Board of Education Meeting 3/15/16

001Copies of the board meeting calendar resolution with provided for all local media, town hall, hall, township, library, and all district schools. Roll call, please. Mrs. Francisco, Mr. Bailey, Mr. De here, Mr. Drew here, Mrs. Dwire here, Mr. Foody, Mr. Yuber here, Mrs. O'Brien here, Mr. Robbins, Mrs. here. Uh Rodney, I don't know if um wherever he contacted you. He's in Connecticut. Um he's late this evening. Okay. Someone Mr. Deard like to read the executive session resolution, please. Second following resolution that the board go into executive session purpose of discussing the superintendent search personnel negotiations and matters of attorney. Executive session will not be released until such time as the privilege for confidentiality is no longer applicable. Second. Oh, and we will we will be adding a hit to that one. One two to two include

002one here. I amend the second. Okay. All in favor? Any opposed? Mr. Rashika, the superintendent report, please. Okay, welcome everyone. Um, last Monday we had the uh pleasure of meeting with Mr. Paul Pallik who was from the state department and um was a visit that uh consisted of him actually reviewing um not actually our observations but the results of our observations of teachers and administrators and it was also an overview of our scores looking at what the scores are and coming up with some suggestions for us to work forward. Overall, I think we we did a very good job, but we did spend about uh two hours uh going through numbers. So, that was very interesting. And this is part of the state's um monitoring in the way to make sure that schools are doing

003what they're supposed to do. So, they look at the scores from student uh achievement test. Uh they look at how many observations are completed. They look at how many observations principles have been involved in so forth. They also look for the uh results of the observations over a period of time. and it's based on all kinds of calculations. So that was uh you know along with everything else that we've been through this year. I think uh I don't think we've missed any possible type of monitoring in the last two years. So uh good luck to the new superintendent because he'll be free for at least 3 to four years. So when that happens but uh so that's that's that piece of it. Also I wanted to mention that we were fortunate to have classroom uh

004close up uh here twice within the last couple of weeks. once over I believe was Absua school for one of our history teachers and just last week for uh Makipin for their character red program. So that's good that should be on as soon as I have the air dates for those I will share them with everyone. And uh also I want to throw out a big congratulations to every student and staff member that was involved with the school musical at the high school. Just an excellent job. Very proud of all of them. So that's my short and sweet report for this evening. And uh that's where I'm at. Thank you, Barbara. Special reports and correspondence. Uh yes. Um before we get into the presentation on preliminary budget, um just to let the board members know

005that all the meeting minutes from February will be uh on March 22nd. um will be available for your consideration review to March 22nd. Um and now as you are aware um today is our required preliminary budget hearing. Everything has to be submitted to the state of New Jersey. U Mr. Rashika, Mr. Novak are going to speak about the programs that um are um coming up and what they would like to see happening in the next school year. Um, so they're going to start the budget presentation and then I will uh conclude it with the um the the uh dollar figures. Um, if there are any questions, please feel free to ask them as they come along. Um, remember too that um the budget that's being presented tonight is just preliminary. It has to go down

006for state approval. Uh any changes that the board chooses to make can be made between now and our second April meeting when it's the uh public hearing of the budget. So you'll have an opportunity to talk review and talk about it in uh committee meetings in April along with our workshop meeting and our um presentation of the uh the budget at the end of April. So with that um Mr. Yeah, I will go there in just one second. There was just one thing I I would be remiss if I didn't mention this when I made up the agenda. This didn't happen yet. So uh last night Mr. Novc and I and I'm sure many other people in the audience uh had the pleasure of attemp attending the empty bowls um fundraiser uh presented by the

007high school and the art department and uh just an excellent job over at McAppin School. uh goes out to food pantries and helps feed 200 people. Uh and turnout was wonderful and I think they had uh probably about 12 to 14 different types of soup available and quite a selection of bowls as well. So compliments to those folks too. Lots of wonderful things going on. Very proud of everyone. Thank you. So are we going to have a Y Are you doing the board behind us? Blind us. April 26th. Okay. So, as Miss Francisco said, the um sorry, the preliminary budget report uh is a focus on the things that we would like to see happen. Pardon my back here. uh the things that we would like to see happen over the next school year um

008along with building upon what we currently have. Uh the the place where we really need to look first in order to determine any budget is to look at the the goals of the district. Um so we looked here and we saw the create awareness and opportunities for students and staff participation related to steam. Okay, so steam for those of you who don't know is STEM. Uh so we're looking at the uh science, technology, uh engineering, and math, but we have an A in there, and that stands for the arts. Uh the reason why I will get back to that a little bit later on in the presentation, but actually I feel that our school district has such an excellent arts program that we should connect them to this STEM program. We want to enhance the

009district's culture and climate to foster student achievement and recognition throughout the collaboration with all stakeholders. We've made many steps to improve uh collaboration with parents. There are many different programs uh that we offered this year and we certainly want to continue along that path for next year and to develop and implement the effective and timely communication plan which is something that's still in the works. is going to take time to uh make that better, but we are aware of it and we are trying the best we possibly can. So, there's been lots of discussion and things put into place along with the board of education. So, at this time uh I'd like to bring up Mr. Novak. He can talk to you a little bit about some of our new new programs and the budget

010parameters themselves. Uh so, we want to maintain the programs and staffing as I just said increased number of AP classes available to support required teacher uh training. uh assess the technology needs to work toward a onetoone environment for the iPads and Chromebooks. Now for those of you who are up to date with us, you know that we have many PCs, iPads and Chromebooks. In fact, the Chromebooks are used extensively uh throughout the testing process. The new piece for us is now that we have all this new infrastructure coming in that's currently taking place is looking at bring your own device. So that's going to be uncharted waters for us because it means that students can actually use perhaps down the road their cell phones or whatever device they bring to school as well as teachers

011and so on. So we have to look at the the parameters and what we're going to set for that and to also with all this technology I have to inform you textbooks are still needed. Uh so we want to replace textbooks textbooks and make sure that they're in alignment with state standards. So uh Mr. Novak will go over some of the new programs and he is Yeah, I'm just going to highlight briefly uh some of our new course offerings that are in this year's uh proposed budget. Uh the first one I'm going to go like I said go down them all uh briefly. Uh the first one power speaking it's a combined course uh utilizing our English language arts and our history staff. Uh the course is called power speaking and it's going to highlight

012on debate, critical thinking skills, research skills, uh a wide arrange wide array of uh skills necessary for students to have a bit of a better and more successful um high school path. Uh the second one is an elective. It's a half um halflunch elective called coding from scratch and it is um aimed at block coding and probability and some of the higher order thinking skills that um go along with everything that we need to do with with the STEM initiatives that you've seen connected to our building goals. Uh we also are offering uh it's a resurrection of a previously existing course called fundamentals. It's for our grade 12 students. Uh it's to help accommodate our uh portfolio appeals process when we have um students who don't meet graduation requirements by taking qualifying assessments. This course

013is in place to assist um which we didn't have in in place this year and we had to you know we realized the problem from the state. We had to scramble a little bit. That won't be the case next year. We're being proactive to get this course um up and running. So we have it in place. Um the next offering is our chemistry uh chemistry B and science and this is to offer a wider range of options in the physical sciences for our um uh for our B- level students. It's going to be the same uh same curriculum, same criteria. However, it's going to be modified for the students who are at that uh Btrack level. Uh and the next offering is our freshman seminar. uh freshman seminar is going to be an interdisciplinary uh

014interd disciplinary course that has uh a lot of different staff members from different departments joining in. Uh the focus is really to develop a high school career ready student at the nth grade level. Uh it's going to focus on study skills, organizational skills, uh a wide ar uh array of uh necessary components to have a you know again similar to power speaking to really build a a quality high school student uh throughout their career. This will also raise the um graduation requirement from 120 to 125 credits. This course is the first in a twocourse process. Freshman seminar and then this first group of students coming in in this cohort will again have something called junior seminar in their junior year. At the end of that process, they will have uh an additional five credits toward

015their uh toward their graduation. Uh I'm going to read the the go through the last two uh at the end and I'm going to refer to uh Mrs. West's wide range of um reorganization of the um traditional uh English lit process and this really capitalizes on the uh expertise and passion of the staff while addressing um the feedback we get from students about the things they want and the things that engage them. And the excitement around these courses has been tremendous. I'm not going to go too much into each one. I I did highlight these courses through a student video uh about 2 months ago uh where we had students actually talking about the genre in which they were going to be studying and really uh sharing their excitement with the process. Uh over on

016the uh area where it says elementary um I had a few exciting moments over the last month where I was able to meet with Mrs. Gratina and Mrs. West, who I'm happy to see in the audience tonight, where we developed um three and five-year goals for our elementary students for language arts and and math. So, it's a a very exciting process that we put together where we are going to be um targeting professional development in the areas of writer workshop and then also in best practice for the New Jersey learning standards in math to really support our go math process in in the elementary school. So, very exciting. One of the actually one of the reasons I wanted this position I'm standing here today was to to do that. So it was a very exciting

017moment to to work with with the two supervisors to get that done. Um we also have um a wide range of special ed programs. They vary year to year based on uh based on IEP and I know that Mrs. McQuade Dr. Mcuade is in the process of um organizing that that array of of courses for next year based upon the IEP needs of the students. still me. This is a breakdown of our current uh AP courses. We have uh total AP courses of 22 which is a raise of one over uh over above from last year. Last year we offered 21. Um we actually are only going to be offering two in science last year. It's part of a a rotation and um breaks down to scheduling needs in regard to how many students are

018able to take the APs in science for for next year. Uh but we do offer and have uh the ability to offer up to 22. So uh again we get back to STEM steam. Uh so we want to continue the efforts to work with a lot of the local colleges and universities are more than willing to help. Uh it's just having the time to sit down and uh have some discussion and work in a similar way that our staff does in a professional learning community to discuss our needs and then bring them into the district to try to help us out. So uh looking at local colleges from Monontlair State uh William Patterson Kain University all have wonderful programs. because we want to try to bring them in, build up that uh relationship, uh utilize

019new and existing labs. You know that we have a new lab that we're uh currently working on over at Makipin School that will be useful for the younger students and certainly you know if high school students want to go there and work depending on the direction we move in it will be there for them as well. Um so we want to use in addition to the labs the digital printers that we have within the district to uh create artistic products, architectural design specs and other creative fabrications as needed. Um it's when we talk about the art piece uh you could take photography and those pictures can become 3D images coming out of a printer uh and multiple colors and make adjustments to size and everything else. So you take the AutoCAD program along with the

020art program and the photography program and these things can happen. So that's very very exciting. Uh combine the expertise of both STEM and arts education in the district to create an authentic interdisciplinary experience for students utilizing co-planning and co-eing models. So in other words, we want to bring in our math teachers, science teachers, art teachers, it could even be our music teachers to develop design. Music teachers can design new instruments. Uh we look at some of the shows. Uh one close to my heart is Blue Man Group where they use PVC piping for for instruments and uh all kinds of designs can come out of that and it's very very exciting. I'd like to point out um in a book written by one of our former secretaries of education, Richard Riley, this is interesting. The

021top 10 in demand jobs in the future don't exist today. We're currently preparing students for jobs that don't even exist. Problems that don't exist. So, we need to take this head on and be very, very invested in getting our students ready for what's coming up in their lives. Certainly the the 9-to-f5 behind the desk type job is going away. Uh we see many many of these positions turning into computers. We walk up to an ATM machine. I'm sure banks are if we look at the number of tellers that actually worked in banks 20 years ago as compared to today, it's a big difference. So we want to keep that in mind. Uh the current uh secretary of education Arie Duncan also points out that the um arts is no longer a thrill. We need young

022people with creative minds, forward thinkers to get into the market for our economy and to compete globally. So this is very important area that we need to work on and I think we're following the right steps and we have what's needed. uh we also want to develop various programs uh which will support the area of after school and on weekends within that. So if we can have a robotics teams that we're working on uh with younger students and with some of the old older students perhaps there will be some time on a Saturday or Sunday to come in work in these labs develop design and build uh the school day is only so long so we have to look at some other alternatives. Um, so embrace a commitment to sustained and meaningful professional development. I'm

023going to turn that over to Mr. Novak. I'm just going to comment briefly on on some of the process. I alluded to a little bit of the process in my working with um a couple supervisors. However, in the development of this budget, we um really really put our efforts behind and and our resources toward the the development of professional development for our staff. And in looking at the school budget, you're going to you're going to see the numbers later. Um, our biggest commodity in my opinion is our staff. And when we talk about an investment, I like to think that an investment in our staff is um is really one of the the best things that we could do, especially when we talk about the title of this slide, focus for the future. And that's

024something that we've committed to in this process. I talked about uh earlier about developing five-year plans with with supervisors to um really develop our curriculums and and help uh help our staff work towards the best practice skills they need in in the classroom. So, we've really committed to um providing those providing those opportunities for next year and then the foreseeable future. Okay. Um again the we want to incorporate the I think this is very important. This is one thing we don't do. We're always sitting around and we're you know we're told we have to make goals. We sit down we want to make goals and we have various goals. We have the district goals. We have strategic planning goals. And I think it's time for the entire board of education and the community to spend

025some time together in order to engage both sets of goals to really decide which direction we want to move in. Uh I have mentioned this I think last board meeting about the strategic planning goals that is something that was uh again created by community members in conjunction with staff members. We really need to have dialogue to look at that. The board itself needs to look at the uh the strategic plan to decide what areas we're actually addressing currently and what we need to address in the future. But more importantly connect those to the district goals. you will see that they will be in alignment and that's how we're going to be successful. We want to get students ready for college and career uh based on the 21st century uh skills. So that's very very important

026and sustainability of the current programs. We certainly want to keep those programs which we have. We want them to continue to be successful. Uh we don't want to be a district that comes up with new ideas every year, run something for a year and then decide we're going to do something else. Sustainability is the key. you can only build upon something a good idea that's creative and something that's going to enhance learning by sticking with it. So we want to do that um in district programs for special ed students. Uh again we are including our preschool program for autistic students and continued growth at the Highlander Academy with an increase hopefully of uh tuitioning paying students. I believe now we have one or two one. Okay. So there are or there is some interest in

027bringing some districts uh are interested in bringing some of their students here as well. There are not too many programs out there other than going to private schools. So this can certainly enhance our program here and bring in other source of revenues. And uh I'll I'll let Mr. Novak talk about this one. In the beginning when Mr. Rashika discussed our uh district goals. The second goal referenced culture and climate in relation to student achievement. When we began our process with uh striving toward being named schools of character or or potentially district of character, we started with the uh mindset and and the focus on some of the research that schools that commit to building character in their students see a rise in student achievement. And uh we've found that to be the case in the

028buildings that have been really working towards it and we are committed to to stay with that effort. And one of the things I want to I I want to bring up because we have a we do have you know we're very fortunate we have a um emerging school of character in in Paradise Nol. And I see uh Mrs. Miller here. We have three schools in the district that were named state schools of character. Maple Road, Upper Green Lake and uh the Makaban School. And then the Mackman School also named National School of Character. These are not statements that they're now a perfect school. These are statements that they have put programs in place to steer everyone in the right direction. And that's the part that we're most proud of. And and when I was able

029to comment on the most recent school to be named School of Character with Maple Road, their be their process for building character began long before anyone talked about a recognition or an application or or anything like that. has nothing to do with the uh recognition. It's about what we're doing for our students. And when we're able to build those those character uh traits within them, we see we see a better product in in the classrooms. And you know, it's connected, it's capable, it's it's contributing, it's all those great things that that we want our students to bring to the classroom. Um I'm going to give a plug um for a character event that we have coming up. It's called You don't need to move. We're good. Um, we have our digital citizenship uh digital literacy

030and and citizenship night coming up on Monday uh March 21st. I just uh was talking to Mr. Foody about it and I I am not sending a Honeywell reminder tonight because we already have 200 people signed up. It's going to be an exciting event. Um, and our RSVPs are due tomorrow. We're going to be uh busting at the seams at Makabin. It's going to be a it's going to be a great night. And the reason I'm bringing it up now talking about character education is because that is where the idea of digital citizenship is where we connect character education with the technology and 21st century skills that Mr. Rashika was referring to when we talked about steam STEM and uh the iPad and and onetoone initiatives. Everything that we're working towards in building our technology

031initiatives to make our students more career ready. We are building character education into that. So, um, on Monday night on March 21st, you're going to see where those two roads meet and you're going to see our plan for how this is going to help develop better digital citizens and better character education within our students going forward. So, very excited. As you see, I ppped up a little bit when we started talking about that. I get excited about it. Um, but that that really relates to to our focus for the future is how do we how do we make character education and technology skills build toward an all-around student for for increasing student achievement? and and I think we're on the right track in that in that regard. Um, so that that is great news and

032I look forward to that on Monday night. Also, I just have to put a little plug. Mr. Novak will be feeding everyone at that. So, there will be food. Uh, we was planning having some really nice stuff out there, but I think at this point, I was teasing him earlier on. I said, "If we're going to be close to 200, I think you may be serving kibble and bits." But, we'll work on it. We'll do much better than that. Okay, here we go. Develop additional programs for all students needing support with an emphasis on extended learning time. What is extended learning time? It can be that we redevelop the schedule during the school time, which is not going to happen just yet. Contractually, that would be a long and uh tedious job. But there are

033other times of the day that we can extend our programs. Why do I bring this up? I've had within my Wampa meetings and talking to other parents, we look at various schools who have Encore programs and other things happening and they're entitled to these programs because they're part of Title One. Title One is basically uh developed for students who meet certain requirements financially. Uh we look at the free and reduced lunch. Now, I have to stop and think, and I think all of us do, are those the only students that have educational problems and and challenges? Absolutely not. So we have to find ways to reach the students that may be at risk but you know come from families who can afford things uh but certainly they need help as well. So we really have

034to be have to have an open mind to develop what kinds of programs we could look for for extended learning time. The re research on this from the Harvard family institute uh is outstanding. I mean there will be some um places where you will see more growth in mathematics than you will in language arts but there is growth. Uh it also helps students to work on their study skills and their overall habits. So they can take those skills that they learn and use them for the rest of their educational career. So we want to focus on that. Uh expand the autistic program for a pre prek to 2 which is going very well. Community- based instruction we're working on that as well. That is something we instituted this year. We want to branch that out

035a little bit more. Uh we want to take that over to our students at Highlander Academy. Uh certainly if they're not ready to work yet, I think that the opportunity for uh shadowing, job shadowing for an hour or two, uh maybe once a week or once a month to start is healthy for them. It takes them out of the school environment. It shows them what real life is all about. you know, when you're doing things that are not too acceptable in school, you'll see that that's not something you can do when you're going out there trying to get a paycheck. So, I think that's very important. Uh, increase the learning and language disabilities referred to as LLD and a self-contained program and new course electives as we saw that Mr. Novak pointed out at both

036West Milford High School and at McAppin. a refined teacher expertise in the use of Google apps for education and phasing the steam program across all levels. When we talk about steam, we talk about the technology. Many people just picture in their minds perhaps middle school through high school. We've already started to develop this in the elementary school. Um many of the classes already have uh Lego kits to develop robots and and look at the engineering pieces to develop even at that level. So we want to continue to grow at that as well. So, there's lots of innovation, lots of things to keep West Milford in the right place educationally with strong goals and a commitment to student success. And that's what our part of the budget is. I'm going to bring uh Miss Francisco up

037to talk about the nuts and bolts, which is really the financial piece and what we need to do other than the academics. Thank you, Mr. Rashika. Um, I have to start by saying the board of education has been extremely supportive of the um the different programs that these supervisors and principles have wanted to initiate over the last few years. Um, we're I I think that in many ways we're in a very good place. Uh, we have the wireless, we have a lot of technology now. We have uh almost all the new textbooks that we need with online components. We have level libraries in in the uh elementary schools. We've uh made a commitment to the um Columbia education uh Columbia College program for literacy. Um Mrs. West had brought into the non-fiction uh component with

038the um the elementary school uh classroom. So, we've really gotten a lot of support from the board of education over the last few years and it's it has been great for students. Um some of the other things that um are kind of a little bit boring because program is much more exciting than um like a part-time athletic trainer or replacing the buses um in our normal replacement cycle which are also parts of this this budget. Um uh but you know I'd rather listen to program. Uh, but one good thing that um I'm I'm hoping that the the board of education will be willing to support is the phase one of the high school auditorium renovation. Uh we were very very fortunate back in December um the the community supported the roof replacement uh for Mccapin

039and and West Milford High School. And we did bring in bids last week and next week um the board is going to have the opportunity to approve the recommendation of our architect and I could tell you that the bids came in very very well. So it's a very exciting time for West Milford. Um, and when we talked about the uh renovation of the high school roofs or replacements, we talked about perhaps using some of the fund balance or the excess fund balance that we knew we were going to have in order to start the auditorium renovation. The auditorium is a focal point not only of the high school but of the community itself. The the students use it basically throughout the day. We have some some gym classes in there because we don't have uh

040we only have one gym at the high school. So, a lot of the times they have like the the dance classes and things like that um that are on the stage at the um the high school. So, um, we we talked about possibly, um, when I talked to the architects and engineers, um, and they came in to take a look at the high school, they gave me a list of different things that needed to be accomplished. And, and naturally, that was a a pretty big number to swallow. But this here, I think, is a is a nice start, and it will give us um a step in the right direction. And um any future work is not going to be uh interrupting the things that we can accomplish with this. Uh the auditorium seating, the

041house lighting, the ceiling replacement. Um uh originally West Milford uh auditorium had a couple classrooms in the back of it. And um if you look at the the back of the ceiling, it's it's a little low at the back of the auditorium. So, we've actually talked about finding a way to improve the sighteline to the stage and eliminating that classroom aspect. So, um we're really looking to do a a nice cosmetic and um and and structural change to the auditorium so that we can really make it a focal point for the community and for the school. Um and then again we have like a few boring capital projects like um parking lot repaving and replacement and um replacing a fence at a fence at Monsonfield because it's really not um um what's in compliance, right?

042So uh and we don't want anyone getting hit in the head with a ball. So um we've done a lot over the last few years even with capital projects. We've replaced Marshall Hill roof. We replaced Westbrook's roof. We've replaced um three boilers. We've done a lot of paving projects. So, we've really tried to address a lot of the the the things that were lacking and the board has been so very supportive with with all of those um all of those uh things that we've attempted to do. So, now we talk about revenue. Um, one thing that, um, I struggled with this year was what the principles and supervisors were asking for because they kind of got used to having a lot more than they had in the past. So, I I have had to trim

043back some of their requests, and they're not getting all of the things that they've put on their wish list year after year. Um because quite honestly we're trying to be cognizant of the fact that you know the board is is frugal and they don't want to really increase the tax levy. So we've gotten a little bit extra money from the state of New Jersey this year. Surprise surprise. um they've uh given us an additional 3,00 $34,480 for uh professional learning communities. So that's why you can see an additional increase in our state aid number from last year. Extraordinary aid is basically an application that we have to submit um in in the spring and the governor decides whether he's going to fund and at what level. But um I've put an increase in only because

044we've had some uh new students move into town that um we believe are going to be able to uh that are going to need extraordinary services. So that the costs are going to be a little bit higher than what we're used to and so we're looking to um be able to hopefully get some reimbursement from the state a year from now for those particular students. Uh the fund balance that is our excess amount of money. Last year we put in 2,00 2,500,000. This year our excess surplus is $2,9574. and that basically we don't know from year to year what that is going to be. Um I have to say that a lot of that additional money has been because of the employee benefit contributions. Sorry, but that's the reality of it all and that is

045we've hit our tier 4. So I don't believe that that is going to increase in a large way in the future. Um, also we've been very frugal about how we spend our money. Um, the board only increased um the tax levy by $500,000 last year. Um, so they've been very concerned about the some of the costs. So, but we did have additional money left over and that by law has to go into support the 201617 budget. Our Medicaid reimbursement is something that um we get a number from the state. This is our target amount of money that we have to hit and so that's where that comes from. You've heard um Dr. McQuade talk about um Highlander Academy and we have one tuition student. We do have some special ed programs that we're now starting

046to get more tuition students in. We also run our run our prek program. Um, and we do have some general education students that do pay tuition to attend there. And so we have a small increase in what I anticipate our tuition to be. Miscellaneous revenue. Also, um, I did a three-year average of what our miscellaneous revenues have been, and I felt comfortable increasing that number to support the current, um, 201617 proposed budget. uh maintenance reserve, there's a $100,000 less. About three years ago, we had put away $500,000 into maintenance reserve and we've been withdrawing um on an annual basis from that amount of money. So, at this year, there was only $50,000 left. Uh in June, the board can determine if we're going to have um some fund balance, whether or not they want to

047refund that that maintenance reserve. certainly does help us um in trying to ease our our costs over school, you know, um over the budget cycles, but certainly that's up to the board. The uh tax levy recognizes a 2% increase from last year, which is the maximum that we're allowed to uh go up. Um, I have to tell you too that um, I've probably cut well over a million dollars from the requests that we did get because when we do get the initial request from the supervisors and principles, Mr. Novak, Dr. Mcuade, do uh, Mr. Rashika and I sit down and we determine basically what programs we want to put forward, what we don't really feel um, we could afford at this point in time. So the number that you see is basically where uh we

048felt comfortable in a presentation. Now how does that break down among our programs? Um you can see um I don't need to read each individual number but you can see um small increases across the board in each one of those areas that we try to track. Um, we've been trying to maintain our our costs or or restrict our costs and operations and maintenance and you can see that the increases is very minimal. We've recognized the fact that um we've made some efficiencies in our our natural gas and our electric and we've tried to incorporate that into our budget requests every year. So um you could see that um operations and maintenance has not increased that much. Um employee benefits we have um we're looking at uh preliminary number was a 10% increase on our health

049side and a 20 to 25% increase on our prescription side. That was when the we first started working with the budget in January. We're now down to an 8% increase on the health side and a 19% increase on the uh prescription side. Um we're hoping that you know it's not going to be that significant but unfortunately at this point in time we really can't um determine where it's going to be. And our capital outlay um we have m less projects this year. Naturally, the um the auditorium renovation is going to be the lion share of the capital projects. And when you look at the distribution of the revenues for the general fund, um that's that's the way it it it works its um way out. Uh what does this mean for our taxes? Um last

050year, uh the tax levy was $4,8298 for the average assessed home. Uh this year, um it is anticipated if the board does not reduce the 2% tax levy increase, it'll be $4,932.31 for the average assist home, which equals $1323. That's including debt service and debt service. Um, let me say that um, our debt service is a little less than it was last year. We had talked about retiring the balance of the debt. Mr. Feroli, our auditor, feels that that's really not necessary. We don't need to do that at this point. Uh, we will be looking to sell bonds in in June. Uh but the next payments uh won't be done. You know, when we build next year's budget for 1718, um it won't spike the debt service tax that that uh needs to be paid.

051Um you'll also notice that the roof replacement projects were not in here because they're not part of your your your budget. the um the roof replacements are a separate item that was already voted on with the uh referendum. So um at this time I'd be more than happy to entertain any questions from the board. Um just a reminder too that this preliminary budget as it's um shown again we have um the whole month of April in order to review and tweak and try to reduce the tax levy if that's what the board's desire is so that when we do a final bud budget presentation on April 26th I believe um it will be um as the board is comfortable full with any questions. Mr. Deber, I'm glad to see that the state out of our

052$74 million budget has contributed an additional $34,480 towards alleviating some of the pain. Thank you, New Jersey. Yeah, I'm glad it was that way and not the other way. Any questions, Mr. Foody? Um, a couple questions. Um the withdrawals from capital reserve and maintenance reserve what are they going to be used for? The maintenance reserve supports the maintenance budget which is you know the required maintenance that we have which is also tied to the comprehensive maintenance plan. The um capital reserve um is going to fund uh some of the paving projects that we have. And the only reason why I wanted to I I ended up using the capital reserve is because um we we took some of the pag paving projects out, but there was some that we wanted to leave in and um

053because I didn't want to take it from the program side of the the ledger. I took them out of capital reserve. Now, as we tweak the budget, um we could um you know, eliminate the capital reserve amount, but um some of the projects that we did use capital reserve for um like our boiler replacements, we will actually be putting money back into the capital reserve account because um it it was there was a savings. So, um, what we have coming up in the future, we definitely have the transportation remediation project. Where that's going, we don't know. We're still waiting for a report from our, um, our our professional an engineer, the LSRP. Um, we're we have our fingers crossed that it's not going to be as bad as we thought where we don't have to

054remove all that dirt. I don't know what the department of environmental protection is going to do, but I'm being optimistic and um that'll be something we cross in the 1718 budget. And that's what I was going to ask next. Um since we'll have a report probably by June, I guess. Hopefully. Hopefully. um the possibilities of this. Are we going to have to revisit or test again since we're waiting a year? Because I I would imagine that we do our tests. Are we going to continue to monitor this before we do something? The last conversation that I had with them, we've been monitoring for two years now. So, they have a pretty good indication of the the way things have been going over the two-year cycle. Um, from what they've told me, they plan on continuing

055with the monitoring. So, whatever plan they come up with is going to have to be approved by the D. So, it's not going to be able to be done quickly anyway because you can't upset transportation unless it's during the summertime. Is that that continuation of the monitoring, is that included in our budget? No. No. Where where I don't know if that needs to be done. I don't know if it's going to be part of our next year's budget cycle or not. They haven't said that. They have two years worth of tests right now that they're working on and they're work working on reviewing the results. So once the DP looks at whatever plan they put together and approve it, then we'll have to see what happens with it. Um certainly if it happens in 6

056months into the budget cycle, at that time we will review our budget and see if we have areas that we can pull from in order to fund whatever needs to be done. But I personally can't see us putting money aside for that. um with too many unknowns. Certainly, you have other avenues in order to to get the money. You could always do also do a resolution to to transfer money from Capital Reserve if if you really need it. But I I think I'm pretty comfortable with the fact that if we have to continue the monitoring, it's not as significant a cost as putting the wells in to begin with. So, Any other questions? I have a question, but it's not for you. Okay. For Mr. Novak. Okay. Dan, I'm sorry. Um, I had I had

057expressed concern about the freshman seminar class once before. Um, to me it seems like it's a redundancy of study skills and organizational skills where the kids should be getting this toward the end of elementary school and in the junior high. And I'm wondering why we can't make that freshman seminar class somehow related to the steam program. You said you wanted to infuse it a little at a time. So why there there's also some some steam related initiatives within the freshman seminar uh focusing on 21st century career readiness skills. That's part of it and um what else did I want to say? So that and the other thing I just want to clarify one thing the fundamentals math class is for students who do not meet the graduation requirement of the standardized testing. Yes. So they

058have to develop the portfolio and do correct. So this year we had we with the um park refusals or students who didn't qual get a qualifying score in park or qualifying assessment through PSAT, SAT, etc. We had a um number of students who didn't qualify to meet graduation rate. This is going to support that group of kids. One more question. Last one I promise. Are there only two AP placement classes? um in English. Would others be offered or is that all that's available at this point in time? That's all that's available. As as you saw, there was a um pretty wide scope and restructuring within uh the language arts language arts department. Uh at currently their offer is um AP English language and composition and then AP English literature and composition. And that's all that

059Okay. Okay. Thank you. at this point in time. Yeah. Can I just add to the uh I think Mr. in regards to the uh uh freshman seminar program. Um you're looking at it as the study skills and you're right, you're right about part of it, but I think that you have to realize and you know this uh that the most stressful time in adolescence uh educational careers moving into the freshman year of high school. Uh you will notice that students are having a difficult time. Their attendance will decline. Their interest and engagement in school will decline. And that's what we're trying to stop. We're trying to have that be someplace comfortable for them to work with teachers and other students to be part of the the actual community, the school community. So, we're hoping that

060that would enhance uh the engagement of students and helping them feel comfortable in a high school environment. So, that's another piece for that class. Um are they are they in place? Do you have benchmarks ready? I I believe they are in place and they're still developing though. We're still working on that program overall. Okay. Uh so hopefully it'll be something that can work. I know many school districts, they use that as part of their actual transition program to get students uh comfortable in high school. So, I'm hoping that that certainly would work here, too. Uh the other the other thing I just wanted to mention briefly is that I know that one of the things you're hearing about is this uh renovation of the high school auditorium. Uh as I said earlier, we are very

061fortunate to have the arts programs that we have here. Um and they deserve a better place to actually have performances. You know as well as I do, you've either had children involved in the program, you visit the high school, it's a big facility with lots of good things going on, but it's awfully dingy when you walk in there. And there's just a lot of help that it needs and we're just trying to get it to a place where all of us can be proud. The elementary schools can use it as well. And we have to keep in mind too that if this becomes what we're hoping that it does become, it can be another revenue source for the district. So that, you know, they always refer to me when I go to one of the

062county meetings. I'm the uptown. I'm the upount guy. There's not too much happening up county in the sense of looking at these types of programs. We we have this very strong program and outside of schools, there's lots of private companies, dance companies, musical companies, whatever the case may be. this can be a showcase for them as well. So hopefully we can bring in some some outside organizations and other school districts to come into West Milford. You know, we're not that far off of Route 23. I was having this discussion earlier with Dr. Pritchette. We're close off of 23. We're not that far from Ringwood and Monikue. And this area doesn't really have that type of facility. So certainly it would help us in in so many ways. I think it would help our students here,

063help the community. We can look at it even if uh the education foundation wanted to run a fundraiser and have some kind of a concert with a semi-name or one of those oldie groups to come on in to raise money, we'll have a facility to do that. And uh and I'm I'm thinking that this is the right direction to go. So, it's, you know, if we can afford to do it, uh I would suggest that we do it in one fell swoop as opposed to trying to peacemeal it because, you know, those projects by the time you get to the last part of the renovation, the first part's already obsolete. So, just keep that in mind. There's lots of positive things that can come out of that. So, I appreciate your listening to that. And

064uh any other questions for Miss Francisco or me or Mr. Novak? Okay. Thank you for listening. And thank you, Miss Francisco, for your uh hard work and putting all these numbers together and all the hours that you've worked. Very good. Okay. Legal report discuss legal issues. Okay. um president's report. I guess first first on the on the list would be where is he? Congratulations to Vivars the birth of his uh son. Congratulations. Um okay. uh let everybody know that that they should take the St. Patrick's Day parade. Our Highlander band will be marching in it. Um I'm I'm planning on going and watching that. That's going to be a lot of fun. Um our it was at Warren Hills uh school district. They had a jazz festival and the jazz ensemble took uh gold. It

065was a non-competitive competition, but the the jazz ensemble took uh gold and our jet band took silver. So I want to congratulate them. Well done. uh our music program continues to uh to perform. So, and I I just found out today they're going to be performing at Trumpets Jazz Club uh next Wednesday and evening. Yes, that's I know that. Right. Um yeah, I think Montlair Montlair. Yeah. Yep. Um let's see. superintendent roundt I I would like to um suggest and it's just a suggestion that um board members if they can try to attend um a meeting I think it would be a good opportunity for them to meet the PTA parents um so that they can get a feel for each one of the board members up here and and we get to know who

066they are. I think that uh it's a worthwhile preposition. Um so if if you can um contact the superintendent, let him know or you know let him know you'd like to attend and then and then pick a date. I'm I'm going to be doing that. So um I just think that's worthwhile to do that. Um, let's see. The roofs, as Barbara said, they came in considerably cheaper. Um, nearing me 25% less. So, that's a a win for the district and I think because of the size of the projects is uh is what did that for us. So, that's that's good. Um, I I would like to um have a discussion later with the board that the suggestion that Mr. Drew brought up about putting that grid in the roof to let us know when leaks

067occur so that we can go after a specific area instead of a bigger area. We'll know right where it is. It's it's grid. So, I'd like that discussion since we're saving so much money might not be a bad It's not part of the project. I know it's not part of the project, but I I would recommend that you speak to the architect about that. Yeah. No. And we need to have that. I think I'd like to have that discussion though. I think that's worthwhile. Um, we can't use that money though. What's that? We wouldn't be able to use that money, right, that we're saving. We'd have to vote on using additional monies. I I think that what you need to do is have a discussion with the architect. Yeah. Because it muddy the waters. Um

068you know when when petitioners also this is to the board when petitioners are addressing the board um it is imperative that we give them our undivided attention and respect. that I saw um at the last meeting that some people and I'm not saying any names were in paying the attention to that young lady who got up and and spoke. Um but we need to we need to respect the petitioners that that come up. Um and also our our attendance um we need to make every effort to attend all board meetings um besides board meetings, committee meetings. Um that's becoming an issue and I would like to uh have everybody's go ahead on that. Um so please to the board um or to the board members start attending the the meetings that you that you haven't

069been making. It would be be good for all of us. We need to work together. Everybody's got something to give in the discussion and without you being there we're missing what you have to offer. So please make all um efforts to attend the meetings. And with that going to go into petitioners petitions and requests. Um petitioners who have requested speak prior to the meeting will be first with 5 minutes for each petitioner for a period of 30 minutes and then time permitting. Other petitions and requests limited to 5 minutes per petitioner will be allowed until the 30 minute period transpires. Petitioners speaking during petitions and requests are asked to address topics listed for special action in the agenda. All speakers are asked to give their full name, spell their last name. Um it says provide

070their address, but I I've our policy says just town that you live in. You don't have to to give your address. So speakers may not use the names of students during petitioners and requests. Would anybody like to speak Mr. Sowitz? And I am pronouncing that right. Seowitz or Oh no, you just butchered it. If you want the real pronunciation, it's Satovich, but uh most people say Sidowitz. So, okay. Or you could just say Mr. C. Okay, here we go. Will Sidowitz, 694 Lakeshore Drive. Uh, first off, I want to say congratulations to the students that were a part of the high school musical and the the staff that was a part of it. What a fantastic time had by all. And as always, it's just a great tradition in the township to have. Uh, second

071thing is a little bit off topic. Um when I was watching the broadcast of the last meeting, if everybody could speak into the microphone, it is definitely difficult to hear when when people are watching on uh 77. I took some notes throughout the presentation of the budget and uh my first note is a quote. Prepare students for what they can expect in their lives. Now, Steam is a wonderful program, absolutely wonderful, but there have been many brilliant minds throughout all generations that have fallen to the wayside without financial savvy or at least a basic understanding financial savvy. And I know that there is one course in the high school that does uh confront the that part of knowledge. But I think that much more could be done in that regard because going through many my

072many years of high school being almost a professional student most people don't understand the basics of credit cards. Most people don't understand that their student loans are a hefty burden that they will have to pay or insurance of car insurance and health insurance that's understanding that I think should be provided at some point just something some food for thought and also when the discussion of colleges and university was brought up lest we forget Fay County community college does have programs and the state does offer things such as New Jersey stars where a talented student of the upper 2% in the class could very well take college courses at the age of 16. That's incredible. So going to my next uh notes about the Chromebooks, my I have a personal fear and things like that that

073those become obsolete much quicker than they get used. Not to say that it's a a a bad thing to have them because it's great to use technology, especially when it is new at the time, but there are other programs that I feel will stand the test of time like Excel and Word and uh you know just general typing classes that are a little miscellaneous in the workplace environment now. and to provide courses like that and utilization of those tools would absolutely benefit those students. And other than that, I would like to commend Mrs. Francisco for using the microphone because I heard you most of all and that was great. So other than that, thank you very much for your time. Thank you. Would anybody else like to speak? Seeing none, like to move to close

074petitions and requests. Second. Thank you. All in favor? I. Any opposed? Okay. Bob, we need to uh make a motion to adopt adopt the agenda as presented. Like to make a motion. The hand carries. I'd like to make a motion to adopt the agenda as presented, including the hand carries. Second do some um changes on some of the resolutions. Oh, yeah. Well, start again. Um c can I point out on uh personnel on the workshop uh discussion number 18 we're going to remove 18 because it talks about to be determined. Uh they've already been determined. So that is on your blue um hand carry which would be number 10. Okay. So we have a number 10 and a number 11. So 18 is removed from the workshop portion and has been moved to the uh

075actual uh take action special action. No under work workshop discussion. Okay. Yeah, it's been this has been uh also number 16 on workshop um discussion personnel under budget and finance number 16 on budget finance workshop the date of February 23rd should actually be March 22nd for the uh Could you repeat that please Mrs. San Francisco page number eight. Uh number 16 on page eight. Okay. Should be March 22nd. Thank you. Yes. That'll be for after session. individual involved. It's all right. The motion was what? Rescended. Okay. To make another one. Sure. I'd like to make a motion to adopt the agenda as presented, including the hand carries and the modifications that was just presented to the board and to the public. Second. Okay. All in favor? I Okay, Mr. Drew, we have um two items

076under budget and finance uh for special action tonight. Would you like to move item number one? Second to award a contract singer equipment. Second. Any discussion? Seeing none local call vote, please. Mr. Huber, yes. Miss O'Brien, yes. Mrs. Yes. Mrs. Schulz, yes. Mr. De, yes. Mr. Bailey, yes. Mr. Drew, yes. Mr. Foody, yes. I would like to move item number two which is to adopt the preliminary budget. Uh this is the hand carry. Second. Thank you Debbie. Welcome. Um discussion. I would like to make a motion to amend this. Um, and what I would like to do, can you use your microphone so the Sorry, that's all right. I know you got a deep booming voice, but a little bit helps. That's fine. I would like to uh make a motion to amend the preliminary

077budget. And what I would like to do here is to remove some of the capital outlay for the auditorium uh in the amount of 1.22 find the exact amount here in a second. Uh 1.22460 million. Um that will leave um some of the items in the capital outlay. uh specifically putting AC in uh also putting the uh uh roof I'm sorry ceiling repairs in and uh amounts for the 15% for contractor fees uh 23% for architect fees um and uh uh then postpone the remainder of the repairs for the auditorium uh for a future time. And if I can, I'd like to discuss a little bit about why I'd like to do this. I'll second that. The principal issue, well, several issues. Uh for those people who are paying attention, Payic County pays the highest

078rate of property taxed income of any county in the entire United States. That's all of them. All 50 states, territories, and every county in New Jersey. Um what happens here with West Milford is that we have uh over the last 15 years raised taxes, property taxes in the school board at about the rate of three times inflation. Um and of course inflation is less. Now most people know but we're limited in our growth. uh now by the Highlands Act. There are various reasons, but this increasing tax burden falls on the 26,000 people, slightly less that have been here for the last 15 years and that are going to be here for the next 30 years or whatever. We have a little under 10,000 properties and uh uh this increasing tax burden has gone on those

079same people through that time which is squeezing harder and harder and harder. No ability to grow at all. Uh inflation itself is uh not particularly high. Uh the most uh recent estimate is.57%. Uh and over last year as those people who were senior citizens who live on social security know there was no increase in social security. So we keep increasing the tax burden and we're just squeezing harder and harder on the same people. And uh while many people in West Milford are doing just fine, some people are not. They're hurting. We have a lot of foreclosures as a result. Uh if we make this amendment, this would result in, by the way, this preliminary budget, so we can change this. But this would result in no in tax increase uh from the school board. and

080in fact would would result in a slight return um I think maybe around a quarter of a percent. The voters trusted us to issue bonds to repair our roofs and so we're going to make $6 million in capital improvements and I just don't feel like we should pile on with that. We need to be honest with them about whether we need the money or not. Um, you know, it would be nice to make those improvements, but I would rather space that out over time instead of just hammering them with another maximum tax increase. Recently, Paya County increased the pro their portion property taxes by 1.6%. And said they didn't really need it. There wasn't anything in particular they were going to spend it on, but it would make our bond ratings a little better. I

081don't think that we ought to squeeze the taxpayers to make improve our bond ratings. Just doesn't seem like a worthwhile thing for me to do. Now, the important part here is we would only be cutting the rate of improvement in the auditorium. We'd still get the air conditioning. We still get the ceiling fixed. some of the other things. Uh we'll just wait. Doesn't mean we're not going to do them. We're just not going to add another $2 million of capital improvements on top of the $6 million uh to repair the roofs. This would involve absolutely no cuts to academic programs. All of the things that we've seen here that I think are excellent ideas um will continue. There's still plenty of slack in the budget. And uh what I'd like to do is a hand

082out. I went over all of the accounts. And what I did was compare what we have spent in the past versus what we have budgeted. Um and there are several accounts where we consistently budget more than we spend. which is fine. You want to be careful about that. We don't want to run out of money. Um, however, there's some places where we consistently do that. Thank you. For example, uh we are again budgeting more than we need I think in uh oil and natural gas. Uh we are budgeted in the last uh not last year but in the previous year we overbudgeted um health benefits overestimated how much that was going to cost us by almost a million $900,000 years in a row. Now we're going to spend what we need to on health benefits.

083That's a very important part of what we need to do for the citizens. Um, and there there are a number of other areas. I've just included the first two pages here. Um, but actually when I looked at the whole thing, I had including the capital um little short of $6 million. So I think even if we do this, we will not be cutting the budget to the bare bones at all. We're doing all the things we need to do to improve that thing. Um and I think there's still slack there in that budget. There's still extra money. So we'll wind up with an excess surplus again next year. uh even if we do this, we're just slowing down the rate of improvement in the auditorium. Now, one of the things that to me is kind

084of important of that is we've got engineering feed in there and we're going to replace the walls and the um seats and the carpet. I think that we should have an acoustic engineer look at that to make sure that everything is baffled correctly. We have some of the greatest facilities in the entire world in this area. Carnegie Hall, Metropolitan Opera, New York Phil Harmonic. If we're going to make these changes, let's design them by somebody who knows how to do that in a way that will really make this a first class facility. So, I'd like to delay that. Um, there's still lots of improvements in here. parking lots, paving, new parking spaces, new band equipment. Um, I'm not going to go through all of it. I personally am absolutely committed to improving academics in Westminster

085and I think we're on a good pace to do that and nothing about slowing the pace of improvements in the auditorium will in any way impact that. Uh and then finally, uh as we've been told, this is a preliminary budget. If we need to change this, we can. The way I propose this, I think there are only a couple of items in the budget that you have to change at all. So, it should be something that's fairly quick to do. That's all I have to say. Thank you, Mr. Deborah. Um this is to the board president. Uh I guess we're going to amend 1 1.2 million 1.2 22460 out of the budget of 75974583 which would bring us down to 7475523 if my numbers are correct. That's what I got. Republic um I look I

086agree with uh trying to reduce the taxes. Uh if you read Huff Post, New Jersey is the number seven state out of 50 where we're most likely to live paycheck to paycheck. Um food, health care costs, utilities, it cost people a lot of money. It's not easy to make it to New Jersey. Um West Milford, I I haven't heard anyone come up to me yet and say, "Listen, I want you to raise my taxes. I appreciate it. Please make my taxes higher so we can spend more money." I haven't had that yet. So, um I have to I'm fiscally conservative, but I got to agree with uh some of the reductions. And again, it is preliminary and we're going to hash this out, but hopefully we can come on to the side of an actual

087reduction that would be fantastic if we could. Thank you, Mr. Um while I extremely admire Mr. Drew's due diligence in looking at the budget. Um my feeling is is that this is just preliminary. He you've brought a lot of good things for us to look at. I just feel that it's so overwhelming that I need time to digest everything and to work towards a positive solution for for both the taxpayers and for our community, educational community as well. Um, I also want to know I work for the county welfare and if you think an education's expensive, ignorance is even more. Thank you. Anybody else like to speak before we vote? Can I have that number again that you want to reduce the budget? The total budget instead of 75974583 will become 74750523. The actual number

088of the reduction is 1.22460 million. 122460. Yes. Anybody else have anything to say? Mr. Bailey, what's the next vote on Mr. Drew's amendment? The amendment. On the amendment. Okay. I'll weigh in on that subject. I'll be voting against the amendment. to your microphone, please. Sorry. What I'm troubled by is that I'm not really aware of Mr. Drew's qualifications other than him being an elected public servant, a dedicated person, and a hard worker. But when we come in here from different walks of life as elected servants, I don't think anybody here is an accountant. I could be mistaken. and we just willy-nilly come up with a spreadsheet and circumvent undercut the hard work that's going on during a period of many months to craft a budget to present it here tonight. In other words, it's like

089cutting the rug right from underneath our administrators. I've sat here for my entire career on the board of ed and said the same following statement and I don't know if it resonates with the public but they continue thank God to send me back to office and I say the following. I'm not happy about the tax increase, but one thing I know about in West Milford, and I'm even coming around to the municipal side of things, but I know on the BOE side of things, every penny that's raised is spent here wisely. And I know for a fact because I've been on the trail for many years now, visiting various school districts, etc., that what we do here is nothing short of a miracle. Not only is it a a a way station, a a place

090for everybody to realize their dreams, every student here in West Milford, it's by far the largest employer in this town. So, we're really running two separate entities. And yes, it costs money year in year out. And although we'd love to have a reduction or a flat line, I don't know how it's possible. But what I do know is that every year when the voters entrust us to oversee this budget, even going back to the good old days when one year was voted down and one year was voted up, now we're allowed by law. Thank goodness as long as we stay within the cap, we can approve the budget and move on to bigger fish to fry. So, as usual, it's like a broken record. I'll be voting yes on the budget. I thank our BA,

091our superintendent, our director of education, and all those behind the scenes that work long and hard to put this document together. And for for us to sit here and undercut it in one fell swoop, I'm not comfortable with it. I'm going to shut up, but I'm voting against the amendment because I think it's strange to say the least. Um, just for the record, um, Mr. Drew has been certified by the New Jersey State Department of Education to be a, uh, business administrator. I It might not be, but he's been certified with this by the state. I just wanted to point that out to Mr. Bailey, Mr. De. Yes. Um, as far as knowledge, Mr. Bell, it is true that we're we're not certified accountants, but it is up to the board to either approve or

092deny the budget as presented to the board. It is up to the accountants and the VA to figure out where we stand on money, how much we're going to spend, and keep the district going forward. This is not an easy decision for me personally because, you know, we're on both sides. Do we want to ask the taxpayers for more money and be flush with money or can we sharpen it up a little bit and keep it, you know, reasonable or or no increase or whatever the case may end up. In the end, this is preliminary. But I still think that, you know, in the end, it's up to the board to approve or deny it based on what our VA and accountants have told us. So, we'll be making a decision. I hope not to

093see an increase in the budget. I think we can sharpen up a little bit. Preliminary. We'll see where it goes. Hold on one second cuz Mrs. O'Brien needs to make a motion. I'd like to make a motion because it's 9:00 to extend our meeting till 9:30 p.m. the executive session till 9:30. Thank you, Glenn. All in favor? I I Any opposed? No. Okay. Um, real quick, Ron, you had your hand up. Yes. One of the many reasons that I I ran for um position of a board trustee is because I felt that in the past there's been too much of a practice of rubber stamping things and I think it's as board trustees it's our duty to look at these things and discuss them and come out with a uh you know an opinion that

094an informed opinion that we can then base our vote And this is the kind of discussion that that we need. I want to thank Mr. Drew for his time put into reviewing the budget. I want to thank Miss Francisco for her time in creating the budget. But I think discussion like this is healthy. Okay. Mr. Drew, you uh since my bonafites were questioned, um just to correct that, I'm certified as being eligible by the state of New Jersey to be a business administrator. I don't have the actual work requirement. I don't have anywhere near the knowledge of our business administrator. Uh I have a master's in business from Carnegie Melon University um in the accounting area in uh Pittsburgh and I have worked extensively with corporations in America to help them analyze their costs like

095Honda, AMD, Pittsburgh Plate Glass on and on and on years and years. I'm only looking at one area, auditorium improvements. I think that we're doing an excellent job of creating academic programs and I don't in any way want to hurt our academic programs or special education programs or anything else. I just think this is and nor saying we're not going to do the auditorium improvements. We're just going to slow them down. Had the voters not entrusted us with the referendum, we wouldn't be discussing this at all. all of the money that we have a maximum tax increase would go to the roofs for the next several years. They've trusted us and I think we should be careful with their money and make these improvements over a couple of years. Mr. Bailey, you had your hand

096up a few minutes ago. Did you want to say something? Yes. I wanted to thank you for what turned out to be a misclification of my colleague resume. So, thank you for that uh information. And uh I was thinking about one other thing. You know, sometimes we have a tendency to go after these facility type issues and say, "Well, we can get by another year," which is true, but that's settling. And unlike Direct TV, I'm not a settler. Okay. I've also been a person who over the years has led groups of concerned uh citizens. um generally associated with sports groups, too bad, guilty. But they put their money where their mouth is. They've not only done that, they put their time and effort where their mouth is. And they've taken upon themselves financially and using

097their various business acumen to get things done. And I was part of those types of groups. And I love that kind of stuff because there's certain things around here that I drive by every day I'm here. And you can't take it away from me. And I know the people that were right there with me. I wasn't necessarily a leader. I'm more an Indian than a chief. But we got her done. And it cost us money and it cost us time and effort. Facility upgrades. Here's an opportunity. Our superintendent has visions of on his way out the door cuz he's a short-timer. Turning our auditorium into some kind of an upount cultural center. What a wonderful idea. uh those of us that attend the play or go to various events here. Again, what goes on here

098is literally second to none. So, what we're doing as a board and what you're doing as a BA is proposing a budget that takes this, you know, theater, if you will, this stage, this center uh piece, and polishing it up. The building's 40 years old. I think it's money well spent. I'll be voting against the amendment and I can't say I can pull off a project of that magnitude by myself because it's a way above my pay grade. But that's the problem around here. We're responsible as trustees for being fiscally responsible and also for making sure that the infrastructure does not fall apart. And if we let this go another year, yes, we can address it down the road. But I think the time is now. And again, hang on a second. Let me gather

099my thoughts before I say something. We're not even at the park where we have the turf field, a multiaceted, multi-use facility that's surrounded by bleachers that are 40 years old. We haven't even got to that part where we've talked about upgrading McCormic Field for when we have our graduation, for when we can have a band festival, for when we can host different sporting events. The foundation is there. I did it. I put the turf in and helped spearhead that effort. It's there. Now, we have work to do around the outside of that field and we don't do it. And the auditorium is the same thing. I do not support this kind of talk and I'm troubled by it having been on this board for 20 years. That's it. No more. Go ahead, J. Yeah. I

100just wanted to give Barber some credit. I know this is an enormous undertaking putting together a $75 million budget. you look at district budgets, 75 million is one probably at the top of New Jersey. It's a huge budget and there's a lot that goes into this. Um I'm just suggesting that we because it's preliminary, we look into what we can do that will not affect education but still keep costs under control. And I appreciate everybody's input and I think we're going to hash this out and appreciate. Thank you. comment. Yeah, go ahead. To say that I'm disappointed is an understatement. Not only because um last year we talked about the preliminary budget as it was presented and then we worked toward reducing the tax levy in April. But Mr. Drew, I spent time with you

101yesterday and I explained to you both sides of the story. And yet you still come from the floor to do this instead of giving your board members, your your your peers, your colleagues time to hash this out through the month of April. When you have a surplus of funds like we did this current year that's going into this budget, you will affect academic program next year. You bring up the fact that we had over a million dollars or about a million dollars in health benefits that was not extended. I spoke to you yesterday about that and I told you that the employee benefit contribution and I have not hid that from anyone. I have mentioned that many times that the employee benefit contribution has helped to create the surpluses that we've had over the last

102couple of years which have given us an opportunity to do a lot of things that were lacking in this district. So by under not knowing what our employee benefit contribution was, yes, we did have a million dollars. However, we put $2.3 million in employee benefit contributions in this budget that's being presented tonight to offset the actual cost of employee benefits. So, we've been trimming our costs. Last year, we took over 500,000 out of the tax levy. It was my expectation that through the month of April, we would look for other avenues to reduce and not have a 2% tax levy increase, but you would have the opportunity and take the time to make thoughtful decisions. I can tell you that if you don't do a capital project and you put $1.2 million into the budget

103above what's already being financed into the general fund budget, then next year you will have a hole and next year you will be raising taxes or you will be cutting program. That's what I have to say. Mr. Whatever. I just wanted to get clarification for the vote on this amendment so I'm clear so I vote correctly. Um whether this amendment passes or not, we can still adjust the budget as needed. Is that correct? Till April 26th. And that's what we did last year. We reduced the budget last year. It's a little bit more difficult to increase. I'd like to call a question. Well, Mr. Rashika wanted to say something. Yeah. Mr. Drew. Yes, I'm also surprised at the the last minute, you know, taking place at the board meeting after there have been several discussions.

104But my bigger question is, uh, looking at this amount of money, how much are we actually saving each taxpayer in the and in the community, I'm sure you've you figured that out. You're very thorough with your numbers. What would be the average savings per household? Well, 103 plus about another 20 bucks. So 123 to So $23. This would be the $23 savings to the taxpayer. Thank you. And I I I want to I want to say something. Um you know, normally in years past, we received a budget in February. We had a whole month to discuss this. This was thrown in our laps a week and a half ago. and this is the time to discuss it. It's unfortunate that we got it so late or these discussions could have been had already. Um, so

105you know, with that being said, I mean there I I have a lot of questions on the budget. I've gone through things besides Mr. Drew. Um, so I mean, and we've talked about in committees things that we would like to do that would save us substantial money. Um, so we have plenty of time to still discuss this and when we adopt a final budget in April, but um, you know, I I there's some frustration on our part as well as we know that there's frustration on your part, Barbara. So, um, just you know, it'll it'll uh it'll be it'll be okay. One more history lesson. A number of years ago, we had to have the budget completed by the end of March. that no longer is statutoily in effect, which gives us some additional time

106to work on it. Which is why the preliminary budget and the four weeks, five weeks, 6 weeks almost until the final budget is adopted is something that's new. It's been in effect the last two years and it's something that the board has been able to take advantage of. I just want to say last year we got our budget February 13th, our preliminary budget. That's Go ahead, Glenn. All right. I have a couple questions for Barbara. First, I'd like to say please don't take this as a personal slight. This is us having due diligence in my opinion is what it looks like to me. Um, sorry. F first question is, um, you said it's harder to add money back to the budget for employment. Why? Everything has to go down to the county superintendent. This budget's

107going to be approved by them. Um, if we add money to it, they look a bit closer. Got it. All right. Second question is, how much money did we have left over last year out of the budget? How much did we not spend? Once again, you're allowed to keep 2% or you're required to keep almost 2% for fund balance. The $2.9 million which I have put up there is excess money. Right? That's the total excess out of our entire budget. That was excess surplus that was identified in the audit. Okay. We put a couple hundred,000 into um capital reserve. That was a conversation that the board members had. But $2.9 million was our excess surplus. And when you take excess surplus, which is a variable from year to year, you cannot be guaranteed that you're

108going to have it from year to year, and you use it to support your academic program, chances are really good that you're going to have a hole in your funding and you will have a problem supporting your academic program in the future. That's it. Mr. last bit and then recall on a question that we're going way too long. Yeah, that's all I wanted to say is um it may be easier I guess to cut the budget preliminary budget than it is to add from what I'm gathering from this discussion real quick. And the other thing is I know this is a heated discussion and we're all excited about this and passionate about this but we've got to put aside personal feelings here. We got to just talk about business and be done with it. Let's

109move forward. I have a question. Terry, you haven't spoken. Go ahead. Okay. I'm sorry. Um, I have a question. If we're only taking money from the auditorium renovations, how is that going to affect academics? What's going to happen is your excess surplus $2.9 million. If you don't use it for a capital project, which is the one pro like you won't need that money next year because the project will be done. If you use that money to support your academic program, which is a continual expense every year, then you don't know what you're going to have next year and you will have a hole in your academic program. So when you have excess surplus, the safest thing to do is a project that you've been putting off or that you want to take care of because

110next year you don't need the money that you're using the excess surplus. You don't need to do that project again. Do you follow what I'm saying? So that if you use the money that's excess to support your general fund your programs, that's a reoccurring expense every year. You're going to end up maybe not good good chance you won't have the money to support the programs that you have, the teachers that you have. And so you're going to either have to raise taxes again next year and you'll have that ability because you'll have bank cap, but do you really want to spike your tax levy like that up and down? I and I have another question. I'm very surprised. I did go through the the budget and I did I you know carefully looked at what

111needed to be done and I was very surprised that the bleachers were not included in it. if you um go up to those bleachers and I have my friends and I, you know, we walk just about every night in the summer and and I watch people actually climbing the doing the exercises with, you know, this the steps. God forbid somebody falls through one of those bleachers. You know, I don't understand why we're not addressing that issue. I I think that's a little bit more important than than the seats in the auditorium. That's just me. That's, you know, I've brought up the bleachers a number of times and I've not gotten the support for the um to do a a feasibility study or a structural analysis in order to replace them. I brought them up a

112couple of times. Just I'm sorry, maybe you can clarify something. Going back to Terry's original question. Aren't all the academic programs already budgeted? Aren't all the academic costs already budgeted? But if you remove the cost from the auditorium and reduce your tax levy, then you're not going to h need how do I how do I explain it? You have a pot of money and part of that money is your excess surplus. And with that excess surplus, we're supporting a capital project that you only need to do once. It's one shot deal. You'll never do it again. you don't have to worry about having that money next year. But if you take all that money and you reduce your tax levy, so now all that money is going to support your academic program, you're going to

113have a hole because you don't know what your excess surplus is going to be next year. It might only be a million dollars. So you've just taken almost 2.9 and put it into your academic program. If you only have a million left, you got 1.9 that you got to make up. The only way you can make it up is by raising taxes or cutting program. There's no other way to do it or or getting some kind of windfall. My my concern again, I go back to uh we're saving $23 in taxes for the average homeowner in the town for one year and then probably going up $60 the next year. I I just don't know how that works. But is that $23 based on the average cost of $247,000 for the house? So if you

114have a house that's worth 500,000, it's going to be it's not market value, it's assessed value. What's your assessment? So if your house is assessed at 400,000 or 500,000, then it's twice as much. So it's $40 a year. I'm going to call the question on the amendment. I think we need to move the the meeting forwards now. 10 minutes before. Okay. I We're probably going to add We're going to add So, I'd like to call the question on the amendment, please. Okay. So, we have a second. Yep. Uh Steve made the motion. Um Terry Terry did the uh second. The second um and this is What we're going to vote on a yes vote would be to reduce the budget by 1,224,000. What? 224,60. Yeah. So 1,2460. Roll call, please. Mr. Bailey. No, Mr. Del.

115I'm going to vote no for this. I'll have an explanation on the on the budget, the preliminary one. I don't want to give us constraints uh cost constraints at this time. So I'm going to vote no. Mr. Drew. Yes. Mrs. Dwire. Yes. Mr. Foody. Yes. Mr. Hubert. I I want to air on the side of fiscal conservatism. So, I'm going to say yes. Mr. O'Brien? No. Mrs. Schulz? No. This is a working document. We still have time to discuss where we want to make cuts, if any at all. It's a tie. It fails. Yep. Okay. All right. I can I have a uh do we need any more discussion on the the motion as the original motion as presented? No like Steve made the motion. Debbie made the second on the original motion. Correct. Correct.

116Um since nobody since there is no discussion, can I have a roll call vote please? Mrs. Francisco, Mr. Yuber abstain. This O'Brien. Okay. This is the original motion. Thank you. Just double checking. Yes. Mrs. Dwire. No. Mrs. Schulz. Yes. Mr. De. I'm going to vote yes for this, but I'm going to tell you guys right now. I I I voted the budget increase down last year, and I'm probably going to vote it down this year. We're going to have to look into this budget closely, but at this point, I vote yes because it's preliminary and we'll see where we go with it. I'd like to see a zero increase. Thank you, Mr. Bailey. Yes. Mr. Drew, yes. Mr. Foody, no. And we will work in the month of April to reduce it. Okay. I didn't

117find you. What's that? Pick up the whole meeting, Steve. Thank you. Um, Mrs. O'Brien, special action on personnel and student affairs. Let's see how quickly we can get through this. Boys and girls, I have items 1 through nine, hand carries 10 through 11 under special action personnel, student affairs. Second, page three. Yep. Uh, any discussion about this? Seeing none, roll call vote, please. Mrs. Dwire, yes. Mr. Bailey, yes. Mr. Drew, yes. Miss O'Brien, yes. Mr. Mr. Schultz, yes. Mr. Yuber, yes. Mr. De, yes. Mr. Yes. That concludes personnel student affairs. Mrs. Dwire, education, please. Okay. Move to um move to vote on the next of these two items. And we have item three on our hand carry which is we'll vote on after. Okay. Second. Any discussion? Mr. Mr. Hubert. Number one. Uh the rearrangement

118of the calendar. Does that include dealing with the June primary day? I know the Paradise No parents were concerned about security and does that. Yeah. Uh if we're talking about this coming this coming June, uh no, that's not part of that. We are looking into increasing the security as we have discussed at committee meetings. Um these days would be the um day after Easter, Easter Monday, the Friday before um Memorial Day and also taking 3 days off the end of the school year so we can finish uh the school year on June 21st as opposed to June 24th. All right. We're discussing dealing with security. We if we're not going to leave a day to avoid the conflict of the voting with the school, we have to do security. Yeah, we substantial security. Yeah, we

119talked about having two security guards. I mean, one of the issues we had was we weren't comfortable with the one person and what was happening there. Uh so we're looking for more uh two people a little bit more enforceful and doing what they're supposed to do. So that's what we're looking police officers. Uh I would like to one special was fine with me as long as we can possibly have one regular police officer on a special assignment. Okay. And and just for the board um we discussed about this you know having more security but for the um November election school will be closed on election day. So cuz it's going to be a I'm sure a crazy this is a strange election year. No vote on the calendar yet, right? Really vote on the calendar

120for next year. It's been recommended. Can I get a copy of the um Can board members get a copy of that um calendar before we vote on it, Mr. Rash? Yeah, we will. Uh we just had the updated version come to us. So, I will share that with everyone. Okay. Prior to Yeah. Yeah. We we approved that in the committee and uh it'll be coming to the board. Okay. Uh, Mr. Drew work shop. Um, no, we have to vote. We have to vote. Oh, I'm sorry. Okay, I can't read. Wanted to roll call, please. Barbara, Mrs. Schultz, yes. Mr. Drew, yes. Mrs. Yes. Mr. O'Brien. Yes. Mr. Huber. Yes. Mr. Bailey. Mr. De. Mr. Foody. Yes. No, he did. Mr. Bailey left at 9:25. He's in the hall. He's in the hallway. Oh, he did

121come. Okay. I thought he left. He's He comes. No, he's in the hall. He comes and goes as he pleases. I thought he left again. Can we move on, please? Um, workshop discussion, uh, budget and finance. Mr. Chair, the items for the regular meeting are as proposed here. You're not going to read through them? No. At the end of that question. Are there any questions on any of these items? Um, number two, uh, terms of lease to purchase. I'm showing my my newness on the the bus purchases. Yes. It's a 5year lease purchase term. Yes. So, what is that? You're basically leasing. We we buy we buy the we buy the buses and we pay them out over a 5year period and we're technically leasing them to purchase them. It it's essentially a finance program

122but for school purposes helping purchase at the end of five years we own it. We own the buses and there's nothing more. No more you just don't have to pay the pay it all at one time. Thank you. And um if it's okay with the board, we're going to have a resolution because we we have to put this motion in uh at the next next week so that we can get them in production. Okay. And I would just like to point out um that was pointed out earlier on item 16, that's not February 23rd, that's March 22nd. Right. Um Mrs. O'Brien, you want to Sure. So, I have 23 items that are here to you for you this evening um that will be voted on next week. And I would also want to say publicly

123that uh we're losing two very wonderful people over at Makipin. Uh Melissa Cavanino and William Grryer. They both work with both my children back in the day and um outstanding people in the in our district and I am sorry to see them leaving. Any questions on any of those items under personnel? Yep. Number 15. Were any of those from math instructors? Um I believe we have a shortage. Yeah, we do have a shortage. I I would have to look back. I don't know off the top of my head to look at their resumes. Okay. Like I don't think Yeah, it's very difficult. We've been trying throughout the county to get math instruction and that's one of the hardest ones to get. So, we are working on it. Okay. Okay. And number 18 under personnel was

124removed. You voted on that tonight. Correct. Right. All right. I'm sorry. Yeah. Thank you. Uh Mrs. Dwire, education. We have the following five items are presented for anticipated action at the regular meeting March 22nd. Any questions? Seeing none, um what I would like to do is extend executive uh session um till 9:40. Um I'll make that motion. You just got to go through all the new business. Yeah. No, you mean regular session, not executive session, right? Well, yeah. Executive session until You got it. We need a second. I will second it. You're welcome. Okay, now we have to vote on it. Yep, I know. I I know. Thanks, Joe. Yes. We vote. All in favor? I. Any opposed? No. Okay. Any old business? Anything under old business? Seeing none, like to move to close old

125business. Need a second. Thank you, Jamie. Okay. Um, all in favor? I. Any opposed? Okay. New business. Anything under new business? Mrs. W. At the education committee, I had asked Mr. Novak and Mr. Aika if they could get some kind of feedback on the new SAT that came out. Um, did you hear anything from guidance or the kids or We haven't received the feedback yet. We're waiting to hear it from guidance. All right. Thank you. The the important thing is we didn't hear anybody screaming and yelling that it was terrible. So that's that's good. Good thing I just just curious. All right. Th for those of you not aware of it, the uh new SATs are uh set up pretty much the same way as park is. So it is uh online and uh you

126know it's just set up in the same format. So, we're waiting to get some feedback and we're curious to see how the scores come back on this as well. Anything else under new business? Seeing none like to close news new business. Second. Thank you Jamie. All in favor? I opposed. Okay. Petitions and requests. Petitioners who request to speak prior to the meeting will be first with five minutes for each petitioner for a period of 30 minutes and then time permitting. Other petitions in request limited to five minutes per petitioner will be allowed until the 30 minute period transpires. All speakers are asked to give their full name, spell, or last name. We don't need your address but what town you live in. Speakers may not use the names of students during petitions and request. Anybody

127like to speak? We have Mr. Mr. Perooi and Miss Farooqi that would like to speak. I don't see them. Okay. Anybody else like to speak? Seeing none like to close petitions and requests. Okay. Second. Second. Thank you, Jamie. All in favor? I opposed. Okay, it is now 9:34. I need a motion to go into executive session. I'd like to make a motion go into executive session for the purpose of discussing the superintendent search personnel negotiations and matter of attorney client privileges and hibs. And thank you. You're welcome. Second. I'll second it. All in favor? I opposed and we will be voting on the head when we come out of I got to get up with stretch. Sorry. It's okay. 1049. Um motion to extend the meeting to 11:00 because we have a 10:00 limit now.

128Let's um we can get through this in a couple minutes. Just making a point. Um we have uh Terry the resolution for the HIV. Okay. Um move to approve the um PIP discussed in executive session. Second as as presented. As presented. Second. Terry, I mean Bevy. Um any discussion? Seeing none. Barbara vote. Yes. Mrs. Yes. Mr. Yes. Mr. Schultz. Yes. M O'Brien. Yes. Mr. Yes. Okay. Um Abby. Yes, sir. The 12 and 13 are all all yours. Thank you so much. I'd like to make a motion to approve the items number 12 and 13. The hand carries that were discussed in executive session under personnel. under personnel student affairs. I'll second it. Second. Make second. Um any discussion were on the agenda for the public? Yes. Yes. And we were there for discussion. Thank you,

129John. Um any any discussion? Yes, please. Can we We're not altering either. All right. She wants to get it. Mr. Ryan. Yes. For 12 and 13. Mr. Drew. Yes. Mrs. Dwer. Yes. Mrs. Schulz. Yes. Mr. Huber. Yes. Mr. Yes. On 12. I'm standing on 13. Motion to adjurnn. second. You can um I have a motion to adjurnn by Mr. Drew. And that was Oh, you got one more. Did we do that? What is that? Darn it. Yeah, we did that. Okay. So motion by Mr. Drew, seconded by Mrs. Dwire to adjourn the meeting at 10:53. All in favor? I Any opposed? The meeting is officially adjourned. Thank you everyone. Thank you. Nobody messed you up, Barbara. I'm sorry.