Hillsborough Board of Education - March 23, 2026

001Good evening. Welcome to the March 23rd, 2026 meeting of the Hillsborough Township Board of Education. Mr. Eckert, would you take the roll, please? Mr. Erkrance? Ms. Jackson? Here. Ms. Craig? Here. Ms. Lanigan-Beuter? Here. Mr. Marini? Here. Ms. Nurse? Here. Ms. Stats? Here. Mr. Hill? Here. And Mr. Davis? Here. And we have a quorum. And I didn't read the call to order, which I shall. In accordance with the state's Sunshine Law of New Jersey, adequate notice of this meeting of the Hillsborough Township Board of Ed was provided on January 6th to the Hillsborough Beacon and the Courier News. Uh I'd like a motion to move to executive session. So moved. Second. All in favor? Aye. Yes, I'll read the I uh Yeah, just state it here again. Whereas the Open Public Meetings Act, Chapter 231 of

002the Laws of 1975, provides that a public body may exclude the public from the portion of the meeting of which the public body discusses certain matters in which confidentiality is required as permitted in Section 7B of the Act. Resolved by the Board of Education of the Township of Hillsborough in the County of Somerset in the State of New Jersey as follows: The matter to be discussed is a personnel matter. The matters discussed in executive session shall be disclosed to the public when the need for confidentiality no longer exists. So, we may be excused to executive session. >> Mhm. >> Andrea is a sophomore. Yes. Abby's a freshman and junior. >> Yeah. And you're a freshman on varsity, right? >> Yeah. She just got her varsity jacket today. >> That's so exciting. How are you? Yeah.

003We get shifted around. Andrew's over there next to Jerry. Yeah, just it's just this meeting and the next meeting. It's a lot of budget talk today, right? I looked at the I looked at the all budget. Yep. A teenager might >> Welcome to the March 23rd, 2026 meeting of the Hillsborough Township Board of Education. Mr. Eckert, would you please take the roll? Mr. Argraves? Here. Ms. Jackson? Here. Ms. Krab? Here. Ms. Lanning-Bieder? Here. Mr. Merlini? Here. Ms. Nurse? Here. Ms. Stats? Here. Mr. Trujillo? Here. And Mr. Davis? Here. Let's say the Pledge of Allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and for all. Uh there's uh correspondence is listed on the agenda. And uh

004we have the board president's report. And we'd like to begin the evening with a proclamation. Uh this has been recognized as the 250th anniversary of the signing of our Declaration of Independence. And uh I will read this proclamation to that effect. Whereas the year 2026 marks the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence, a document that transformed the world by asserting that the power of government is derived from the consent of the governed. And whereas the Hillsborough Township Board of Education recognizes that a healthy democracy depends upon an informed and engaged citizenry capable of critical thinking, civil discourse, and an understanding of our nation's complex history. And whereas our schools serve as the cradle of democracy where students of all backgrounds gather to learn the rights and responsibilities of American citizenship and

005the skills necessary to lead our nation into its next 250 years. And whereas the semiquincentennial You did that on purpose, didn't you? provides a landmark opportunity for our educators to engage students in deep exploration of our founding documents, the evolution of American civil rights, and the diverse stories of the individuals who have shaped our national identity. Whereas the call for unity and service to one another is as vital today as it was in 1776. Now therefore be it resolved that the Hillsborough Township Board of Education officially recognizes the year 2026 as the year of civic engagement and semi-quin- semi-quincentennial commemoration. Proclaimed this 23rd day of March 2026 by the Hillsborough Township Board of Education. Thank you, Mr. Colopy. As a news item as part of the president's report there has been a uh a criminal

006case that has been a fluke since 2021 having to do with events that took place here in the school district back in 2019 through 2022 that had to do with uh misappropriation of hours fraudulent time and things like that. And it's been under investigation for these years. And uh on March 11th of 2026 uh one of the people that was involved in that case Yes, I should read his name. Anthony DeLuca. Uh he had pleaded guilty and he's been sentenced uh to uh community service we which is very important but he's also been sentenced to reimburse uh the town uh 137,000 and some odd dollars uh to return the funds that were misappropriated. So, that's good news. We've been waiting for that for a number of years. Um also, I'd like to report that uh

007the uh April 27th board meeting to review uh the final budget and for public hearing the final budget uh has been rescheduled to April 30th. That will be on a Thursday evening. Thursday, April 30th, the board will convene to hear the final budget. Uh Mr. Volpe, uh your superintendent's report, please. Thank you, Mr. President. Uh first thing I'd like to do in my superintendent's report is speak about our process when it comes to redistricting. Um I'm going to kick it immediately over to Mr. Handler, who has been the point person for our redistricting process. He will give you a couple of updates, as well as a timeline, and what to expect next. Mr. Handler? Thank you. So, good evening. Over the past few months, we have been rigorously exploring the best ways to redistrict our

008six elementary schools while keeping disruptions to our students to an absolute minimum. We've been finalizing the new redistricting lines over the next 2 to 3 weeks, and families who are affected by the boundary changes will be notified um directly after spring break on Friday, April 10th. We are approaching the transition humanis- humanistically. Later this spring, principals will be offering opportunities for those who are redistricted and their families to visit and get acquainted with their new home school, just as we do for those who are entering Autumn Road in fifth grade, or middle school in seventh grade or even the high school at ninth grade, we want to make the transition for our youngest learners as gentle as possible. Our ultimate goal is to minimize movement using a phased-in incremental approach. By shifting boundaries slightly now,

009we can balance it rebalance our elementary schools while intentionally preserving space for future growth when it's needed. We will continue to monitor over the next few years some of the new developments on the east side of our town and east and north, and we plan to re-evaluate our boundaries lines in 2 to 3 years from now as those constructions are completed. Our core promise to parents is long-term stability. That is if your child is moved now due to the current phase of needing to redistrict, you will not be moved again when future boundaries are adjusted. So, rather than moving them drastically as we originally we were looking at, we're doing slow incremental growth to accommodate for those new constructions coming online. Additionally, we do recognize that moving a school for a single year can be

010a significant adjustment. Where space allows, we are planning to offer a stay put option for our rising fourth graders in the 2026-2027 school year. And they can remain at the current school that they're at for their final elementary year. So, this will be an option that if available will be offered to our third or third graders rising to fourth grade. Note that the option is strictly dependent on available capacity, so we're going to have to evaluate that. And the family will need to supply their own transportation as district transportation will not be provided for that for this option. So, one last thing to assist us in finalizing these lines, we're asking that any um new families of you know, kindergarteners or first graders who've not yet registered uh to please register as soon as possible.

011And then finally, keeping with our district goals with redistricting, we are also launching our full-day kindergarten program for the 26-27 school year, and that remains right on schedule thanks to the redistricting plans. Over the past few months, Dr. Remembers has been working closely with our supervisors, principals, and kindergarten teachers to ensure that we are fully prepared for this shift. Staff have attended professional development highlighting the science of play and the integration of social into the social studies curriculum. They're exploring research on learning through play, determining the right educational toys and games, and developing a robust curriculum tailored specifically to the beginning learners. Thank you, Mr. Handler. So, big takeaways there for anybody who who wants to know when is this happening. When we come back from spring break on Tuesday, we will be sending out

012an email to the entire community saying, "Hey, if you're getting redistricted, you're going to get another email on Friday." So, there's a little bit of a heads-up. And then on Friday, you will get emails directly from your new principals. Um if you are moving, we will also update Genesis, and we will make sure that everyone will know. I really want to thank uh my leadership team who's worked on this, particularly um Dr. Handler. I just gave you a doctor, Mr. Handler. Um who's been our point person for this, and we've also had a lot of boots on the ground with staff, particularly when it comes to getting ready for full-day kindergarten. So, I'd like to recognize them as well. It has been a team effort, and we will make this as smooth as possible for

013kids when they find out their new schools. Thank you. Uh now, I will be presenting the uh 2026-2027 tentative budget. A lot of work has gone into this and I know we have a nice crowd here tonight who's very interested, uh, to hear what the board members have to say. I will be presenting the tentative budget. There will be board discussion. There will obviously be a vote tonight. But first I'd like to take you through, uh, all aspects of the budget, uh, as we're looking for for next year. So I want to first thank the board and all the budget managers for helping and note that this is a tentative budget. Uh, the as, uh, President Davis, I have a problem saying that. As as as President Joel Davis said, um, we will have a

014final budget hearing on April 30th. So if you want to come back for the second budget meeting, that's when it is finalized. Uh, the budget resolutions tonight include the tentative budget, travel maximum, and withdrawals from capital and maintenance reserves as per the executive county superintendent's requirements. And we're currently negotiating, uh, with the Hillsborough Principals and Supervisors Association, so actual salary increases for those in that association are not known at this time. So just a couple of opening thoughts right there. Are you doing budget calendar or am I? No, I will, Mr. Mr. Volpe. Uh, now for a quick glance into our what our budget calendars look like for the for building this budget. Our budget process has been ongoing for the last several months and the calendar in September and October the operations committee discusses

015the preliminary revenue and tax levy including any allowable adjustments. The public input on the 26-27 budget added to the was added to the board agendas on October 27th. In December and January the allocations were distributed to budget managers and review and once they submitted them we reviewed them with, uh, Mr. Volpe, myself, and Mr. Zabiega and then the the operations committee. In January and February the budgets were reviewed again as I just stated with superintendent, uh, and the operations committee. The Department of Education budget software became available for our budget entry. In March state aid information was released on March 12th and the operations committee met and reviewed the tentative budget on March 13th. And tonight, we are presenting the 2026-2027 tentative budget, and the board will be voting on the tentative budget later this

016evening. Next steps for the 2026-2027 tentative budget will it will be submitted to the county office for approval, and then advertised in advance of the April 30th public hearing. If there are any changes on the budget between now and the April 30th public hearing, they will be detailed during the public hearing. As Mr. Davis stated during his presentation report tonight, I just wanted to repeat again that the public hearing has been rescheduled to Thursday, April 30th. Mr. Wolken? Thank you. And I do want to remind the community as well that as this year the board is is still going to be continuing discussing what we're doing with the tax levy. There's a debate between that 0% and 2%. So, in September, I did give a presentation to both the board and the public about what

017the next couple of years could look like at 0%, 1%, 2%, and 2% plus the health care waiver. If you've subscribed to Hillsborough Happenings, you have been getting that video each and every week in Hillsborough Happenings. So, we've tried to be as transparent as possible. are not signed up for Hillsborough Happenings to get our weekly email newsletter, please do so. You can do it on our website, and you'll be getting information year-round. And the as soon as we start talking about budget, we keep it on there until the budget is finalized. So, one thing that I've been telling the board, and I want to tell the the public as well, it's the superintendent's budget until it hits the dais. I am making recommendations to the board. After my presentation is done, it is in the

018hands of the Board of Education. As a superintendent, I give my opinion. I will advise. We will answer questions as best as we can. If there's any questions we can't answer at the dais tonight, we'll answer them between now and the final budget. But, this will be a conversation between our board members today. As you know, um and I just wanted to make sure that I put that out there, and um we can all make sure that we're we're on the right page. So, I say that because last year there was a superintendent's budget, too. And I just I know I went ahead a slide. And I want to know if anybody remembers what the superintendent's rhetorical what the superintendent's budget was last year. Last year's superintendent's budget might you might not remember that. Last

019year's superintendent's recommend recommended budget is right behind me. It was in addition to the tax levy of 2% plus the use of the health care waiver. When we had a 2% budget plus the use of the health care waiver, we had a series of cuts. We had cuts of things and we had cuts of staff. And that was the superintendent's recommended budget at the time. Uh there were then options from the state that the board then debated, uh went over different options. Last year's final budget, we had two different options as budgets on the agenda. One was the superintendent's proposed budget and one was the tax levy incentive budget and that was voted through. Um so I just want to say just how last year things can change at the day's once it hits here.

020Uh it could happen again today. Again, I'm presenting my recommendations and my tentative budget. But I also wanted to put this out there too because if we're looking long term, if we are ever in some kind of budgetary hole again, the options that I have behind me right there are some of the options that we would obviously take to make our budget work. We kind of know where our next steps would be if we're ever in a budget hole again. So I wanted to make sure that all board members in the community are aware of that as well. So this was my message and it's the same message I gave last year as I'm giving this year. So about a year ago, we had a big community event. We had about 200 something people here

021ready to talk and I made a few comments and I wanted to make sure the community as well as the board members remembers >> I'm a Hillsboro resident. I moved here in 1999. I'm not a bureaucrat who just comes in from another town and and does my job and goes back. Um I have a two-minute commute after this, so that's why I'm able to stay late for meetings. And I'm going to be the superintendent in a variety of different ways. If we go to uh the the the max here, I'm going to make sure that every dollar that's that's uh done is is spent wisely. And if we go somewhere in the middle as like a band-aid approach for a year before considering something else, I'll do that. And if if the board decides to

022go with nothing, I will take the most care and and heartfelt actions when it comes to slowly like dismantling parts of this district. I I will do that. So, I bring that up again because I I'm going to reiterate the same thing. I've mentioned this to the board members. None of you individually are my boss, but the nine of you together are my boss. So, I will take direction from this board. If the board goes with my recommended budget, I will I'm going to repeat what I said. I will spend every dollar wisely. If it goes something below that and we're in status quo for a year, um that would be fine. And if at some point we have to start taking things apart, I will do that with care and uh with every gentle

023way that I can possibly do that. It's part of my job as superintendent. It's important for people to understand how school taxes work. And I think everybody knows this probably intrinsically, but you never really think about it. There's a difference between the township budgets as well as the school budget. When a town puts together their budget, their budget happens within the course of a calendar year. I see I have a lot of staff members here. My staff members know that we don't work on a calendar year. We start in September. For budgetary purposes, we start in July. But my staff members start in September of one year and then it continues into the following calendar year. So, while the new uh township budget starts in a new calendar year, our budget continues within the course

024of that year. So, when there is a tax increase on a budget, it's not paid within one half of a year. It's paid within the two halves of the year, the school year. So, it goes over two different calendar years. I think most people probably understood that, but you may have never thought about it. So, I wanted to make it clear that that's how school taxes are paid. They're not paid in one calendar year, they're paid in two calendar years across a school year. So, when I'm about to talk to you about tax impact, an example in town or some examples in town, I want it to be clear that the biggest reason for any tax impact or change is we had a big tax increase last year and it's still being paid over the

025course of the beginning of 2026. I will also be sending this presentation out at some point, so you can always refer back to these slides and I'll make sure that everybody understands it, but there is a residual effect from last year's tax increase. As we go through this, I want to make sure everyone understands that, too. So, school taxes change for the following reasons. Number one, decisions made about the board budget. As is being done here, that is 100% in control of the Board of Education. It is dependent on state aid, but what they do with the budget is is happening right here with the local tax levy. Housing assessments also affect your your property taxes. That is not in control of the Board of Education. Town ratables and their rate of change. That is

026not in control of the Board of Education. The Board can only control what it controls and what they can control is what the budget is for next year. It's important to know that there are some factors that are out of control of the board members. One of those things, again, I want to say that any any tax impact, the biggest factor is the tax increase that happened last year. But there are other factors, too, and I wanted to give an example. Here's a housing assessment example and I feel comfortable sharing this information cuz for those of you who don't know, I live in town. I have lived in town since 1999. This is my house. I'm showing the real numbers about my house. So, over the past several years, the assessed value of my house

027has gone up $143,800 since 2023. That does affect uh how many how much taxes I am paying. And if you look over the past couple of years, from last year to this year, my house alone went up $43,300. Now, everybody here who's a Hillsborough resident should have gotten that little card in in the mail uh that tells you about your assessed value and your assessed value does affect your tax impact. So, keeping in mind things like the ratables in town affect taxes, things like your housing assessment affects taxes, and I want to make clear I'm not passing the buck. The biggest impact on taxes is last year's budget and the tax increase that was passed because it's paid over 2 years. I want to show you again my house and the difference that I will

028be spending uh in school taxes one way or another. The board right now is debating between a 0% increase on the tax levy and a 2% increase on the tax levy. And I only put up a picture of me, which is 15 years old, because I look a little bit younger in it, but I also want to make it clear that if anybody is looking at this um presentation and not listening to my words that I am talking about literally, it says, "So, what happens to my house as it relates to school taxes?" This is my house. Knowing that the board is debating between a 0 and a 2% tax increase, knowing all those factors that I said that factor into your taxes, if the board increases the tax levy 2% this year, my tax

029my school taxes are going to increase about $1,200 and change for the year. If the board keeps the tax levy at 0%, adds nothing to it, my school taxes will increase $1,100 and change for the year due to the assessment and last year's tax increase and the ratables in town, um and again, mostly from the tax increase. But at 0%, I will personally save $116.04 for the year or about $9.67 for a month. This is just facts. Not advocating for anything at the moment. I just want to show you how real this actually becomes with what we are debating here. So now comes down to it. What can the board actually do? By statute, meaning by law, right now, the nine members of the Board of Education can tax can increase the tax levy $8.6

030million. That's within their rights. They don't have to go to the voters. They were elected. This is the law. This is what they can do. I am not recommending that we go to $8.6 million adding to the tax levy. Part of that money comes from the health care waiver. For those of you don't know, the health care waiver is additional taxing power that the board has depending on the rate of health care increases and how the state plan increases as well. The board, within its authority, can raise out of that $8.6 million $5.7 million just because of the health care waiver. I am not recommending that the board take the health care waiver. The board can raise 2% on the tax levy, which is $2.8 million. I am recommending that the board take the $2.8

031million. I think there's a lot that can be done with that for a long-term financial stability. And I also think as a person who's in charge of the schools, I have to make sure that the schools are properly funded for a long period of time. So I am recommending that they go to 2%. I want to make it very clear though from my little blurb there at the bottom. We can absorb anything in the budget for this year. To my I see I have a lot of staff members here. Regardless of the actions that the board takes tonight one way or the other, your schools are going to look the same. You will not see something behind me about oh, we're going to lose all these staff members and we're going to have to cut

032these programs as has been done in Hillsborough over many years. We have enough room that we can reorganize things so our school district will look exactly the same for 26-27. I have concerns of going to zero what it's going to look like 27-28. Are we repeating history and are budgets going to look like they have over the past several years? Um when we were having cuts, but um that's my recommendation to the board is the 2% on the tax levy. Now going back to to this slide, if the board says they go to the 2% and take the $2.8 million and don't take the health care waiver, that $5.7 million becomes what is called banked cap. If the board goes to zero and doesn't take advantage of any of its taxing authority, then $8.6 million

033goes to banked cap. For a crash course in banked cap, what banked cap is, it's a taxing authority that the board can pull out in one of the next three years. So, if the board did not take the health care waiver tonight, they take that $5.7 million not literally, put it in their back pocket for next year or the year after or the year after that and then they can use that taxing authority. So, that is something to understand because Hillsborough I've worked here a lot of years um prior to being superintendent, we never had any banked cap. We were out. So, it's important to know that whatever they go below $8.6 million can come back in the budget and to the taxpayers in a future year. But I also want to make it very

034clear that I understand both as superintendent, as a Hillsborough resident, and as somebody who just generally cares about other people the implications of what has taken place over the past couple years. I believe that 2% is a responsible budget um after the tax increase last year. And as superintendent, this might make me unpopular to some people, I will not recommend to the board to use future banked cap. I think we can get to a zone of 2% tax increases that keep things regular and predictable over time so that we don't have crazy tax spikes. I don't want to see another tax increase like happened last year. And then for a year or so you go low and then all of a sudden when we're cutting people we're like, "Well, let's go use that banked cap."

035We have 8.7 million from that year and maybe the next year if we don't use it again, there's a lot of banked cap and that would be again within the authority of the board. And I know one thing that the board did not like was that the community didn't have a chance to act. Banked cap you can hold for 3 years. You all may or may not be on the board. That could be someone else's decision. Um but I will not be recommending banked cap to fill a budget hole. It's my hope that we get to a predictable zone, a a a place of taxation that doesn't cause those sudden financial spikes that strain household budgets as I'm saying right there. We need to get to smooth predictable outcomes. Is yours or mine? Okay. I'll

036kick it over to to Mr. Eckert for a few slides. So, we'll get into a little bit of our budget goals for this year as we were building the 2026-2027 budget. The goals were to build a fiscally responsible budget, to maintain and expand current programs, to stabilize supply appropriations for budget managers, to provide a budget that supports a thorough and efficient education to all students, and to maintain and improve facilities, and to provide multi-year financial stability for the school district. Here I'd like to get into a little bit of our budget overview. Uh the general fund is increasing by $6,134,423. The grants and entitlements portion of the budget, which is comprised of federal, state, and local grants, and donations, is decreasing by $251,000. The debt service, which is the principal and interest payments on the

037bonds that were issued for the 2019 referendum, is decreasing by $2,750. So, the total 26-27 budget is increasing by just over 5.8 million when compared to the 25-26 budget to a total of $182,748,175. With the proposed 2% increase, the general fund portion of the tax levy is increasing by $2,981,204 to $147,451, $418. Now, to get into a few of the the revenue highlights, um the the total state aid reduction was $1,519,761, which was comprised of the $1 million tax levy incentive grant from last year, um and an additional state aid cut of $519,761, which is a cut of about 2.99% compared to last year. This year, the state put guardrails on the cuts, and they actually give a state aid for both Hillsborough and Millstone. While Hillsborough went down by the full 3%, Millstone actually

038went up by 6%. So, the net effect ends up being a 2.99% reduction. An increase to the total tax levy of 2% equals $2,891,204. We are also including a $500,000 withdrawal from maintenance reserve, which is the same as last year, and a $6,750,000 withdrawal from capital reserve, which is up from last year's $1 million withdrawal. The big general fund revenue increases are capital reserve withdrawal that is 5.75 million higher than last year's, and the 2% tax levy increase, which again totals 2.9 million. This is offset by revenue decreases from the loss of the one-time tax levy incentive grant of a million, and a further reduction to state aid of 519,000. A $500 a $500,000 reduction in tuition revenue since the CAP program will not run uh thanks to the start of the full-day kindergarten, and

039an appropriate approximate reduction of miscellaneous revenue of $475,000 from the federal E-rate program. Without the increase to the draw on the capital reserve account, the general fund revenue is increasing by just $384,000 over the 25-26 budget. Some highlights on the expenditure side, um the appropriation highlights for 26-27 are 29 new positions, which include two elementary supervisors, 12 kindergarten teachers, and 10 elementary school lunch aids for full-day kindergarten, two building monitors, one special ed teacher, and two instructional assistants. The new staff total new staff costs are approximately 2.3 million, which includes their benefit costs. Our total health insurance increase for the for the district for the year is 19% or approximately $5.3 million. The other insurances increase is about 20 about 20% or just over $2 million. Our utility increases are about $200,000, with electricity increasing

040by 14% and gas by 5%. Technology upgrades include cameras, live weapon detection monitoring, and license plate readers. And we're doing two lease purchases in the budget that will be on for approval tonight, um later on in the in the action agenda, and they are for a data center hardware, district-wide security communications infrastructure, Chromebook replacements, and three school buses. So, the main budget drivers in for the 26-27 budget are the same as in the last several budgets. Their salary and benefits make up approximately 76% of our general fund budget. Student transportation costs make up approximately 7% of the general fund budget. Maintaining our buildings and grounds accounts for about 4% of the general fund. And special education costs including out of district accounts for about 3% of the general fund budget. The areas I highlighted here

041are approximately 90% of the entire general fund budget. The capital improvements that are included in this year's budget are a new transportation and maintenance facility, uh wood road hallway ceiling tile grid and lighting replacement, a middle school uh factory renovation, Aris gym roof replacement, Aris structural repairs, HVAC and boiler replacements throughout the district, and building controls for the middle school and Aris. The 9.2 million budgeted for the listed projects will be partially funded by the 6 million 750,000 dollar withdrawal from capital reserve. Capital and just as a reminder, capital reserve funds can only be used on capital projects and cannot be used to help offset other areas of the budget. So, now to get into the tax impact a little bit. Um So, for Hillsborough, and again, this is at the 2% recommended budget, the

042Hillsborough with the 2026 tax rate will be 1.5347, which is an increase of 0.0796 when compared to the 2025 school tax rate of 1.4551, which is an increase of 5.47% in the tax rate. The calculations for the Hillsborough average home is in the middle of the slide with the red border. The assessment for the average home in Hillsborough is 628,012 dollars, which is a 5.71% increase from last year's average home of 594,089 dollars. A house assessed at this value will pay 9 million 9,638 dollars and 10 cents in school taxes for 2026, which is an annual increase of 993 dollars and 51 cents. In addition to the average home, the slide lists four actual examples of how this budget will impact property taxes. In the upper left, you will see a home that is assessed

043at at 325,000 in 2025. It is now assessed at 350,000 in 2026. That's a 7.78% increase in assessment and a $646.98 cent increase to school taxes. On the bottom left, you'll see a home that is assessed at 495,800 in 2025 and it is now assessed at 502,500 dollars in 2026. This is a 1.35% increase in assessment and a 497.48 cent increase in school taxes. On the top right is a house assessed at 717,400 dollars in 2025 and it is now assessed at 755,000 dollars in 2026, which is a 5.24% increase in assessment and a 1,148.10 cent increase in school taxes. And on the bottom right for Hillsborough, you'll see a house that is assessed at 866, 100 dollars in 2025 and is now assessed at 900,300 dollars in 2026, which is a 3.95% increase in

044assessment and a 1,214.28 cent increase in school taxes. Jerry, can I just have you stop there just for one second? So, this is different than if you've seen our budget presentations before, this is different information than we have put out. In the past, we put out average tax information on a house assessed at. And then the questions that people always had, well, my the assessment on my house changed. So, I asked Jerry to to hold off a little bit in putting it together to try to find some real examples. So, again, the four white houses, we're not going to identify whose houses those are, those are real properties that we researched and looked at and and the red is what the average is in Hillsborough. So, we're taking into into account what I talked before

045about re-assessments and how that can change things. And although we can't do this for every house and everybody sitting here, If you know what your house was assessed at and what it's changed, you can kind of get a sense of what it looks like here in Hillsborough. So, last year we heard from people that you didn't quite understand the tax impact, so we tried to make it as detailed and as accurate as we can, and we hope that this provides a little extra information. Of course, you can also run these numbers for yourself, but we wanted to do something a little bit different this year. So, Jerry, just wanted to give you kudos for that, and I know you still have to do that about Millstone as well. So, to provide the same level of

046of detail for Millstone, um again, at the 2% increase to our general fund tax levy, for Millstone, the 2026 school tax rate will be 1.3801, which is an increase of 0.167 when compared to the 2025 school tax rate of 1.2131. This is an increase of 13.77% in the tax rate. The calculations for the Millstone average home is in the middle of the slide with the red border again, and the assessment for the average home in Millstone is $473,006, which is a 15.48% higher than last year's average home of $409,598. A house assessed at this value will pay $6,527.96 in school taxes for 2026, which is an annual increase of $1,559.12. And again, in addition to the average home, we have four other examples here. So, just to go through them quickly, the upper left, you

047will see a home that was assessed at 338,100 in 2025, and is now assessed at 369,000 in 2026, which is a 9.14% increase in assessment and a $991.08 increase in school taxes. In the bottom left, you'll see a house that was assessed at 404,700 in 2025, and is now assessed at 465,200 in 2026, a 14.95% increase in assessment and a $1,510.81 increase in school taxes. In the top right is a house assessed at $535,600 in 2025, which is now assessed at $605,400 in 2026, which is a 13.3 uh point point 03 increase in assessment and a $1,857.76 increase in school taxes. On the bottom right is a house assessed at $651,300 in 2025 and is now assessed at $746,200 in 2026, which is a 14.57% increase in assessment and a $2,397.39 increase in school taxes.

048And in here, I just kind of wanted to reiterate what Mr. Volpe had stated earlier, uh each calendar year school tax rate is comprised of two school years. The 2026 tax levy is made up of the January to June portion of the 2025-2026 tax levy and the July through December portion of the 2026-2027 budget that we are discussing tonight. And the other thing you could notice within these percentages, when you look at the assessments, there's really not a consistency to how much they've changed. It seems to be kind of a little all over the place. Yeah. I I can just mention one thing about Millstone, too. If you're looking at Millstone numbers and why Millstone's numbers look a little bit higher when it comes to to a tax increase, I want to remember let everybody

049remember what I made public last year and we spoke to the administration of Hillsborough Millstone Township about this as well. I wish I was superintendent here for many years because for many years before I had gotten here, um the student count in Millstone was incorrect. Uh they actually had more students coming to Hillsborough than were reported. So, we're trying to catch them up with what their fair share for payment was. Um it's unfair to them, but it's unfair to everybody when mistakes in the past were made. I'm sometimes sorry that I find these errors, but they need to be found and they need to be corrected. So, I just wanted to put that out there, too, Mr. Record. It's next steps. I'm So the the the next steps for the for this budget is the

050Board of Education will approve a 26-27 tentative budget during tonight's action agenda. The business office will then submit that budget to the executive county superintendent by March 27th. The executive county superintendent reviews and approves the tentative budget. The budget is then advertised on the district's website in advance of the April 30th public hearing on the budget. And the 26-27 final budget is presented and approved at the April 30th public hearing on the budget. Once that is Once we have a fi- a final budget approved, the user-friendly budget will be posted on the district website within 48 hours of that approval. And that concludes the presentation. Thank you, Mr. Director. There's just one thing that I want to say before I turn over the budget to to Board President, um and then we go through our

051agenda. Uh As I put this agenda together, this budget together, I had a lot of differing opinions with with board members. And as conversations happened in committees, board members had a lot of differing opinions with each other. What I want to assure all members of the public, and I think uh Board President will reiterate this, too. Regardless as to how much I disagree with anybody here, if they're going to agree with my budget or not, everybody here with a difference of opinion thinks they are doing the right thing. There is no person sitting at this dais who is is is is doing something to to get out to get someone or or to do something for themselves. Every single person thinks they are doing what's right for the Township of commu- Township of Hillsboro as

052a community, and also for the Hillsborough Township Public Schools. So I would ask that when you hear the board members' comments, to please take it from that angle, that everybody is coming forth out of good faith. Um we can disagree, we can vehemently disagree, but I want to make it clear that everybody, administration, board members who are going to be speaking about this are coming from a place of good faith. Um and as members of the public, I know when it comes to public comment, um Mr. Davis is going to ask for the board members to to speak about their thoughts about the budget, so you as a public can hear that. Then you'll make your public comments, and then the board members will probably be speaking about that again, cuz we want to make

053sure that everybody can hear from everyone. And Mr. President, that now concludes my Superintendent's report. Thank you, Mr. Volpe and Mr. Ecker for all your hard work and for that detailed presentation. Uh, following the agenda, we must first stop off at committee reports before we get to public comment. I'd like to start with the education committee with Ms. Jackson. The education committee met on Tuesday, March 10th. We discussed the book for approval, revised and new curriculum program, uh, overnight trip, grant applications including the New Jersey STEM Strategic Advisory Board Innovation Fund Grant, Lowe's Home Centers LLC, and Explore the Trades. Um, we had some discussion items regarding the budgets, um, and the Watershed Institute EPA Environmental Education Grants, um, which, um, the Watershed Institute is applying for this grant and has invited us to partner

054with them in their proposal. Um, it is to create, pilot, and disseminate an AI tool to help AP Environmental Science students interpret water quality data in local waterways. Uh, we discussed full-day kindergarten curriculum updates, uh, highlight, um, a lesson using AI Game Architect AI Generator, um, and then a few informational items. Thank you, Ms. Jackson. HR Committee, Ms. Nurse. Yes, our committee met on Wednesday, March 11th. Uh, we started with a personnel matter and then discuss uh sick leave bank request. We continued on with discussion of some possible new positions for the 2026-2027 school year, and we finished with a discussion on the budget for the 2026-2027 school year. Thank you. Operations Committee, Mr. Marini. Yes, sir. Um we met on Friday, March 13th. Uh the first item we discussed was the Triangle School modular

055classroom award. Um there's a replacement of the external classroom. Um and the committee unanimously agreed uh to move forward with the modular classroom award. Uh the second item was the LAN, who is our architect, their proposal for structural investigations at Atwood School. Um there were some concerns raised, but we identified that this was something that was actually brought forth from our internal team um for them to investigate, and they're looking at uh things around the Atwood School building. Um and that was agreed to move forward as well. Uh the last main item was soliciting bids for a tax-exempt lease purchase financing, and the committee agreed uh to the resolution to solicit bids for a tax-exempt purchase lease financing. Uh and last but not least, there was an item um around the bills list. Usually we

056do them at the last meeting of the month, but I think because of timing, we agreed to have reviewed them one extra time to allow bills to be paid in a reasonable fashion so that because of the schedule there was 6 weeks apart between So, we're adding an extra uh bills list uh to the new budget. Um and then of course, last but not least, budget discussions as was the case in all committees. Thank you. Thank you, sir. Um finally, the Governance Committee. The Governance Committee is uh basically an aggregate of the other committees. Uh so, there's some redundancy in the things that are reviewed. But uh one unique thing discussed at the governance meeting was the uh idea of disenrollment hearings. Uh Mr. Volpe and the administration have been doing a good job of

057uh combing through enrollments and verifying addresses uh because, you know, only students who are legal residents of the town ought to be attending the schools. And there are a number of students who have not responded to requests to verify address uh and so on. And so a process needs to be unfolded to allow for hearings for someone to be able to present their case and show why they should be permitted to remain in school. And uh so suggestion has been made that those individual disenrollment hearings could be conducted at the governance committee meetings, which are on Wednesday evenings, rather than trying to do it in an executive session or something here. Uh and uh in addition to that, uh we also participated in budget conversations about uh this year's budget and and what the feelings

058are there. So, those are the committee reports. We now move to the uh public comment section. And I'll I'll read the disclaimer, if you will. We very much welcome input from the public. During board meetings, there will be two 30-minute periods of time that the meeting will be open for public comment, where members of the public are invited to comment, which they may do if they are attending in person. There is a clipboard for all participants to write their name. Before commenting, please state your name and address. There is a 3-minute time limit on public comment. Please understand that our public forums are not structured as question and answer sessions, but rather are offered as opportunities to share your thoughts with the board. In instances where the board believes that there is a misunderstanding or

059inaccuracy, the board president or superintendent will address the comment. There may be times when a member of the public makes a comment or asks a question about personnel or hiring decisions. Kindly note that the open meetings act and the privacy rights of public employees encompassed encompassed therein do not permit the board to discuss personnel issues in public session. Now, this public comment session is limited to uh action items and questions about the budget. There will be an open comment session later. We're going to deviate from common practice this evening though at Mr. Volpe's suggestion, which I think is a good one and I agree. And the notion is that we will open the comment session initially to only board members. This is an opportunity for the members sitting at the dais to uh discuss, ask

060questions, uh bring up issues, describe positions about our thoughts with regard to the budget proposal, the budget process. Uh something I would like to make uh clear, and of course Mr. Eckert, Mr. Volpe can correct me, is that the uh the vote tonight is on a preliminary budget. And the feelings among the board members about what should happen with tax increases or no tax increases or whatever are important. But where this is not a final vote, even after tonight's vote, there will be time in the ensuing weeks to continue to discuss, to explore, to debate what these individual concerns might be. And changes can ultimately be made and presented in the form of a final budget at the meeting in April. Uh once the board has had an opportunity to share some thoughts, we will

061then, if you'll give us a few minutes, but we will then open the podium for public comment. And then we'll take it from there. Okay? So, is there anyone who would like to start? I'll start. To break the ice, perhaps. And this isn't really a personal comment so much as it is a contextual comment. As Mr. Volpe alluded to, uh conversation arose uh earlier in the year during one of the committee meetings looking at the budget and the proposals. And someone just said, "Well, why don't we have no increase? Why don't we have a zero increase?" And uh after everyone was a little startled for a moment, "Dare we even think such a thing?" Conversation ensued. And that conversation has continued along the lines of well, why not and what would it mean? Some of

062that is in response to different responses or different reactions to the tax increase from last year. And as Mr. Volpe pointed out and I agree with him entirely and thank you. Each member of this Board of Education, each individual up here, who by the way is volunteering their time and in some cases lots of time is pursuing what they believe is in the best interest of the schools, the children and and the residents of Hillsborough. And it's interesting to see how different some interpret could interpret what that ends up looking like. But that's really what the conversation is about. It's about where where is there a healthy balance that will produce the best schools for our town. And so with that uh I open the floor to Well, let's see what happens. Mr. Heed. We

063could go back to the slide presentation. I have a question about the calculation that was done with the Hillsborough example of five homes. I can bring that up. If you need us to recalculate something, I would ask. >> No, no, no recalculation. It's really um So, if we just look at the average home because that's what Hang on. Yeah, okay. So, this slide and I'm just going to look at the one in red because that's what was presented last year at the final budget. Um I think that when we talked last year, the conversation was that for 2024's assessment, which by my notes was $547,355, the school tax for that was $7,571.56. So, if you compare 2024 to 2025, so that's all we saw last year. That tax increase from 2024 to 2025 was about

064$1,000. It was actually $1,073. And we didn't see 2026 because it wasn't available at that time. At the time when we voted on that that budget, my assumption, impression, which was incorrect, is that that was the full tax impact of the $26.6 million. Tonight's budget shows that actually, as you as you described, that increase was only half of the $26.6 million increase. We're paying first and second quarters of 2026. We're paying That's 2%, right? Yes, these two are Okay, so There was 2% dollar about $100, something less. So, it's like 9,500. So, that change on the right where it says almost about $1,000, maybe it's not a thousand, maybe it's $900. So, it's So, the true impact of what we voted on last year, $26.6 million, is the 1,000 from last year plus about $900

065or a thousand depending on if I go to 2 2%. I didn't know that. Yeah, the the only thing the only thing that I would would say, and I appreciate that too, which is why we're trying to roll some things out differently, but that's how a a school budget works every year. Um it's always paid over the course of 2 years. The reason why it's so different is because it was a bigger tax increase. Right. And normally, I think I think conceptually we understand that, but the numbers are always really low. Like, there might be like a couple of, you know, like tens of tens of dollars, not thousands of dollars. I wasn't aware of it. And although I was a no vote in last April, I was surprised in committee to learn that myself.

066So, I was Yeah, I was I was surprised. I don't know how the the rest of the board if they were aware. Maybe it was just me. Thank you. Ms. Nurse. Um you know, it's hard. Right, everything is going up and it's costing more. And I'm pricing myself out of Hillsborough at this point. But, sitting on the board of education, my oath was to do what I felt was best for the educational system. Um I was a yes vote last year. Um I know it impacted many people. It impacted myself. I have a hard decision to make as my youngest is currently a junior and will be leaving after next year. And is Hillsborough still going to be someplace that I can live? However, in retrospect, I would have vote cast my vote the same

067way. Um again, because it is my job up here to protect the educational system and make sure it's the best that it can be. Um as much as I want to say I'm I I also support the community because I want what is best for the community. Ultimately, you know, I'm called a member of the Board of Education because it's the foundation of the educational system. To not vote yes to a 2% um tax levy, to me would could lead us right back to the crisis that we just made hard decisions about the past 2 years. We did not In no way did anybody like to or want to vote yes last year. And the same for the year before. But we and I'm speaking from somebody with experience that's in the field. And I

068am speaking from somebody who has a very good comparison because I look I work one district over. The amount that my district has that I work in compared to what Hillsboro had has left me astonished about the disparity amongst the two districts. We need most of what's in this budget. I'm not going to say all of it. I do have a couple opinions. But I will never want to put our community back where we have to make hard decisions, where we have to go and use the cap that cap or to put another spike in taxes a few years down the road because we didn't do everything that we could to stabilize the finances of this district. So, for me, if we're not voting yes, we are and you know, doing a disservice to for

069what we had to do for 2 years. I don't know why No, that's not true. I understand I understand that it is un it's unaffordable to live in this day and age. From our taxes to the grocery store to paying at the gas pump, you know, recently. It's all very hard and I understand that and it breaks my heart for people who are in a situation where they've, you know, maybe had to move or think about moving. Again, I will reiterate that I may be in the same place in a few years, but I would like us to continue to move on, to stabilize this district financially. It is what we need. Um and I'm hoping that I I have people who are feeling the same way and will support the district in saying yes

070to the 2%. Mr. Stats. Um my main focus, I tried is is what is what helps the students, especially things that help them directly. And um when I see what stuff in the budget, especially stuff that's a difference between what could be in the 0% budget versus the 2% budget, um all most of the stuff that's in the extras does not uh uh help or affect the students directly. Um now now, I'm not saying that's not good stuff. Um as Mr. Volpe said, you know, everybody has good intentions and um but I think we need to be um as equitable as possible across all categories in our school district. I mean, it concerns me that we're we have we're going we're planning on building a $7 million transportation complex. Yes, the Bloomingdale facility is not

071totally satisfactory, so but that can be upgraded and there's even room to expand there. I just think that would be more fiscally responsible um while still addressing the needs there and and save some money and use some of that money to um again help our students directly. Um in 2019 uh we we lost a lot. Um I'm going to focus on what affects students directly. We eliminated 29 teaching positions. We have not reinstated all of them. And even counting the 12 uh allocated for the full-day kindergarten still won't add up to the positions. Um So with fewer teachers, I sort of balk at adding two new supervisors uh when we have we've now gone back up to how many supervisors we had in 209 uh before the the cuts in 2019. We even have one

072extra uh person who can who is a supervisor now. But so we have we want more supervisors than um uh we used to have but we have fewer teachers. So that that concerns me. Um I would like us to have more teachers. I think we need to hire more teachers. I think it's very important the smaller the class sizes especially in the elementary schools. And if space is a problem, um we have the the um added uh trailers at Triangle. We can do that elsewhere. Um also from some conversations seems like um uh if a board board members who are in favor of 0% increase, it's like the boogeyman for oh, we can't do that because because board members want some board members want the 0% increase. And one of those things has to do

073with vape detectors. That's not anywhere in any budget. And I do think we should have uh vape detectors in at least try them out in the high school. Um they have proven to be a deterrent in other districts. Um when I uh went to a presentation by Matthew Botchie, he he uh, talked about addiction and things like that. But, the two main things he had concerns about was vaping and um, underage drinking. And uh, so I would like to see some efforts to to address especially vaping by um, installing the vape detectors. Um, I I'm not good at speaking extemporaneously as much as you guys are, so I'm I'm referring to my notes. Um, That's fine, Ms. Stats. Maybe if we could cut compress it a bit just cuz of time, cuz we still have

074yet to open the floor to the public. What we'd like to do at this point, and we'll have another opportunity after the public comments, uh, to to talk more. What we wanted to do at this time is give people an opportunity to describe in more general terms where they are in terms of the zero or the two. But, I think it's important to be specific so that people don't think it's just a matter of spending money versus spending fewer dollars. It's where that money's being spent. Can I clarify something with that as well, cuz there's there's two two different things and you're not wrong, but I just want to make it very clear that what I put in the superintendent's proposed budget is what I have proposed. Um, there's two different questions that you have

075to ask here. Are you are you for that zero to two percent um, or do you not like the things that are in the budget? Because just because you don't like the things that are in the budget, you can still say, I want to raise it two percent and I want to hire 29 teachers with that and put all those teachers back in there. So, it's two different things that you have to decide as board members. Where do you stand on the levy? And then by the time it comes to the final budget, are you comfortable with the things that are in there? So, it's not binary. It's not like if I go to zero, it's because I don't like the things that are in the budget. You can go to two and ask for

076different things to be in there. I just wanted to clarify that for Gordon. Thank you. I'll take I'm going to say wait, I don't I don't want anybody to feel rushed. Um it's one of our major things to do. You know, we talk about how we are policy making board, but this is a the big thing and this is pretty I'm I'm going to use it I'm going to use the word divisive right now. So, if I want to hear like I want to hear what Jane has to say about those because Jane and I might be thinking differently right now about 0% or 2%, but I agree with what Jane is saying, right? And so, for me I think those the conversations are important because I can say to Jane right here and right

077now because we're allowed to. So, Jane I agree with you. I I think we need to look and see what's best for kids and is $7 million building No, I'd like to expand when we can as well. I would be you know, pushing and seeing what we can do there. You know, I agree with more teachers. You and I differ on the supervisors and you know, I joke that I as a teacher I would never say we need more supervisors, but in this case I really do think we need more supervisors here because they ultimately help our teachers learn and grow. Um but I do want to hear what everybody has to say. Yeah. I'm sorry and I will try to shut my mouth No, this is fine. I do want to hear what Jane

078has And I I agree. Thank you, Jane. I'm sorry. May I just ask a question because we're throwing around the reference to two supervisors, kindergarten teachers. Those are not decided yet. Oh. I'll I'll clarify again. Yes, I proposed a tentative budget. What the board has to do right now is give me the financial parameters. Now, typically, I know it's not Hillsborough, but typically when uh I get direction from a board through committee meetings and everything to the superintendent sets the tentative budget. There's usually another hearing in between and then the final budget usually matches the tentative budget. I have proposed a tentative budget with $2.8 million and outlined all the spending. If you guys don't like the the $2.8 million increase, that's what you're debating between 0 and 2%. And when it comes to the

079final budget, if you don't like what's in there and I there's not five people who are going to vote what's in those line items, we have to come up with five people who who agree on something. >> But I just want to make it clear, we've not had any in-depth conversation on that. I thought that these were things that we were going to continue to have some conversation about before it's final. We We will continue to >> We are. I would just I would just I think that maybe I hear what you're saying, but I think you mischaracterized just a little bit. We have had some in-depth conversations about all these things and I have rolled out what's going to be in there, but you're right, it's not finalized until April 30th. I thought I

080I just want to make sure that we have enough time to focus in on those exact numbers. Absolutely. Ms. Staps, would you please continue? Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, Ms. Nurse. Um the reason why I wanted to bring up some of those specifics and how it's related to 0% versus 2% is I mean some of that um could be part of people's decision of whether or not to go to 0% or 2%. Also, um I'm looking at the long term as well. Uh and it's it's you know, as as Mr. Volpe pointed out, we can bank it. Um and if we do apply that in future years, yes, that would be a bigger increase than the previous year, but last year was a huge increase, so uh I don't think we'll it'll be as

081bad as that. Um but as far as the future's concerned, um a lot of times we talk we've talked about um the possibility of having a a new high school. That will have to go to referendum. I think I'm pretty safe in saying that. Um which will be up to the public to vote. So, I worry about us squandering the goodwill of the public. Um there's a there's a lot of anger still remaining from last year's huge increase. People are still feeling feeling it in their property taxes. Um so, if we were to have a 0% uh increase, um at least we're acknowledging that, you know, they they they've been feeling pain. It's going to continue, but at least we're not making it worse. What and and if even if the 2% uh budget gives

082them a debatably small increase, we can truthfully say, if we have a 0% increase, whatever increase increases in your taxes occur has nothing the school district did not is not responsible for that. That would be because of increased um property assessments or things like that. And and when we when our increases in property assessments or um new ratables, the school district sees none of that. Correct, Mr. Volpe? Like when there's new revenue, >> 2% is 2%. We can only raise the 2%. >> Well, well, I mean, like like some people say, "Oh, how come they can't aren't they getting all that the with the new property assessments and all that income and and and new ratables and all that?" We don't see that. We're stuck with whatever It would more equally distribute the tax base.

083We can't go above that. Right. So, so, and a lot of this I think is mixed together. So, that's why I was bringing up the specifics, but also in looking ahead um to better have a chance of uh if we do have another referendum, to have uh the public uh more amenable to voting for that. Thank you. Anyone? Mr. Aaron Krabs. Yeah, I hear a lot about the avoiding a have to get the 2% raise to avoid future tax spikes. Uh and as I said, we've been spiked. And I'm less concerned going on in the future. We don't have to get too deep into the weeds, but next year, even if we give you the 2% that you're asking for, you could by statute next year ask for 9%. So that hammer is always over

084our head, and that's just the way it's structured. So it's always going to be there. That could be, you know, pulled out. Um also, the 2% amounts to about uh $2.9 million. And I've looked at some of the wish list items, and I think that we can easily find $2.9 million of economies in there. Especially, I want to avoid the recurring fees that we will have to pay this year, next year, and every year thereafter, because that only increases the burden going forward. And eventually, you keep layering on more recurring fees, we're going to be going back to the public and saying, "We need more money." Why? Because we've put on all these recurring fees. Um I have a lot more I could say, but I'll pass it on for now. Thank you. Mr. Heald.

085>> had a point of clarification from Ms. Stacks' comments. If we went to 0%, and you and so this is for Mr. Eckert. If we go to 0% this year, there would be no increase of the school portion of the tax but that would be from July 1st to December 31st. Is that correct? Because because the part from January 1st to June 30th is already taken care of from last year. So going to 0% means that any increase in our taxes from July 1st to December 31st would be from increase in our assessment. That's correct. Okay. But I don't understand because the 2026, we already got our 2026 assessments. So So, we already know the numbers that would You you know the number of the assessment. We haven't finalized the budget yet. But I I

086mean I know what the value of my home is for 2026. So, I can All right, I think I'm confused. Sorry about that. But I think but to Miss Status' point, is that 0% would mean that any increase from July 1st to December 31st would only be because of an increase in our house assessment. Or or other municipal tax increases or changing rate. It's not just because of >> Okay. Right. Right. Okay. Thanks. Miss Jackson. I just want to clarify baseline. So, this this is the Is this the end of S2? Yes, S2 is done. Okay. >> This is now Any anything that's coming from uh state aid cuts is now what they is the funding formula being fully run. Uh S2 was an accelerated payback of being over funded. S2 no longer exists. Okay.

087So, we don't really know where we sit next year. No, we we we don't. Okay. So, I guess there could be a mode of thinking where why go to the 2% now when we don't know what's going to happen next year. Is that Is that a fair statement? Say it again, please. >> Why why do the 2% now if we can honestly get by at a 0%. Why are we going to 2% and planning for something when we don't even know what the funding is? As I recall, we're supposed to go into an era of affordability in this state, which should push down on property taxes, and we should find a funding formula that no longer benefits five or six urban areas alone at the expense of of the suburbs and the rural areas. So,

088um and I and I think when we talk about the benefit of the children, the betterment of our students, I think we have to think from the family perspective as well. Because when we look in New Jersey, we have the worst employment rate. We were losing jobs hand over fist. It is no doubt people in this community are impacted by that in addition to the poor energy offerings we actually have. We we are being billed with no moral guidance. It It's just to me it's so immoral what's been done here. We We are I I just I find it difficult not to take a breather. I think we're we're breathing down the necks of every resident here, whether they're a parent or a not a parent. And we have been pushing and pushing and pushing.

089We have been told we never pay our fair share. Well, guess what? We're not getting anything anyway. The state's made it clear. And by by no stretch of the imagination are we in bad shape compared to other districts. When you look at the numbers, people are are crunching numbers across the board. They're looking at this holistically and looking at how much tax money is coming in from certain areas and how little they're getting in return for it. And so I think I think it's time to take a breather, and I think it's time if you have to make a hard decision, make a hard decision for the year. Um but I I I just think that, you know, enough is enough. I think we have to wait and see. I think this this is this

090is a good time to pause and wait and see. >> Thank you. Thank you. Miss Baker. I will speak about something I that concerns me if if the vote is to stay at 0%. Um one thing that I think about is what message that sends to um the people who are educating the children. Um I feel like it sends a message that we are not going to invest in in bringing stability to you. I think this district has had lots of instability not just with financial but with other outside factors. We talk about criminal cases. I worry about staff choosing to stay here to educate our students. Um if if we are not going to look at putting you know, going to cap and putting in that money to them. I I just I don't

091know. I worry about the message that sent to them and what that means for um you know, down the line with with Sure. Thank you. But I But I also worry about what that message sends to the people paying the taxes and that have been slighted by the state. It's not as though people disrespect the teaching staff and administration. It's just at some point you have to come to a compromise and after last year, I think it's time we consider the compromise. Thank you. >> And it has I think it has absolutely nothing. I You can read glowing reviews that people put out there about their teachers. I can tell you personally how I feel, especially about Woodford and my children's experience there. So, I don't think it has anything at all. If that's the

092perspective that's being taken, I It makes me feel bad because no one person in this community thinks poorly of the teaching staff or administration. I think it is a It's It's such a burden. And I know at one point we were looking at We had numbers of how many people are becoming more dependent upon assistance in the community and it had increased quite a bit. And I think sometimes we need to We need to think about what numbers we should be pulling about where our community is and how parents are feeling about supporting their kids and paying for certain things in this district. And everyone else is tightening their belts and I think it's pretty amazing what's been done here financially that we are in the position we're in. Barring last year, I I think

093last year was I don't even want to talk about last year because I'm personally feeling it, too. And if I'm feeling it on a town home, I I can't even imagine what somebody in a single family home is feeling it, especially someone who's lost their job. Yep. >> So, I think we have to I think we have to be a little more objective and we have to rationalize financially what this is doing to this town. Thank you. Mr. Marini. So, and I know last year was difficult. The amount that was raised had an impact to a lot of people. Um We did that to put us in a good position and I'm a little nervous that going to zero kind of heads us in the wrong direction a a bit. Um I feel like the

094There were some comments made about um the items on on the list of things that were suggested with that money, a facility, maintenance. Um we do need to take care of our buildings and other things. So, building a bus facility, a transportation facility would allow for increased buses, which reduces the cost of bus routes moving forward. So, these things are not frivolous spend just to spend the money. Um I know nobody really thinks that it's frivolous. Um these are are things that do benefit the students indirectly and benefit the district long-term. Um and the damage is done from last year. We have a We had an increase that was done there. I think it was noted that the average increase for the 2% is $100 per year in that range. Um to keep us where

095we're planning to go, I think that makes sense. Thank you. I think it and I didn't expect it we would take this much time, but it was a good thing to do as per Ms. Nurse's comments. But I would like to open the podium now. I'm sorry, Ms. Fetts. I just want to say um what it's just looking at 0% versus 2% just as those numbers without looking at the details, I think it can be a problem. Um and I and I give credit to the staff and the public to to realize um you know, the nuances of that. And what's in the budget is what matters. So, um hopefully people would realize just because it's 0% just let's just because it's 2% doesn't mean it's better for staff or better for students. Um what

096matters is what's in it. Um we're not hiring additional teachers uh even in the 2% uh budget other than the kindergarten teachers. Um uh you know, supplies uh uh per teacher is still pretty low. Um and I and I Yes, we can improve the transportation complex without building a whole new one for $7 million. I'm talking about being more equitable with improving things, especially those that affect the students directly. Thank you. I just give one little quick point. Okay, Mr. Marini. Uh just really quick, just so people are aware, if we vote zero today, it doesn't mean we don't end up at 2% in the final vote. And if you vote 2% today, it doesn't mean we don't end up at 0% in the final vote. So, today's vote is not setting that number. It'll

097set the direction that we'll move towards, but we do have a second vote on this. I correct. I didn't understand it that way. I thought we were voting on the money today, and then you have the parameters for this next month with the money that you have. I took it totally different than what you just said. We want to We have to enter into the state software a number that the board gives us tonight. And I guess the question is then, if the board wants to change the number and items in it for the final budget, this is new to me. Would Would that be something that could be done? Uh yes, it could be done. Just Whatever number is set tonight, any changes to that number would have to be clearly communicated as part

098of the public hearing and then voted on during that during the public hearing. So, you have to vote on a number tonight. Jerry and Andrew have to submit something within that number, and then things could potentially change. And just to miss That's his point, whether it's a 0% or the 2%. If the board doesn't like any of my ideas and says, I'm just saying, "Hire 50 new teachers with that 2%." I don't even know if that works with the numbers, but it could just all be teaching staff. Could be. So, so I guess my point was, if we say 2% yes, go, and then we pull this together, and the whole board doesn't agree with any of that extra money spend, they could say, "You know what? Collectively, we're going to vote on 0% at

099the next meeting." Because we don't agree with any of those things on there. So, I'm just This just a point of order just so people understand it's not a a set number as of today's meeting. It's guidance to move forward and enter into the software. Okay, Ms. Stats, if you'll just give us another moment. >> Um so, I guess legally we can do that. Um logistically though, I think we can hopefully we can agree to and you know, as you can tell I'm probably leaning towards 0%, but if we vote on 2%, I would encourage us to then go from that as our guidance as far as what's in the budget. Because otherwise, uh between now or you know, what we'd be doing doing this, I we could I guess talk about it within our

100committees, but whoo, trying to uh not even solidify what the amount we're working with, I hopefully we can agree to stick to that, whatever it is tonight. We shall see. And I would agree with what Ms. Stats said. Like, vote in how you think you would vote at the final. I mean, knowing that you could change your mind, I just think it's not fair to the administrators to work on a budget tonight and then have it taken. So, whatever way it is, I will vote for 0%. But whatever way five or more votes happen, I do think that we should try and respect that as much as we can unless something changes drastically, but I don't think that's going to happen. And uh as a point of order, Mr. Volpe explained earlier, when we vote,

101we'll be voting on Mr. Volpe's proposed budget, which is the 2% budget. That will be a yes or no vote. If we vote no on the 2% proposal, at that point, we will need to make another motion as to well, what do we want to vote? Would it be zero? It could be 1%. Someone could say, let's vote for half a percent. And it doesn't have to be only a 0%. That's not the only alternative, but we can't determine that until first we find out if we have a yes or no on Mr. Volpe's budget. Can we hear from the public? Yes. Thank you for your patience. I'm sorry, I just need one question. That one slide that showed Mr. Volpe's example. Yes. If we go from zero in between zero and 2% is saving

102like $9.47. From my house, from my house specifically, I look at that. Yeah, it's $116 for the year and like $9 and change per month difference between zero and two. So I just want to cuz we were talking about a lot of money and somebody pointed out the almost $1,000 difference, but that's not $1,000 you're getting back. It is nine and and that's on the higher end if if I may speak in such like $770,000. You're getting the cost of less than two Duncan Donuts coffees back. Right. We will have an opportunity to to go over this again just so everybody understands. This certainly when the motion comes up we'll have plenty of time to go over it again, but I do want to invite our public commenters to come forward and thank you for

103your patience. Please state your name. Steve Sloan, 10 Wolf Drive. So in summary, we're looking at a $994 per year tax impact on the average home. The overall budget is going up 3.3% and the tax levy is going up 2.9 million. I am concerned if we have another tax levy incentive program. We haven't heard what the adequacy level would be. We don't know whether or not state Department of Education is going to come forward with an additional million dollars in state aid if we match it with an additional 95% and if that happens, our tax impact will be can go up. I'm concerned as a senior citizen. I speak to a lot of senior citizens at senior citizen events. And they ask me about this. Um I don't know what to tell them because you

104know, when you read the Sunday paper and you look at Bridgewater-Raritan there the headline in the Sunday paper yesterday said they're cutting 29 jobs as taxes rise 3.23% and their average tax impact is $231 per household. Ours is $994. Ours is about five times. And they're losing 584 students in Bridgewater. Their enrollment is down 584 students. Uh we hadn't hear anything from you about enrollment. Uh I've been coming to board meetings for many years. I was a board member 20 years ago and we always talked about enrollment in a presentation. So, if I was grading you, I would give give you a C. You didn't include anything about enrollment. You didn't include anything about surplus. Um maybe you did that intentionally. I don't know. But my concern is what happens if we have a tax

105levy incentive program that comes in and we're hit with another 22.9 million dollars. Uh that'll probably double this this tax impact if this board is in favor of it. Um the transportation and maintenance facility was advertised in the newspaper as a 12 million dollar facility. Now I'm hearing tonight it's a 7 million dollar facility. We don't know anything about that. Um but it should be deferred for a year. At a minimum it should be put off till 2007-2008. Nice to have, but do we need it immediately? Uh I doubt it. Uh pay-to-play should be reinstated to increase your revenues. You had pay-to-play before. Uh many parents uh let their kids participate. They can pay the $50 or whatever it is. Perhaps you can raise a quarter million dollars in revenue to help. And with health

106insurance just change health insurance carriers. If your health insurance is so high, just revert to a different carrier, shop it around, and try to save money. Uh you're saying that uh you're not going to recommend a health care waiver, although you could have gone up another $5.75 million. There's There's no guarantee. I heard one board member uh say, "There's no guarantee that you won't do that next year." So now for now, save the money and change carriers. Thank you very much. Good evening. Mary Beth Delisi, 9 Stat Drive, Hillsborough Middle School reading specialist, interventionist. Um I'm here to urge you to go to the 2% tax increase. Um Mr. Volpe, when you said before the difference between the 0% and the 2% on your home, for example, that was so enlightening. I had this conversation

107today with colleagues who were concerned about the tax increase. But we're talking about a hundred, a hundred and twenty dollars for the year. That is nothing. The the I just want to look back at my notes. The zero percent you know, that some of us are saying will, you know, be a show goodwill or taking a break. Well, no. Um because in the future, we could have larger class sizes. I have colleagues at the high school English teachers with 34 students in their class. That is unacceptable. A teacher cannot address the needs of 34 students in his or her class. Um our infrastructure, okay, that goes without saying. There there are things that need to be done. Um and we're in a position this year where we have a decision. This is my 20th year

108in the district. I'd say 15 of those years, we have not been in a a a place where we can make a decision. We've been in a disaster position position. So, I urge you to go to the 2%. Thank you. THANK YOU. BARBARA ORR, 88 EQUATOR AVENUE, middle school, reading interventionist. Um a lot like Mary Beth. Um I want to thank you all for your comments and for the discussion. I think it was wonderful. Um I too, it's my 21st year here in the district. I've been in Hillsborough since 1996. I'm a single parent, so when the taxes go up, it affects me, too. But again, thank you, Mr. Volpe, for the um the enlightening information about how relatively small the impact will be. Zero percent increase doesn't mean that taxes are going to go

109up zero. And I think that's what everybody needs to understand, the public. If we can do that little bit of an increase, it means that we're not digging a hole for the future, a hole that we just dug ourselves out of. As uh Mary Beth just mentioned, class sizes are getting larger. We do have a lot of families that are moving in. It's really hard to get to know all the students and meet their needs when you have, you know, there's not enough chairs in the room for the students, which definitely happens at the high school. I I can't help be reminded my grandmother used to say penny wise, pound foolish. I think if we go to the 0% um thinking we're going to get goodwill from the public who I know you think that

110they think fondly of teachers. Many do, but many we are vilified in social media. Um and I think that if we do that this year and then all of a sudden we need to do another tax increase, I think it's going to be worse than it was last year. So, I respectfully ask that you consider um and then look at where the money is going to be spent. I encourage you to do that um and do it in the way that will impact the students and of course the teachers in the best way possible so that Hillsborough can continue to be the most wonderful place it is for the benefit of the students because they are the future. Thank you. Hi, I'm Linda Cummings, 11 Melbourne Drive. Um just so some of you do know

111me, I've been a resident here for 28 years. Two sons that graduated in '21 and '23. President of the Hillsborough Education Foundation, past member of the HSA executive boards here. Um and I worked at the tech hub for a year. I was a here for 4 years. Taught science at Orton Road for 3 months. Um and I'm asking you not to raise the taxes. Um the Board of Ed needs to learn how to live within its means. Just like the homeowners in this town. Last year's tax increase put residents in a very bad place with very little to notice to come up with the additional funds. Okay, if you decide to raise the taxes, then I would encourage the Board of Ed administration and all of that you that were elected to go over and

112sit in the tax collector's office for the August 1st payment and listen to the residents. I was there last year. I heard everybody complaining. And it wasn't just anger. There was crying because they've lived in a house all their lives. They've paid it off and now they didn't have money for the taxes. Okay, I watched people say they were paying their taxes, but they were going to cut back on food. They were canceling family vacations. They were having to take jobs after being retired for 10 or 12 years. Okay, they were facing tax sales of their home because they couldn't afford the taxes. And during that time, the Board of Ed office was closed that week that the tax notices came out. And the township had to answer the questions and that was not fair.

113Okay. We've all had Most of us have had tax assessment increases for this year. So, that means we're already going to be paying more in taxes. Okay, I realize the state funding has decreased, but those of us who paid into the school taxes and had it stolen by prior business admin and his staff are still angry and wondering when that money's going to come back. I know we just had some of it resolved, but the rest of it is up there. Okay. I think perhaps you could look into charging the houses here where there are multi-families living there, but they're not a multi-family home. So, they only pay taxes of a single-family home. That may be where you might want to look into because there is lots of them. Okay. I would just say that

114with all the increased costs to everyone that you really need to tighten your belts, and having the Board of Ed spending without concern to the community is really disappointing and unacceptable. Thank you. Thank you. Hi, Jean Bates, a special ed teacher at Amsterdam School and HTA secretary. While I understand the intent to be fiscally responsible, I urge you to consider the long-term impact that a flat budget will have on our district. For years, our schools have faced a steady loss of state funding. Each year, we're asked to do more with less, and each year that gap widens. A 0% increase is not a neutral decision. It's another cut. Costs continue to rise, and our resources do not. The decision will put additional strain on our educators, limit opportunities for our students, and risk the quality

115of education that we provide in Hillsborough. It also makes it more difficult to provide necessary interventions for all students. At some point, continuing to observe absorb these losses is no longer sustainable. We must ask ourselves, what are we willing to sacrifice? Programs, staff, infrastructure repairs? Those are all real consequences of a flat budget. I know we're not speaking about um the individual items in a budget, but I will tell you that the K-6 content supervisors are necessary. It does have a direct impact on students. The K-6 teachers need the support that those positions would provide. I ask the board to explore a budget that reflects the true needs of our district. Investing in education is not a financial decision. It's a commitment to our students. Thank you. Good evening. Amy Sallander, teacher here at Auten

116Road Intermediate School and HTA First Vice President. I've stood here before and commented um on how this board demonstrates great composure when discussing difficult topics. And through these processes, you have been able to navigate this district through some very challenging budgetary times. While everyone may not have agreed on all points, the benefits of the overall decisions have contributed to positive changes in our district that ultimately affect each of our students. As we approach yet another season where Hillsborough faces another round of state aid cuts, I commend Mr. Volpe on presenting a budget that stays within a 2% cap and maintains what we have while also allowing us to advance forward. While other towns like Montclair, Middletown, and Jackson are having to make decisions to shut down schools, this budget allows Hillsborough to continue moving forward.

117I can only imagine the effects that shutting down schools has on the overall value of a community, and I would hate to see something like that happen here. I want to thank Mr. Volpe for putting together a budget that helps us maintain those standards while also expanding in some necessary areas as well. My understanding is that years of under budgeting played a role in our unfortunate situation regarding state funding. This board, along with our community members, HCA members, and legislators have worked to address these cuts over the years and we are in a place where we can continue to move forward. Many of us, including myself, remember the years when we lost 56 staff members, followed by almost 40 the following year. One of the biggest effects of these cuts is increased class size. Ms.

118Statz, I know this is one of your the biggest issues to you. It is to a lot of us in this room. A lot of you at the DA's feel this every day because you work with students. Yet, slowly but surely we have been building borough back. That was the motto. We are seeing improvements in things like class size, facilities, and more. We are finally implementing full day K along with our other redistricting plans. These are all positive moves forward. A 0% budget opens this district up to undermining all of the progress we have made in the last 7 years. I was really surprised to hear this was even being discussed as a possibility. Some of our board members were here during those times and I'm sure they can remember the detrimental effects those types

119of budgets have had. I don't want to be back in that place where we're seeing more cuts. Our HCA members don't want to be there. I don't believe the community or any of you want to see that either. The last thing anyone wants is to see news of staggering cuts or the stat or the shuttering of schools. Let's keep building back and move forward. Our mission statement is, empowering all students to excel while finding purpose and joy in every aspect of their educational journey. The budget presented by Mr. Volpe tonight does this. I I your vote does too. Thank you. Good evening. Henry Goodhue, Hillsborough Education Association, as well as a Hillsborough parent and resident. Um, you've heard from my colleagues tonight and you've heard the consistent theme of we've had options, but for years

120we never did. We budgeted in chaos or in response to it. We didn't have the option to say, can we do something that gives us stability? Can we do something that reflects our values? And we're considering that right now. I don't I'm not going to sit here and say that a zero does means you don't care about kids. We may have a differing of opinions on that or that a two means you automatically do. I recognize that everyone is coming at this from the place that they feel is best. But I think we need to consider what is best. At this point we have a 2% budget proposed by professionals who are charged and trained with saying what will bring stability to this district. That 2% budget delivers $5.7 million in savings this year, more

121than what the actual increase is because we're not taking the waiver. That is something we've never been able to do in this district and I have been here for 22 years. You should capitalize on the stability you can create and then celebrate with the community the actions that you took that have we've taken I've been in this position 12 years as president. This is the first time we've had options, right? It's taken us this long to dig out of this hole. But the budget, as you sit here, these are theoretical conversations. We don't know what next year will bring. We don't know what the formula will have. We don't know what roof will have a hole in it, right? But we do know, we do know what districts who have gone down this road have

122seen. We know that in Middletown, like my colleague mentioned, they're selling off three elementary schools. We know that in Little Egg Harbor, they're firing 81 staff members because of budget decisions. 81. Far exceeds the 56 we ever saw. We also know in Phillipsburg, which is not too far from here, when they went through years of 0% budgeting, by the time they got to 2014-15, their budget went up 6.9%. The year after that, 7. 7.15%, then 5%, then 3.8% and somewhere in there was also mixed in a referendum as well. So, we know what a 0% budget does. We know it catches up to us. Our district has been celebrating, actually somewhat ironically, I would say, over the last week the growth that we have had, the new programs that we're introducing, things that would have

123been impossible 2 to 3 years ago. And now we're talking about whether or not we can sustain them in the future because if good enough can get us by, we need to continue investing in these schools and stability is how we do that. And we have to recognize the geopolitical reality that we're facing right now. Nothing is going to get less expensive. Even if we stay at zero, that is still less than what next year will be. Gas will continue going up for our buses. Electricity to keep the lights on will be more expensive. The $100 or so that my members get to run their classrooms will go far less. We won't be able to do as much. I'll close in saying this. A suppressed budget is like an electrical bill you've decided not to

124pay to see how long the lights will stay on. Eventually, you're going to pay that bill. The question is are you going to pay 2% or 8% on a larger one? Please make the right choice. Thank you. >> Hello, Alicia Gaylor Bayless. I live in Hillsborough. I just taking some notes as the meeting was going on. Just wanted to mention a couple of things. Last meeting at the end of the meeting we heard that there's not going to be a rotating drop schedule implemented in the in the fall. I just wanted to mention this because it is is budget related, but I was excited to think about and you you also see on Facebook all of these wonderful electives that are coming up, but it's hard for students who are taking band and other things

125like that to be able to take these electives because they basically just take one elective. So, just saying it in the future, please keep that in mind as you're budgeting as well. Um, I was also disappointed in seeing that we lost money from the state. In the going back in past years looking at their Excel sheets, I think it was 3 years ago they added 834 million to the overall amount that for the all all the districts. 2 years ago it was 910 million that they added. Last year 387 million and this year it seems like it's 372 million. I thought that I'd heard that they were and that's a 3.09% increase over what it was last year in total for all of state aid based on their Excel sheet. So, I was thinking this

126year, you know, especially for districts that had done what they had said, you know, raise your raise your hacksaw lady, that they would have held us harmless like at 0%, but they didn't. And I would encourage you to at least raise it. Okay, so let's look at this again. Also, another thing, uh um Ms. Stults mentioned that if you look at the township's budget and you search for new ratables, you can see uh how much it is and you can see how much they are allowed to go up, but the the board of ed is not allowed to go up. But, if you multiply because you say the board of ed's budget's about four times or the tax levy is about four times that of the um of the townships, then in this past year

127it would be about thousand that you could go up last year, about 479. You may not be able to get those numbers this year from the township until their budget is ready, but just to keep that in mind if you're thinking about getting a 0% um increase, at least go up say that amount. But, in it'd be nice if we didn't have to also rely on the state aid. And if we were more whole and we had it from um from our tax levy, then if the state decides to go down, we'd still be whole. And I think just in looking long term, 2% I would do that. Uh let's see, anything else? Oh, to the gentleman um it looked like I at least usually the numbers for students are counted as of October 20

128uh October, and so you were down 131 students in district and and lately we had three more out of district. It changes every month, you can see that in the agenda. Um like once a month they report it. Uh let's see. I think that's about it for now. Thank you. Are there any more comments at this time? With that, we will close the comment sect- uh section and uh proceed with the agenda. Uh we need to approve minutes. I Are we going back? I thought it was us public Oh, I'm sorry. You're absolutely correct. >> until >> Or we can wait till it comes up. >> Yeah, whatever. >> Let's do that just so that we can get the agenda out of the way. Sounds good. >> Does that make sense? That's under operations, correct?

129So, we have approval of minutes as the next issue. Uh motion to approve executive session minutes. Do I have a motion? So moved. Second. All in favor? I. Motion to approve public meeting minutes. Do I have a motion? >> So moved. Second. All in favor? I. Um the action education >> Thank you. I ask for the board's consideration to approve the following motions in the area of education. Uh professional related expenses, superintendent's HIV determinations, book, revised new curriculum for board approval, overnight trips, staff for multilingual learner summer program preparation work, grant applications, staff for the title three immigrant wrap-around program, and the long-term suspension of student whose name is on file in the office of superintendent. Do we have any comments? From the board? Motion to approve? No. So moved. Second. All in favor? No.

130I. Roll call. Mr. Eckert? Yes. Ms. Jackson? Yes. Ms. Craig? Yes. Ms. Lanning-Bieder? Yes. Mr. Marini? Yes. Ms. Nurse? Yes. Ms. Statz? Yes. Ms. Trahearn? Yes, but no for 11.5. And Mr. Davis? Yes. In the area of operations, and I'll slow this down. Get you up. >> Um I'd ask for human resources. Oh, I skipped human resources. How about that? Okay. Human resources. >> I'd ask for the board's consideration to approve the following motions: retirements and resignations, appointments for 25-26, appointments for 26-27, leaves of absence, AP proctors, co-curricular and intramural advisors, extra coverage, extended school year program staff for 2026, and the suspension of the district employee. Any discussion? Motion to approve? So moved. Second. Mr. Erckrantz? Yes. Ms. Jackson? Yes. Ms. Craig? Yes. Ms. Lenny Beater? Yes. Mr. Marini? Yes. Ms. Nurse? Yes. Ms.

131Stults? Yes. Mr. Hill? Yes. And Mr. Davis? Yes. Okay, in the area of operations, we'll now read through all the motions, and then I believe you guys are going to stop and talk about 13.1, but I'll go through that. I'd ask for the board's consideration to approve the following motions. 13.1 is the 26-27 tentative budget as presented by the superintendent. Uh capital reserve withdrawal for 26-27, maintenance reserve withdrawal for 26-27, professional services maximum expenditures for 26-27, the resolution for travel reimbursement expenses and maximum travel for 26-27 school year, the corrective action plan for semi, the resolution to solicit bids for a tax exempt lease purchase financing, resolution for Lani Associates to prepare submission of schematic and final applications for Triangle Elementary School project, contract for modular classroom installation at Triangle Elementary School project, moving Lani

132Associates to prepare submission of full-day kindergarten classroom bathroom renovations at six elementary schools. Approving the land proposal for structural investigations at Warren Road Intermediate School. Approve a resolution for member participation in a co-op pricing system with Monmouth Ocean Educational Services Commission. Accepting donations, approving monthly bills. Approving the Somerset County Educational Services Commission 2026-2027 school year agreement for participation in transportation coordinated services. Approve the resolution agreement with the Somerset County Educational Services Commission for non-public instructional services school year 2026-2027. And approving out-of-district placements for 2025-2026. And then Mr. President, I'm sure you want to separate some things out for further discussion. Yeah, I would like to I would like to move to separate 13.1 so we can vote on the rest of the items and then come back to 13.1. Jerry, just to That's the intent

133of the board president. Are there any of the other things that need to be separated out as a package as well? I mean the the next few are all part of the budget, but I I don't think they're impacted by the vote on 13.1. So I guess if you're going to call the motion be 13.2 through 13.17. So what what should it be? 13.1 to 13.17? >> 13.2 to 13.17 and we'll go back into 13.1 later. Okay. >> Or you can do 13.1 by itself first, whichever way you want to go. I want to separate 13.1. And we'll come back to it later. Okay. Does that make sense? Yes. >> And that leaves 2 to 17 to act on now. >> And that Yes, that's the motion that you need now. So that's the motion

134to separate 13.1 to discuss further later, but to act now on 2 to 17. I'll second that. Mr. Eggert, will call the roll. Um I have a question. So, with respect to 13.2, which which is the capital reserve withdrawal, um, some board members had indicated some concern about the transportation complex. This motion does not bind the board to move forward with that. It does not. The board will still have to approve a bid if we went out to bid for that project. And this could also be changed at the final budget? Excuse me? Would this if the board after, you know, the 6 weeks said, you know, we don't actually want to do a $7 million transportation project, then at the final budget, could the board then say no to the withdrawal from capital reserve,

135or does this mean capital reserve money is taken? Well, and the board could reduce the capital reserve. The The The entirety of the camp transportation project is not just from the capital reserve withdrawal. I see. Okay, thank you. I think this is true. If I can offer an interpretative question, I think Mr. Hill is asking if we just go ahead with separating 13.1, have we tied our hands in any way? No, I don't believe we have. Okay. 13. All of these will be voted on again as a as part of the final budget. So, 13.2 will be voted on again as part of the final budget. So, all the budget related motions will all have to be approved again a second time on April 30th in some form. Thank you. So, we're move we're voting

136to separate 13.1. And we've had a motion and a second. Mr. Eckert? Okay, so to to separate 13.1, Mr. Aaron Crants? Yes. Ms. Jackson? Yes. Ms. Craig? Yes. Ms. Lanning-Bednarz? Yes. Mr. Moreni? Yes. Ms. Nurse? Abstain. Ms. Stuts? Yes. Mr. Hill? Yes, except no on 13.2. This is just a separate. Oh, just a separate. Oh. Oh, yes. And Mr. Davis? Yes. So, 13.1 is separated. Now, we move to take a vote on items 13.2 to 13.17. That's the motion second. Do we have a motion and a second for that? >> Second. Any discussion? So, we're voting on 13.2 to 13.17. Mr. Ecker? Mr. Erkrance? Yes. Ms. Jackson? Yes. Ms. Craig? Yes. Ms. Lanie Beater? Yes. Mr. Maroney? Yes. Ms. Nurse? Yes. Ms. Stuts? Yes. Mr. Hill? Yes, except no on 13.2. And Mr. Davis? Yes.

137So, we can now open discussion on 13.1. Do we have to You need a motion and a second for 13.1. Say it again. >> You now need a motion and a second for 13.1 and then open discussion. So, I move that we now vote on 13.1. So moved. Second. Second. I said moved, but that's okay. >> Oh, doesn't matter. Now, do we have discussion on 13.1? This is Dr. Volpe's You're not a Mr. Volpe. You're a doctor. Proposed budget. I have a question. Because I don't know. This is I mean it's probably not just in politics, but it seems to be mostly in politics. People spin mostly numbers that I see to support or defend what they hope is to come. So, even tonight, we've heard 0% means zero or we've heard that that, you

138know, clarifying questions like does that mean no difference or zero difference from I think you said or asked about July and December. Zero difference. But, then I see the number that was on the screen that I always come back to cuz that's what I'm interested in and that is the only the difference on a $773,000 house school tax wise. The whether we go zero to 2%. If we go 0%, that is saving that resident a total of $116 on the school tax part. I can't speak to all residents because there's multiple factors involved. >> house. >> I gave the I gave the example of my house that that those are accurate numbers for my house. Yes. So, the having 0% increase if we vote 0% is not true because we have the majority of that

139There was an example where taxes would go up $990, right? Um or Mr. Volpe said even put that back. Like if his goes up 1,000 I don't remember. Only $116 of that 1,000 whatever will be saved if we we go to 2%. I just want to make sure that the numbers are frank and correct and not spun in either way. Okay, cuz we we did talk a lot about numbers. That is a big thing, a big difference. Um I'm 2% all the way because I do never don't want to see us to backslide. Um I I feel important about that, but I'm I'm doing that also based on this. I know that we've taken hits, but for me $116 on one of the more probably expensive houses in Hillsborough compared to cuz we said I

140think the average house was 594,000. So, unfortunately, you know, what I would love to see tonight had I thought about it in advance was, oh, what does that mean tax-wise for that average house, right? Is that much less Is that under $100 then you're going to save? It It sounds like it probably is. That would be my estimate as a person that the average house based on this house, which is a little bit higher priced than the average, might be less than 100. So, this whole debate seems to be on saving the average household $100 if you own a house. About that. I I can actually give you the exact that we did calculate that. Now, >> On the average home, the difference would be $94.20 for the year. For the entire year? Yes. So,

141$7.85 per month. So, to me, that doesn't make sense at all to jeopardize a backslide. To have $94 extra in my thing. I don't even know for like I'm a single mom, too, and I don't know if it gets me and my two kids a dinner for the month. Maybe if I go to Wendy's or something, like I I mean I'm not I don't mean to be flippant, but this is really something that, you know, we work so hard to dig ourselves out of and to I mean we heard the voices of the people that are on the ground. We have the experts sitting with us that, you know, we we think that somethings are needed and maybe I don't think I don't think we I don't know. I have to tell you the truth,

142I have no idea what the license plate reader will do for our district. I will be questioning or researching that over the next month. But, there's a lot of things. You know, I'm a teacher. I said that those supervisors are very important. People who taught K to 6 came up here and they said how valuable having a supervisor is to them. We're talking about all these things that we can't do because we are sacrificing 2.98 million, am I correct? About 2.9 million. About 2.9 million to give everybody back $94. Yeah. Um on top of that, we're going through this whole redistricting exercise where we're trying to open up space at our classrooms, but we know that we're going to be at capacity regardless soon with the redistricting efforts, which means that we have to then

143explore options of where we're going to put kids when we outgrow the the elementary schools we currently have. And how are we going to What are we going to do? How are we going to afford that if we continue to if we allow ourselves to backslide? We have other things that are big projects that need to be done, like our high school. We need to be exploring what we're going to be doing in the future for a new high school. We can't be backsliding with those kind of projects in the future. I just >> I have a I'm sorry. >> wanted to say I'm sorry cuz you know, I wanted you guys to say what you wanted about that, but you know, Mike is great, Mr. Volpe. Mike is great about never wanting to share

144blame point blank. I'm not so great. Um so, it seems to me in looking at the numbers, our bigger fight or problem possibly with the township. Right. And the tax assessments that have to be done that do not have to be done on yearly basis that our township decides to do on a yearly basis. Um my understanding and I am not I am not saying that I am an expert by any stretch. I need to do a lot more learning on this, but my understanding is that actually hurts us with the state aid as well when our tax property tax assessments go up exponentially, right? So, back to that example of where um Mr. Volpe's taxes are going up 16, whatever it was, right? It was on the other side of $1,500 for the year

145for school taxes and we're only saving not uh $116. That means $1,400 or whatever is coming because of the assessment and the taxable rate. And also, I want to be clear. He makes some salient points there, but the the big for the tax increase this year that people are seeing, the biggest factor was last year's tax increase coming over here. Yes, the assessments and everything else do play a factor, but we are still I want to just make sure >> Okay, perfect. Thank you. I forgot about that. Mr. Jackson. Yeah. Um it in all that consideration, I just want to know where you feel the state's accountability stands in all of this. Oh, huge. Okay. >> Huge. Definitely. So, for me, looking at it in this excuse me, myopic way, this is all the result

146of decisions made at a level where none of us agree with it. I I I'm going to venture to say none of us agree with what was done with S-2. None of us agree with what is done by pushing affordable housing, by forcing housing mandates in town that we can't really afford. And and I I wouldn't I would not want to put blame on anyone. That includes the Township Committee because they have their own demons to fight. Okay? We just as we have our issues, they have their issues. And I really I I I would rather have constructive relationship with the Township Committee as opposed to asking why they're doing things because remember, their hands are forced, too. I I am I am frustrated because blame needs to be put where blame is due. And

147I am still struggling understanding with understanding why North got over a billion dollars over the course of S-2. And what results have they shown for it? And here we are pitting pitting against each other. In plain English, that's exactly what's going on here. Okay? And that $94 you're talking about matters to someone. It matters to somebody who doesn't make as much money as maybe you do. It matters to a retired person who, it was mentioned, has to go back to work. And I want to know if this 2% goes through, who's going to go to the tax assessor's office on August 1st and watch. >> Those are all good questions, but please know that I'm allowed to voice my opinion without being attacked up here. Without being attacked. It doesn't mean to be attacked, but

148you know >> feels like it. point, well I certainly feel attacked in some ways, okay? Because I have a different perspective. You can have a different perspective without attacking, okay? I am open to listening to anybody on this board, and I believe I proved that over and over again by fighting for people who were trying to be silenced and anything else. >> And I'm saying what? >> So, I can have an opinion. I can say that I don't think our houses should be tax assessed every year. I'm allowed to say that. Yes, I don't believe that the state I The state has done us wrong. I said that said that numerous times up here. But, I am tired of being the scapegoat because that's exactly what happened, and I don't want to pinpoint anybody. I

149asked early on here when I joined the board, where is our partnership with other boards, with other people in this community? I have asked that on numerous occasions. I've sat there when we talked about other things with Township Council, okay? They threw us under the bus last year, okay? I'm not going to be not be quiet about that, but I shouldn't deserve to be attacked because of what I am saying. >> And I don't know how How How would we How would we How would we thrown under the bus last year? When they blamed us for it. You can go back and read the articles if you'd like, or I can look and try to find it. But, what I'm saying up here is I feel that I am respectful to everybody who has a

150different opinion than me. So, to lash out and I Yes, and maybe that's a strong word, but I It is 9:30 at night. My kid wants to know where dinner is. I sat here and listened to everybody and did it respectfully. So, I'm hoping that people can do the same for me. It is a very divisive conversation. I understand that. I understand that everybody I'm a single mom, too. I have two jobs, all right, to stay here to pay for my wants and needs, all right? I understand how expensive everything is. And I I said to the public that I didn't mean to be flippant. If people need a bigger apology than that, I am very sorry, okay, that I compared it to two cups of coffee, all right, or a dinner out. I'm very

151sorry. I did not mean to offend anybody, all right, at all. But $94, I did it the wrong way then. $94, of course, means something to everyone. Like I said, and I told the committee, I have to make a decision in a couple years, cuz I'm pricing myself out. But I took an oath to do what was best for the school district, okay? And if it benefits the community, in which I think it does, when we do what's best for the schools, then I do think that I'm doing what also could be best for the community. And I'm right there with you with having to cut back and everything else. But I'm going to just stay quiet for the rest of this, but do not attack me for my beliefs. >> feel I attacked you,

152because I don't really think, in all this conversation, some of us trying to remain quiet and not bring politics into it. But the reason why we're here is because of politics. And and and I'm going to ask you, I'm not going to attack you. I'm going to ask you to think of your salary and wonder whether everyone makes as much money as you do. Because whether or not an increase is small or large is all relative to your income and your savings and your job prospects. And we do have a a record amount of layoffs running across the state, and we do have these enormous fiddles. And so just because it seems like it's only a hundred dollars or ninety four dollars doesn't mean that that's in someone's eyes that's not enough. Elaine Maybe if

153you stop putting your eyes totally on me and talk to the public >> I don't need to. I AM SO I AM NOT EVEN LOOKING at you. You were the last person to speak. Can we move to vote? Yes you may. Are there any other comments at this point? Thank you. Can we go back to the slides with the one that in Hillsborough with the bread in the middle? And I'd like to address the comments about the because the public has also spoken about the hundred dollars it's only a hundred dollar increase and I would say that actually I would agree with that to a certain extent because in past years prior to this budget when we went to two percent cap the increase was about a hundred dollars and I think this board has

154always said let's go to cap. Let's go to two percent. It was never really a it wasn't a conversation or a discussion as it is tonight or tonight. And I think the reason for me at least the hundred dollars as I'm learning is that hundred dollars is an increase from July 1st 2026 to December 31st 2026 with some unknown impact in the following year. But as I said in previous years that two percent would have been like it would have been an easy yes. It would have been an easy yes. The problem is that it comes on the heels of last years 26.6 million dollars which was basically on the average home. Well according to my notes here it was last year from July 1st 2025 to December 31st 2025 it was $1,073. $1,073. That

155was one increase for 6 months. For the first half of 2026, the increase is $994. That's the problem. Is that it's a tooth when we voted in May of 20, sorry, April of 2025, that increase was almost $2,000. For the July 1st, 2025 to July June 30th, 2026 school year. That's the problem. It's not the $100. It's when is enough? We we raised taxes last year. I can't in good conscience raise it again. Even if it's only $100 for the 6 months remaining in the year. It just doesn't sit right and it's really the question that I have for myself and for the community and for this board is what's enough for this for this district? And I would also challenge the assumption. I think it's an maybe like from what I've heard with the

156community is that spending more money it's like means seems to mean a better education. I don't necessarily I don't agree with that. I think as Miss Santos was talking about is that spending money efficiently and I Mr. Roby have to commend you on that is that what's best for the kids. At the same time it's what's best for their families. That is as one of our community members said is that families are struggling. And you know, as you said Miss Jackson, like everybody has a different circumstance. My circumstance is surprise at the number, but it's really it's the $100. Yeah, I would agree it's it's not that big of a deal if it were just $100. It's the the that came before it. And that's why I'm a 0% voter. And actually, just one more

157thing, and I'm not suggesting this, but we are not actually limited to 0%. We can actually go to any I would not I would not suggest that, but I just want to clarify that this board could reduce the tax levy to help out those who didn't expect the $995 increase this year for the first half. I'm not suggesting that. Mr. Stubbs. I just want to reiterate um whether or not we have 0% or 2%. It's no guarantee that uh people alluded to class sizes of 34. Um either budget does not help with that. So, um but and either budget can help that, even a 0% depending on what we could choose to eliminate, like the $7 million transportation complex could be replaced by a 4 million 3 million 4 million upgrade to the Bloomingdale facility

158um and then leave several million dollars for additional staff, including teachers. So, it's not like you're if you choose 0% um no teachers, no extra staff. If you uh choose 2%, that will happen. That's not happening as of now, but again, we can make that happen whatever whichever way we go. I have process question. Uh if we were to approve the 2% budget and through continuing debate uh decide to eliminate some of the items that were specified as where the money would be spent. If we were to actually end up with for lack of a better word an excess where we didn't spend all the money that was raised by the levy. You'd be You'd you'd be escrowing the money. Hm? It's an It's an escrow. Well, Mr. Eckert, what happens if you have more

159money than you spend? At the end of the year when the audit's done, that would be either rolled into surplus or our capital maintenance reserve accounts. What happens to surplus? Surplus is in our In this current budget, 4.5 million of surplus is budgeted as a revenue, so that would need to be regenerated every year. Um anything above that amount can either roll to capital reserve or can roll to maintenance reserve or eventually could go for tax relief. How long can it remain in surplus? Does it have to move to capital >> So we're So we're capped for our surplus every year when the audits are auditors here is capped at our excess surplus, they call it, is capped at 2% of our um current year's budget, current year's expenditures. So we can only have So

160for for easy math, if our expenditures were a million dollars, we could have 2 million in that excess surplus. That would could just sit in surplus, will be held for future use. Um that would be after the 4.5 million that would go with for fund balance. Um So that's still a 2% increase. What was that, Mark? It's still a 2% increase. Yeah. Then then you're not voting on 0% 2%, that's 2%. It's just unallocated and you'll spend it later. I saw the microphone speak over here. Yeah, speak into your microphone, sir. Hello. And I'll just put this out there. There's a lot of talk of a $100 a year. I can tell you that my mortgage payment over this time last year is up over $200 a month. So it affects different people differently. It

161also affects your escrow because now you're behind on the escrow and they have to catch up on your escrow. So it just There's knock-on effects. Mr. Marini. Um so I I I would voting for the 2% and I think my recommendation would be to dig into what that 2% is, what that represents, and a discussion by the board to use that in the best way possible. Have the options to spend that appropriately. Maybe that is an increase in teachers. There are items with that 2 million. But sorry, the 2%. Any other comments? This is not a motion, it's a question. Are we ready to vote? Yes, please. Okay, I move to vote on item 13.1. Yes means I will I'll just explain. So a yes would mean we approve the 2% budget as proposed by

162Mr. Volpe, which will be further discussed and worked on until it becomes a final budget. A no means we're simply rejecting the 2% proposal, at which time we would need to open the floor for an alternative. We cannot adjourn tonight without voting on some budget. Okay? So I move to vote on 13.1. Do I have a second? Someone. Second. Mr. Ecker. Mr. Ergrance. No. Ms. Jackson. No. Ms. Craig. Yes. Ms. Lanie Buder. Yes. Mr. Marini. Yes. Ms. Nurse. Yes. Ms. Stuts. No. Mr. Reo. No. And Mr. Davis. I'm going to vote yes. Motion passes. And not for the applause, but for stability, for lack of another word, uh I am one of the senior citizens living on a fixed income. And I am in a lot of pain because of how we've been screwed over

163by the state government. And I identify with comments that have been made earlier about people who are deeply affected. Um and Ms. Jackson is entirely right. The problem is Trenton. The misguided philosophies that are being foisted upon us. And we're being asked to pay for all this baloney that's happening all over the state. Towns having to sell school buildings. From South Jersey all the way up. Other districts are spending tens of thousands of dollars on parties. I mean, really, give me a break. Where does this get addressed? And how do we address it? And when do we get a chance to protest? And to some extent, voting for a zero budget for me felt very much like it was very emotional decision for me. And voting for zero budget for me would have been a

164protest vote because this stinks. And everybody's right for complaining about it. But in balance, I feel that my yes vote is necessary for now. Um but it doesn't mean I like one nickel of it. We have a couple of other items. Thank you. And now for the board's consideration to approve the following policies and regulations. Uh Uh policies and reviewed by the governance committee for second reading and regulations reviewed by the human resources committee for second reading. I have a motion. So moved. Second. Any discussion? Mr. Eckert, yes. Okay. Ms. Jackson? Yes. Ms. Craig? Yes. Ms. Leadingham-Biter? Yes. Mr. Rooney? Yes. Ms. Nurse? Yes. Ms. Stuts? Yes. Mr. Hill? Yes. And Mr. Gibbs? Yes. Uh we have another opportunity for public comments. We very much welcome input from the public. There's a clipboard for all

165participants to write their name. Before commenting, please state your name and address. There is a 3-minute time limit on public comment. Please understand that our public forums are not structured to question and answer sessions, but rather are offered as opportunities to share your thoughts with the board. In instances where the board believes that there is a misunderstanding or inaccuracy, the board president or superintendent will address the comments. There may be times when a member of the public makes a comment or asks a question about personnel or hiring decisions. Kindly note that the open public meetings act and the privacy rights of public employees encompassed therein do not permit the board to discuss personnel issues in public session. Thank you. Sir. Uh good evening again. Steve Sloan, 10 Wolf Drive. So, you had a 5-4 vote

166uh passed uh the tentative budget and hopefully over the next month at least one board member will change their mind uh and maybe it'll be a five-four vote going the other way. That was a very insightful comment by one board member that you know, you're not limited to a 0% or 1% or 2%. You could actually have a 2% reduction uh based upon the increase we had last year. Uh nevertheless, I don't want to belabor it because and in my experience over 20 years, I don't haven't seen that change between the tentative budget date and the final budget date. I don't think there's ever I've ever seen that. Um just wanted to uh give a little history because I heard some board members talking about the Hillsborough High School referendum to build a new high

167school and give a little history because I've been around a long time. Uh in the '90s, in 1996, we had a $65 million referendum to build the new high school where we're standing right now. You know, on Road. It failed. In 1997, we then reduced it to $60 million to build a new high school in the same location. That also failed. And in 1998, we dropped it down to $39.9 million uh uh to build the front part of Auten Road School and the science and technology wing of the high school. And that passed. Uh thankfully. I think that the decision to build a high school has has already been made by the public 30 years ago. Uh to revisit that again uh 30 years later, I think would be it would be unfortunate. I I

168think it would it would involve uh a lot of debate uh very I've much probably more louder than we heard tonight. So, uh I would encourage the board to move on to other things and try to do what they can to make the high school better uh with the existing building. And also to consider deferring the $12 million transportation facility for 1 year in order to uh get some tax savings. Thank you. Thank you. Henry Goodhue, Hillsborough Education Association. Um over the years I've offered and I would like to offer again to Mr. Davis as president that the board join with us in advocating for funding reforms. I've been incredibly vocal about this in Trenton. Mr. Volpe has as well. Um we do have an issue with funding. It needs to be fixed. We're in

169a position now where S2 is and there is possibly the opportunity to do that, but I think it's incredibly important that all voices be included in that. So, Mr. Davis, I want to just extend that to you and let you know if you and Mr. Volpe want to continue working on that as he and I often speak about the formula. I would welcome that collaboration to speak on behalf of our community and fight for what we feel is fair for our community. I commend the board for what they went through tonight. That is not easy. It's 10:01, so I won't keep you here longer. But I do want to come back quickly to the point that was made um about well, some of the debate rather, about the transportation facility. I know that it's easy

170to look at that one and ask why. I just want to provide some context for some of the folks who may or may not have been into some of the less uh the less welcoming parts of that building, specifically some of the bathrooms that are in the bottom for the men who use that part. In the spring, and soon enough it's probably coming, flies will erupt from the urinals in there like Amityville. To the point where you can't flush, and we had to put rubber corks in those urinals to stop the flies from coming out and a fan in the doorway. And if you walk through that building, you can see all the different supports that have been put in over the years. Some I would argue are probably older than me, to hold that

171building up, to stop it from sinking into the ground. And if you wonder why your bus is late, it's because we can't fix them in that facility. We have 54 passenger buses and no ability to do the maintenance on them that is fully required. We're getting by. So, that that space, what we're doing there is indicative of what we're doing in every single one of these buildings. We're getting by on infrastructure, and it does impact the kids. And HVAC improvements absolutely impact the kids. So, I encourage all of you to take a look at that, but please don't discount the transportation hub, where we have close to 100 dedicated people working in some of the worst conditions in the entire district, and where we can make improvements, however you decide, that will absolutely benefit these

172kids, whether it's bringing more buses in because we can be more consistent and we can save costs there, and giving those people a more dignified work environment for the critical supports they provide for our students. Thank you. Thank you. Alicia Gaither again. I still live in Hillsborough. Haven't moved in the last hour or so. Um okay. So, listening in, >> Um It would be interesting in hearing about the surplus. Um if you could possibly save more than 2% um especially if after doing all the necessary upgrades you still have money left over that we don't need to put into the school for extra teachers or something of that nature because we were we raised the taxes so much last time. It'd be interesting if you could work with the state to help put money away.

173If you could if that would ever get high enough to help pay for a new high school so that a referendum for new high school would not be as hard. Just saying that. Um Also, just putting on a different hat. I'm the president of the middle school. Just wanted to announce thank you for everyone who came to our STEM event on Pi Day. Uh it was really awesome. Wanted to thank all of the volunteers that came including the Hillsborough Police Department, the coding school of Montgomery, our awesome media specialist. She talked about our 3D printer. The two FTC teams and the one FRC that came. Uh we had three anatomy students come and everyone was really excited to dissect eyes and brains that the district was able to help us obtain. Um retired dentist, uh

174my mom, uh talked about suturing and showed a model of the teeth. Uh we had we talked about density and with marbling so it was it had an art effect to it as well. Uh one of our volunteers got into ace acids and base. We had ice cream making. We had a lovely math table. Uh some students built paper tow- towers ahead of time. Lots of students made uh projects that were wonderful. We had volunteers from Girl Scouts, robotics volunteers, parent volunteers. Um oh, and also sorry, I forgot. We had four nurses come uh and they did hand washing, vital signs, injections of oranges, talking about telehealth equipment. I'm probably forgetting a couple other things. They were from Hunterdon Medical Center. Really appreciate that everyone came out and made it such a great day. Thank

175you. Thank you. Any other comments? Cassie, do you have anything to report? This is definitely like lighter topic than everything we were talking about, but if you guys just want to like smile, I'll tell you a little bit about the high school cuz we've been doing pretty good as from what I see. A smile would be good. So, student council, we've been preparing for spirit night, which is just this night where all the grades get together, we compete against each other. And it's like a year-long process. It's like spirit year, and then we have spirit points throughout the year. It's really fun. We've been getting ready for that cuz it's on May 1st, and it's going great so far. And I'll let you guys know about that later as well. Um and then a lot

176of our academic teams like robotics, FBLA, and debate have had success in all of the tournaments recently. And we also had a senior citizen dinner in February where the senior citizens from Hillsborough came to the high school and we served them pasta and salad and everything, and they had they danced and stuff, and it was really fun. And that's it. Thank you. I am smiling. Mr. Marini. Yes. So, for those who follow youth sports, this past week was the CONCACAF, which is the soccer tournament where people qualify for the World Cup, Uh, and they're doing it at the U-17 level. There's a couple of New Jersey players that are there. One from Flemington on the US national team, East Brunswick on the Puerto Rican national team, and we have our own student, Anya Lopez Acuna,

177who is the goalkeeper for the Mexican national team. >> Mhm. They went undefeated. She allowed She played all three games as their starting keeper. I think allowed one goal over the three games, and they qualified for a World Cup. So, one of our students is going to the World Cup. Congratulations. We'll be We'll be recognizing athletes at the April 13th meeting. So, we'll make sure that she is here if she's back. Yeah, we'll make sure Yeah, she's here as well. I'd love to congratulate her. Thanks. Mr. Teds. I'll try to make this quick. Um, I just want to talk about some things that I attended. Uh, I went to the uh Suessical musical Suessical the musical at the high school on March 1st, of course. So much talent, very entertaining and and fun. Um, and

178I went to uh the STEM summit on March 14th, otherwise known as Pi Day and Einstein's birthday. And I won't go through everything Miss uh uh uh Cabot Bayliss uh summarized it beautifully. Uh, but it was a great to see the students participating and also presenting their science fair projects and and uh uh really explained it very well. Um, uh last Wednesday, I went to I'm the liaison for the Garden State Coalition of Schools. So, I went to a meeting there, and we had a speaker, uh Micah uh Rasmussen. His topic was how public education can survive and even flourish in today's political and educational environment, and uh it was followed by discussion about the uh budget issues, especially the high cost of health benefits. Um, but last, but most importantly, um Mr. Reo and

179I went to an event uh sponsored by the Somerset County School Board Association called Unsung Heroes. And um from the districts in the county, uh a student each district honored a specific student. And Mr. DeLello spoke on behalf of Owen Thai. Uh and it was very moving and um well earned. Uh and it was a it was a great event that recognized students that otherwise would not be recognized. Excellent. If there are no more comments, Yep. Motion to adjourn. >> So moved. Second. All in favor? Aye. >> Aye.