replacement and the running track replacement. Um the balance of that job is going to come from our withdrawal from capital reserve. Um, you look at the 504,551 that's including the turf field and it's including the well replacement. We have to put a new well in at maximum school because um we're having problems with the the tank there. So um we're using capital reserve money.
047That's money that we've been able to squirrel away in case we have to do a major capital project. And so um and and we're hoping that um come June you'll probably see a resolution to make a deposit into capital reserve um if we have the money based upon the audit because we need to be able to maintain that fund. There is not a lot of money in that fund. uh we get interest on um a monthly basis because it is a separate account and then we add that interest payment but we have to account it as a revenue because that's what the state tells us to do. Um we also have a maintenance reserve account which is being depleted every year because um we started with 500,000 and we've been drawing off of it and
048that can go to support our required maintenance. Um, but that is the only thing that it can uh support. And we're very fortunate in West Mill Group because we do have skilled people. We have an electrician, we have a plumber, we have carpet groups, we have an HAC person, we have general mechanics that do a lot of the work for us instead of have relying on other trades to come in and and wait for them to be able to to do repairs. So if we have an emergency on the weekend, um we bring in our our our people from um our our trades and and they take care of the emergency and there are times that it happens like floods because heating coils break out of um and then you have the tax levy um
049which you can see is a 2.5 increase over and above uh what was uh approved last year. Um I like to tell the board every year that um this is a a preliminary budget and we constantly are looking between now and April 28th for ways to to trim it out if possible. Um, but this is what we're recommending that we include as revenues um to support this because we have to send those all down to the county and then we'll rip it apart and um put it back together. >> Anybody have any questions about >> I have a question. >> Just a clarification and I probably just don't fully understand it, but you were saying under the capital reserve you said something about having to make a deposit to it in June. Where does that
050deposit come? Where does that come from? >> Okay, so in June of every year, there's a resolution on the agenda that says the board board authorizes us to make a deposit into the capital reserve account u pending the completion of the audit, the general the order for June 19th. Okay. So June um 2020. Mhm. >> If we have a significant amount of money, >> then we can put some of that money reserve and that's like our little bank account >> for something that happens, you know, or something that's needed. We've used it to um pay for the roof. >> Got it. >> Um we've we you know it it's like your rainy day fund in case there's something that goes wrong. >> The deposit threw me off, but that makes sense from the audit. >>
051Something that you can draw off of. So if you take money out every, you know, March and you don't ever put it back in June, budget just runs on top. >> Now, um, one of the things that we still have pending in right now, we're out to bid on, uh, if you recall, part of the EIP, um, we had three roofs on the elementary schools that were going to, um, >> solar >> so that we could put panels up there, solar panels. and the board authorized um an expenditure up to $600,000 for that. So that bid is coming back in April. So we'll know whether or not we've been able to achieve that um or not. And so that's a topic for discussion. I I want to just touch upon the turf because that's a
052question that is out there in the public and I think we need to let people understand that that money is not going to be taxed to the taxpayer. That is money that we have been putting away into that capital uh to that uh reserve account because we have been maintaining the turf year after year and we have now reached the end of the life of the turf >> and the cost of you know the thankfully um the town is sharing that cost with us this year. you know, when it comes to and um people need to understand that it that we both have been budgeting for that because the turf is used by so many groups more than everybody thinks it's just football, but it it really isn't. the football that the the the amount
053of people and usage that's going on at that field is very important that the public is aware of and that the money is not going to be coming there's not going to be an added tax levy to the taxpayer for that >> football probably uses that field the least the number of teams that each sport and you're right if that came out of the budget today it would not affect the tax levy it's just capital reserve funds that are already there so >> and I think we also have to stress the at Makipin because that is a big cost factor for us. One which I I think Barbara has worked more hours than I can say about trying to get us hooked up to the safe valley and we cannot get hooked up. There is
054no water in no water for the school system even though we're protecting the water for the rest of the state. So we're told we need a well. This is the I I think it's important that you know it goes that people understand how many hours have been put in to this budget and and especially on these items that we can't live without. And this is our expenses. It's the second half of our budget. You see there's a lot of red here in the right hand column. There's a lot of decreases in a lot of areas. Um some of these other budget cuts that we're going to talk about momentarily. One of the lower expenses and space increases is uh health benefits year-over-year. Um the increase on the premiums 15 is going to be 15%. The
055reason this doesn't add up to 15% is there'll be fewer people receiving benefits. >> Press released yesterday anything in that for us. >> Well, we're not in the state health benefit. >> So that's part of it. But they're also coming up with some kind of a new >> low cost. It's >> like a state plan. Yeah. a new program that if you go into it then you could minimize your contribution but we are not the state health benefit program. Um one of the things um the original estimate was about 24.6% because of our claims experience this year. Um, and we were fortunate in respect because we got a competitive quote and once we got a competitive quote from another insurer, Horizon was able to sharpen their pencil and came down to where the competitive quote
056came in. So, we dodged a bullet kind of this year. I did a bullet that I didn't really expect because I was really I only put in 8% initially um because that's where our increases have been coming in around 5 to 8%. >> And the increase was 24%. >> Right. The first the original number was like 24 >> 24.6. >> So we're down to 15. >> I guess that's okay. It's more than typical, but it was just one of those >> one of those anomalies. It hasn't happened in 10 years because when I first got here, we had a 29% increase. That's where it started and it ended up with 24. >> Uh so tax levy impact um year-over-year minor change here. The average assessed home from the community is down $200. Um, so we'll
057multiply these numbers out and the average tax increase on the median home is just under $120. So just under $10 per month for the medium house as a tax levy change year over year. Capital projects again these are coming out of our capital budget. This is not coming out of the tax levy. Um quilt and track the maximum well these are very essential. We're resurfacing the tennis courts behind maximum school as well. that's long past their prime. Um, and we're going to continue with the EIP and the share services with the township which sh save both parties, the school board and the township significant amount of money. Uh, proposed cuts these hit every school every school in the district and all most of our programs um, clubs, supplies, athletics, professional development as well as some
058of our summer programs. Um, one administrator is in the budget to be cut. Two elementary teachers is by retirement. Uh, a halftime secretary at transportation, science at the high school, 6 teacher for special education. It's pending a few IP meetings, but we think we're we're almost there. And districtwide will be a music and a halftime nurse. We going from nine nurses to 8.5. Okay. So, what does the future look like? We know the timeline looks like, but we also know state aid is going to be declining. Expenses going up, revenues are going down. We're going to struggle to fund all of our programs. There'll be staffing reductions, have a limited ability to fund our reserve accounts, maintenance reserve, which is used for maintenance, and capital reserve, which is used for larger projects. So, it's going
059to be obviously a lot of pressure on local taxes because the state is pulling back from funding 25% of our budget to probably they're going to settle it around 8%. So, there's that missing 17% in there that's no longer money, our title money is decreasing as well. So, our next steps, uh, we're going to continue to refine estimates. It's possible this number could change between now and then. uh personnel utilities will get a better handle on those between now and April 28th. Uh we'll continue to look for ways to economize our budget and we have some key dates here coming up that I explained before. Anybody have any questions eight? >> Can you recall how many students we were paying for this year and how many we're estimating that we'll have next year? So many
060students in the system. I say paying for it because we have students who go out of our school district that we >> pay this year for the enrollment. >> And what did we estimate for LA for next year? >> I'm going to say 3200. >> Yeah, that's what we thought. I thought 3200. >> Yeah. So that number changes day to day. Can't move in and out, but I think 3250 is our ASSA number. Probably 3200 by next October going to our official account. And that that number includes our out of district kids except for PCTI. Correct. Correct. >> See, we're pulling a lot. We don't have that many students out of district, but we pulled a lot back over. Thank you very much. Any other questions? >> No other questions? Thank you for all your
061work. PCT period count. [Applause] Alec, is has there been any progress on working to count the students that go to technical school? >> Um, we discussed >> we discussed that with our meeting with Senator Pacio about a week ago >> and no progress as of now, I suppose. So >> that's >> Yeah, >> that's also something um that maybe we can draft a letter about because PCTI is getting money. >> Yeah. And they're getting 11,000 and change for each of our students that go there, but we can't count them in our enrollment yet. We're paying for their education, >> right? >> Um yeah. Um we we've talked to Senator Ponacio about that last week >> and we did get a letter from PCTI because of their um the money they received from the state. They're
062going to reduce uh tuition by I think it's $250 a student. >> Okay. >> But it hasn't been approved yet formally. So we can't include it in this um budget. >> But it's about 25,000 >> $21,000. >> Yeah. I I think it's important though that Senator Pacio did latch on to those numbers that we called him. He was not aware of that. >> I'm I'm a little confused. I keep thinking we count our every child that we spend send out a district as a special needs student. That child stays on our roles. Why? and we pay a tuition, which makes sense, but why those 80ome students l drop off our roles, but yet we still have to pay their tuition makes no sense. Plus, it's like we're being double. You know, we're our our town
063gives more more of a percentage goes to the county than stays here in West Milford when it comes to our property taxes. It seems a little out of balance to me that then on top of that you're asking the taxpayers again to give away the tuition money to the school that our tax dollars are funding. I could understand some, you know, maybe there's something, but it seems we should be getting credit for them on our roles and then it would help us quite a bit, right Barb? If we had those 80 I mean it would be it would help. Well, sure, because then you'd get at least some state aid >> to to support the expenditure. But right now, you're not getting any state aid to export that to support that expenditure. And that million
064dollars is coming directly from your tax dollars. >> And you're de you're directly having to take from your taxpayers to pay those tuitions. >> And PCTI did their state aid was increased, right? Over $6 million. >> Yeah. >> Three million last year, six million this year. >> Yes. Over $6 million, you know. So, I mean, no. No. I And I I think the the the sad part of this is when you talk about this in education, people are trying to pit one one district against the other, saying, "Oh, well, do you want me to take it back from this district because you No, we want you to fairly fund education." If there is an if there is an equation that they're using to come up with the state aid, we need to know that because
065if we knew that we would be able to plan better ahead, you know, be able to plan better in our budget. But also it needs you know there are you know these uh unique districts like ours and that's the letter from Dave explaining about the you know the Highlands Act how that's impacting West Milford how we're 100% in the Highlands and we can't change that. We can't we can't make we can't put any raidables up. We you know uh Jefferson our neighbor took a very big hit >> as well. >> And yeah Vernon too. a fortune a dollar value. >> Yeah. And all of those all of these communities are all in the Highlands Act. Some are 90% some, you know, some are we're we're the I think we're the only district that's 100% in
066the Highlands. >> We are. Yeah. >> So, you know, we are truly feeling the impact. Municipalities being able to make it up. But you're the city took a $25 million cut, but that's because they're growing and condos and all that stuff. They're having all those racial We just don't have >> We don't have We don't have the ability. >> I have a question for Barb. Could you just tell me the health benefits incentive program? If a staff member doesn't take health benefits, >> if a staff member is entitled to health benefits and they don't get it, there's a $2,000 annual um waiver that they receive. So instead of um them having to contribute um they get a waiver of $2,000. >> Thank you. >> Any other questions about the budget from the board and feel
067free that if you know you have questions just reach out call email come in there. Okay. Thank you. >> Okay. We'll go into public comment then. This portion of the meeting is open to the 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 be given five minutes for a period of 30 minutes and then time permitting other public comment limited to 5 minutes per speaker will be allowed until the 30 minute time period transpires. All members of the public speaking during this public comment period are asked to address topics listed in the agenda. All speakers are asked to sign the register provided and to give their full
068name, 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 others of other individuals when speaking. Specifically, comments regarding students and employees of the board are discouraged 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 should consider their comments in light of legal rights of those affected or identified in their
069comments. Members of the public are reminded that they are legally responsible and liable for their comments. Is anyone wishing to speak? >> Seeing none, I make a motion to close. >> Second. All those in favor? >> All righty. We need a motion uh to adopt the agenda. >> I need a motion. >> I'll make a motion to adopt the agenda as is. >> Second. >> All those in favor? >> I [Applause] education. Um will you do that? >> Sure. Um, I'd like to make a motion to approve the following agenda items uh, one and two on the agenda. >> Discussion. [Applause] >> If not, Mrs. Francisco, Ro, please. >> Mrs. Stevenson, >> yes. >> U, Mr. Oshinski? >> Yes. >> Mrs. Fritz? >> Yes. >> Mr. Conklin? >> Yes. >> Mrs. Romeo? >> Yes. >>
070Mr. Stillman? >> Yes. >> Mrs. Van Dyke? >> Yes. >> Mr. which one we talking about? >> We're on education. >> Oh, yes. >> One and two. >> Good. >> Okay. And the the next item will hold until after executive session if we need executive session for that. Uh personnel student affairs. U Mrs. Fritz. Sure. I'd like to move items 1 through nine under personnel student affairs. I'll second a second. discussion. >> I'd like to comment on it. Sure. Um, Mrs. Bole is one of my children's most favorite um, classroom aids and I wish her nothing but the most wonderful wonderful retirement. >> Thank you. So do we. >> Always good to be able to retire. >> Yes. >> I can't wait. >> Any other discussion? If not, Barbara Ro. >> Mrs. Fritz, >> yes.
071>> Mrs. Romeo, >> yes. >> Mrs. Stevenson, >> yes. >> Mr. Conlin, >> yes. >> Mr. Oinski, >> yes. >> Mr. Gino, >> yes. >> Mr. Stillman, >> yes. >> Mrs. Van Dyke, >> yes. >> Operations and finance. Mr. Gorino, >> I'd like to make a motion to move item number one under operations and finance. >> All those Any discussion? No discussion. Okay. Roll call. >> Mr. Greeno. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Stevenson. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Romeo. >> Yes. >> Mr. Oshinsky. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Fritz. >> Yes. >> Mr. Silman. >> Yes. >> Mr. Conquin. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Van Dyke. >> Yes. >> Like to move items two through four under operations of finance. discussion roll call >> Mr. Go >> yes >> Mrs. Stevenson >> yes >> Mrs. Romeo >> yes >>
072Mr. Oshinsky >> yes >> Mrs. Fritz >> yes >> Mr. Stillman >> yes >> Mr. Conley >> yes >> Mrs. standing. >> Yes. Um, we're back to public comment. Same thing that I said before. >> I'm I'm hearing it in my sleep. This the same thing that I said before. Anyone wishing to speak under public comment? >> Second. >> All those in favor? >> I. >> Okay. We need a motion um for education. Uh Kate, would you want to do that motion for us to go into >> Sure. At 8:06, I'd like to make a motion to go into executive session for the purpose of discussing personnel appointments, resignations, current litigation matters, special education matters, negotiations, HIPS, and matter of return, and client privilege. The executive session minutes will not be released until such time
073as the privilege or confidentiality confidentiality is no longer applicable. And we will be returning for action. >> Second. >> All those in favor? >> I will be back. >> Mr. M. >> Stevenson here. >> Mr. Still >> here. >> Mr. Greeno >> here. >> Mr. Con >> here. >> Mrs. >> here. >> Mrs. >> here. >> Mrs. Romeo, will you do motion number three under education, please? >> I'd like to move motion number three under education. >> Second. >> Any discussion? Roll call. Mr. Spencson. >> Yes. Mr. Garina. >> Yes. >> Mr. Oshinski. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Fritz. >> Yes. >> Mr. Con? >> Yes. >> Mr. Romeo? Yes, >> Mr. Sillman. >> yes, I need a motion for to adjourn. >> Motion to adjurnn. >> Second. All those in favor. >> Have a good
074day. >> Thank you.