001I'd like to call this meeting to order. Please stand for the pledge. >> I aliance to the flag of the United States of America to the republic for it stands. One nation under Godisible with liberty and justice for all. Public notice of this meeting was advertised in the Asbury Park Press on January 13, 2026. A notice was provided to central jersey.com on January 15, 2026. Notice has been posted in accordance with the Open Public Meetings Act of 1975, chapter 231, effective January 16th, 1976 in the board office, 370 Broad Street. A copy of this notice is also on file in the office of the burough clerk. Members of the public wishing to address the board of education on both agenda and non-aggenda items must state their name, address, and are requested to limit their comments
002to five minutes when it appears the public comment portion of the meeting may exceed 30 minutes in duration. The public participation portion of the meeting is open to citizens for the purpose of addressing agenda and non-aggenda items. Issues raised by members of the public might require review and investigation and may or may not be responded to by the board or superintendent during the meeting. All comments will be considered and a response will be forthcoming if and when appropriate. The board asks that members of the public be courteous and mindful of the rights of individuals when speaking. Specifically, comments regarding students and employees of the board are discouraged and will not be responded to by the board. Students and staff have specific legal rights afforded by the laws of New Jersey. The board bears no responsibility,
003nor will it be liable for any comments made by any member of the public. This meeting is being tape recorded for the purpose of board review and future reference and to assist in the preparation of minutes. QR codes are available at each board meeting to access the agenda. Mr. Rapola, roll call, please. >> Mrs. Abrahamson, >> here. >> Miss Cunningham, >> here. >> Mr. Fopoulos. Mrs. Grabowski >> here. >> Mr. Yubler, >> here. >> Miss Cahane. >> Mr. Stall here. Mr. Staley here. >> Mrs. divis we have a quorum. >> Thank you. Uh we do not have a student representative this evening. So we will go to our first um agenda item, the budget discussion. Dr. Seavoya and Mr. Rabola. Okay. Good evening everybody. Let me turn it on though. Oh, it is on. Okay.
004So maybe I just need to be louder. Okay, I don't know why that thing is on the top, but we're going to go through this as a group. So, hold on one second. Okay, welcome everyone. As you see above the or all the members of the board of education and I do thank each and every one of them for the work they do on a daily basis for all of us here in Keport. >> Is there a way Mr. >> I was just gonna ask if I can get off the screen. >> Oh, okay. Okay. Well, I I mean I'll start talking a little bit because what you'll see once he removes that are the statement of priorities. Looks like it's something on the television or something. Yeah. I don't know. says off CC1 CC2
005close caption you got Oh, there you go. Okay, so now put the Thank you. Okay, now we'll go through. Okay, before we review the financial details of the budget, it is important to start with our priorities for students and the district. Everything in this budget is guided by these key focus areas. We remain committed to maintaining a safe and supportive learning environment, strengthen home and school partnerships, and ensuring all students have equitable access to learning opportunities. We also continue to support athletics and co-curricular programs, invest in technology and assessment systems, and focus on professional development for our staff so that they can pro provide the best instruction possible and increase student achievement. Finally, we remain focused on protecting our investments and planning for the future, particularly when it comes to facilities and technology. At the
006core of all of this is our goal, providing students with the resources they need in an equitable capacity while remaining mindful of the impact to our taxpayers, of which I am one. The budget process, the process begins in the fall when budgeting information is shared with our admin team. Departments review their needs and align requests with our district priorities and our strategic plan. Throughout the winter, we continue working through different fiscal scenarios while waiting for the final stages and figures. This year, state aid numbers were released on March 12th as we had a new governor and they were uh released two days later. From that point, the board reviews the budget through several meetings before the public hearing and final adoption this spring. Oh, sorry. I'm going back. Sorry. Okay. This slide helps explain how
007state aid is determined and how keyort is impacted by the bogan funding formula. The funding formula looks at a few key factors. First, which is resident enrollment, which helps determine growth or decline in the district. The decline of student enrollment is impacting districts across the state of New Jersey. Second, student demographics where populations such as our lowincome students, special education, and English language learners are weighted more heavily. And third is the local fair share which is based on property values and income within the community. Using this formula, the state calculates that keyport's local fair share is in excess of 15 million. However, because we are limited to the 2% tax tax levy, we're only able to raise about 12.4 locally, which contributes to the funding gap. Our reduction of state aid was projected to be
008625,000 but the enforcement of the 3% cap reduced our projected loss down to 165,000. So if you see at the top it says resident enrollment we are losing enrollment that does contribute as well. Okay these enrollment trends as discussed in the previous slide an important factor that impacts our funding is enrollment. As you can see, over the past 7 years, resident enrollment has steadily declined from 833 students in 2019 to approximately 750 this year. That is a decrease of 83 students. We're hopeful that with our uh the addition of our three-year-olds coming to school that we're going to increase that enrollment that this matters in the state aid calculations because it's de h excuse me, sorry, directly tied to enrollment. As enrollment declines, the amount of aid that the district receives declines as well. So,
009while many of our costs continue to increase, our revenue from state aid does not keep pace, which adds to the financial challenges that we have discussed. Okay. One of the biggest challenges school districts face is balancing the rising costs with a 2% tax levy cap set by the state. Like many districts across the state of New Jersey, we continue to see increases in health insurance, utilities, salaries, and pension contributions. From this upcoming budget year, those increases totaled about $1.365 million. However, under the cap, two points in keyboard equates to $244,000. So, as you can see, the cost increasing sign significantly exceed what we're allowed to raise locally, creating that funding gap, which we must manage through careful bud budgeting and adjustments in other areas. reasons why boards can go over a 2% cap. In New
010Jersey, we're limited to a 2% increase, as I've said numerous times, but there are specific situations where districts are permitted to go above that cap. One reason is an increase in student enrollment, which can require additional resources and staffing. Another is health benefits. When health care costs rise significantly, districts are allowed to apply for that adjustment waiver above the cap to offset those increases. Finally, there's something called bank cap, which allows districts to carry forward unused taxing authority from previous years and apply them to future budgets. For keyport at a 4.9% increase that we're proposing um as the administrator, I am proposing there will be some bank cap available which provides additional flexibility as we work towards balancing the 2028 29 budget. Okay. One of the biggest cost drivers, as I've said again, is health
011care. The state health care benefits, which Keeper does not possess, increased by 31.9%. After uh accounting for the 2% threshold, districts are allowed to apply for up to 29.9% adjustment to help offset the increase. For Keyport, our actual increase is 23.5%, which equates to approximately 809,000 in additional cost. This adjustment is critical because it allows us to address the rising costs while still maintaining our programs and services for our students. As we work through this budget, the reality we faced with the 2% cap alone is not enough to cover the rising costs. As we discussed, the balance of the budget to maintain our programs and staffing that proposed budget includes a total increase of 4.9%. This includes the standard 2% increase along with the additional adjustment to help uh adjust to the rising costs of
012health insurance and other operational expenses such as utilities. Based on these figures from the state, the district could have gone up to 6.1% but we were very mindful of the impact on our taxpayers. We have already made significant reductions to operating as lean as possible. This includes cutting services, reducing supplies, reacallocating funding, including one of the grants that I'll speak to later on in the presentation allowed us to offset a salary for our literacy coach in an effort to preserve this staffing. We have utilized every available tool to avoid staff reductions and to maintain equitable programs for the students here in Keyport. Even with these efforts, clubs remain a significant cuts remain a significant part of the budget. Our goal throughout this process has been to balance financial responsibility with maintaining opportunities for our students.
013At this point, I'm going to shift over to Mr. Rapola, who will walk us through many of the financial details. >> Thank you. Good evening. So I want to first start off uh with our revenues and in 2526 uh after the tax levy incentive um the tax levy was 12.2 million. We are proposing a 4.9% increase uh which is the 2% and as Dr. Seavoya mentioned 2.9% uh for for a uh health adjustment waiver. Uh our other revenue are as follows. Our tuition, which is what we get from Union Beach, uh students who who attend our district is up 278,000. Now, they are sending us less students than the past, but I have a slide that will speak uh to that amount a little bit later. Our state sources are down 142,000. What we call
014state aid is down 165,000, but the software, the budgeting software makes reference to state sources. I don't want to get too in the weeds or be confusing. Um but there's something included in that called extraordinary aid which is funding that we are allowed to get after a school year um for extraordinary special education cost. If certain students have really extraordinary uh cost for for their programming we can get a percentage of that back from from the state. So in this situation um we are projecting an increase in our extraordinary aid. So, while our state aid is down 165, for state source purposes, we're showing a decrease of 142,000. Uh, the withdrawals from our reserves uh is also decreased and our use of fund balance is increased. In the past, we used 500,000 in tuition reserve.
015We've moved that 500,000 at the end of the last audit to fund balance. So between the tuition reserve amounts and the fund balance amounts, we're we're pretty much flat in what we're using uh from our reserves. One concern moving forward is that we the last couple years have not been able to make the deposits into our uh reserves that we have had historically made. So our reserves are getting lower. uh miscellaneous and enterprise revenue are the revenue that we get in in two places primarily uh the sale of our SREx uh from our solar roof and also uh interest that we receive uh on our accounts. And here are our cost and we're showing a a decrease in regular instruction of 192,000. That decrease is made up from a a a cut in educational supplies
016as well as a a staff adjustment. Uh one staff member that was getting charged previously as a regular education uh teacher uh has moved uh to special education. Um so the salary is not included in that. It shows up under special education instruction cost. And you will see that our special ed instruction cost in the next line is up almost uh an equivalent amount of $194 uh,000. Our tuition, which is this is what we pay to send our students uh to other places. Uh we are required to uh we pay out of district tuition for some added district special education placements for Mammoth County vocational school students uh as well as the uh magnet students. Uh here in the general budget, we're projecting uh tuition cost of 1.242 million. There's an asterisk next to the
017word tuition. And that's because our actual tuition cost, well, we I'm sorry, we're able to charge $270,000 to a federal uh idea grant. Uh so our real tuition cost is approximately 1.5 million and change but what's getting what's getting uh appropriated to taxpayers uh in the general budget is uh one 1.2 million. our operation of maintenance and plants, which is basically uh you know what it takes to run our our buildings. Uh you know that includes things like utilities, uh insuranceances, not health insurance, uh like property and casualty insurance, uh custodial cost, maintenance cost. Uh we're projecting an increase of $55,000. We're projecting an employee benefit increase of 799,000. Um the entire incost the entire increase is in health insurance benefits. Um, in fact, there are some benefit areas that we had to decrease uh
018in order to to get to only a $799, which I know that that sounds ridiculous, but uh you know, the actual health benefit costs are going up over $800,000. employee benefits in total, which do include some other things like uh social security contributions, pension contributions, um unemployment, uh a few different other uh items. Uh vacation and sick day payout when when when people retire. Um but that amount in total is scheduled to increase 799,000. Administrative costs are uh scheduled uh to be decreased slightly and co-curricular activities that's that's clubs clubs and activities uh scheduled to increase by 21,000. Now I want to draw attention to this number. Uh we honestly have not increased uh any clubs or activities from our our current budget this year. The reason uh that number is higher is because when
019we budgeted last year the 88,452 we actually ended up running a few more programs uh there were a few extra clubs that we did end up running. So what our costs are to run these programs currently are 109,000 and that's the amount we have uh proposed to run those again next year. Uh continuing on with cost, you you will see a decrease uh in athletics of 39,000. That is not a cut in any sports programs. It's not a cut in any coaching. Uh it is a decrease in some athletic surprise uh not surprise, sorry, supplies. I'm sorry. uh health services uh are scheduled uh excuse me to uh decrease slightly. support services and that's things like child study team guidance counseling uh you see that increasing slightly uh instructional services it's things like the curriculum
020department uh decreasing slightly and then I want to draw attention to transportation and there's a slide on it uh transportation u as a matter of fact I prefer to just go to the slide right now make it easier uh all right so this is the historical transportation cost from 2020 uh on and you see it climbing significantly and that was driven by uh a lack of supply of drivers primarily. Um, and you see us in 2425 hitting a max of 1,51,000 and then we budgeted in the 2526 year uh 1,ion40,000. The first time you see us not climbing and now you see it turning the other way. uh and that that well to be honest with you this was projected before the gas the gas prices started spiking and I'm not positive yet how that's
021going to impact things but uh this is a result of the state has loosened the uh requirements in what it takes to drive uh uh to get your bus driving license. um in that also brought in increased the supply of drivers uh which is had an effect on on on the market and so I really feel that our transport if I had to guess a number I'm thinking our transportation costs are going to be maybe 930,000 next year but in order to make this budget work at 4.9% and we really weren't comfortable proposing anything more than that. Um, we had to make cuts in in lots of areas. So, there are areas where we've underbudgeted without a doubt. Uh, but I mean that's going to happen because there's areas where we overbudget. We think an
022area is going to be an expense for something's going to be a certain number and we end up saving money in in that year. So, it's not an exact science, but I do know that this is one number I'm very uncomfortable with. Um, I I I hope that we're looking at 829, but I'm going to imagine at some point next year, you may see me looking to transfer uh make a transfer into transportation. We'll see what happens, but we need this number in order to balance the budget. Uh, use of fund balance, uh, which is amounts that we're using from a previous budget and carrying into the next budget. Oh, I'm sorry. I jumped. I just started proceeding. Let me go back to where we were. I apologize. Uh we were on that we were
023here trans. Okay. Thank you. Thank uh c capital outlay. Um there's an increase here in capital outlay which is is primarily for an elevator that is not working in the high school. We have the elevator is uh it's over 40 years old. Um, and right now we're not compliant ADA. Uh, it's the, uh, only elevator that goes to all floors in the school. Uh, we are going to have to to get that fixed. Uh, most of that money will be coming out of Capitol Reserve. historical tuition from Union Beach um you know 26 28 22 2 and then 23 24 jumped up to 28 they went to contract with many more students than they actually sent us that year. Um, as a result, um, when you pay when you have to refund when we have
024to refund Union Beach if they went to contract for too much or if we have to charge, uh, them additional money if they went to contract for too less, uh, it's always two years behind by the time the audits, uh, catch up, uh, to the actual audited expenses. So, that 2.8 million was was higher than it should have been that year, and we knew that. So, while we kept we made sure we finished that year with uh an amount of money that was going to carry over in fund balance into a following year because we knew we really have a right to spend that money uh because it we knew there'd be a refund coming. Uh you see that refund appearing in 2526 when when the number went down to 1.8 million. Uh that number
025would have been in the neighborhood of like 2 2 2.3 million if we weren't giving them the refund we were required to give them from 2324 and in 2627 you see it increasing $300,000 which is that's a great thing. Um, however, that is including $286,000 uh extra that they owe us from uh under contracting uh with us uh from from last year. So, um I feel like the real number if we didn't have to worry about audited cost with what they're sending us now students are sending us presently, you know, it's probably would be in the neighborhood of about 1.8 million. And historically, we're used to uh a much larger amount of revenue than that from from Union Beach. And as you can see, our costs continue to increase. That's one revenue area that we
026would want to see uh increase as well. So our health insurance is up 25%. Uh the state is up 31.9%. So most schools the majority of schools are with the state health benefits. We are fortunate this year, not fortunate to have a 23 and a half percent increase, but we are fortunate to not have state health benefits because that would have been a 31 uh.9% increase. Um, and that, you know, that's an extra eight and a half%. Uh, you know, it's probably an additional $400,000 to us if if we had to, you know, if if we we did have state health benefits. In addition to that, if we did have Oh, I'm sorry. Uh we In addition to that, other insuranceances uh the insurance market in general has been skyrocketing uh and our other insuranceances
027are scheduled to go up 16.17%. Um I know I was asked uh by someone you know maybe you should share with the public uh why do these companies give you any reason as to why the the uh increases are going up so much? And you know, you may have heard or you may not have heard, uh, the number one factor by far that the insurance companies claim, uh, is this, I don't know if I'm saying it correct, is a GLP is that it's a drug uh, uh, I believe is well, it's a weight loss uh, category weight loss drug. Um, that I guess uh, the insurance companies are it's an extreme cost. the insurance company's claim. Now, in the governor's budget address last week, she brought drew attention to that and stated uh that that
028is one area that the state has to that the state's working with insurance companies and they have to make adjustments to the prices of uh of what you can charge for those drugs because she recognizes we're not the only we're definitely not the only school district uh in the state that's struggling with increase in health benefits. So, I'm sure her people have expressed to her um the impact that the drugs specifically are are having. Um so, I I think moving forward, you know, I think you'll probably see I hope we're going to see some kind of adjustments to that. Um I I went through the transportation cost before. This is our use of fund balance. you know, we've had to increase that over the years. Um, the difference between this year and next year is
029we're down 500,000 in tuition reserve instead of that money was put into was left in fund balance. So, it's really pretty much a flat revenue between the two. Uh prek is one area where our funding has continued to increase and and you see it from under 700,000 in 2223 to we are now um at 1.58 million. Uh part of that has to do with expanding our prek from four year olds to three and four year olds. Uh but this is one area where we we did gain. I mentioned that we uh have capital project in the budget of an elevator which is at a cost of 171,000 debt service. If you remember um approximately six years ago perhaps uh we the the community board passed a referendum uh I believe $6.7 million of improvements uh
030in the school districts. Um I felt a a very successful uh referendum uh huge huge support. You know, I don't believe many referendums in in the district had passed prior to to that one, but it really seemed like uh with board members out there and with public uh community members out there, uh we were able to drum up and I think it I feel that it passed overwhelmingly and we really were able to get air condition in the schools. Uh we solved some drainage problems. We installed secure vestibules. um a number of things that that bettered the schools. It was one of those situations where uh well I'll talk about another slide about how the cost came in but anyway uh we had to borrow that money. We borrowed it from the Mammoth County Improvement
031Authority over uh 20 years and like any loan you have to make payments uh on that and that's what we call debt service. So our annual payment for 2627 that we have to make for borrowing that money is 1.237 million. Debt service aid is an amount of money that the state gives us for the project work we did under the referendum. Remember part of the attraction of was going out to a referendum is if these projects which 90 something% of the projects did satisfied uh what's needed for state support the state would kick in a certain percentage of the cost of of those upgrades. So this is the state making their contribution to those upgrades of 46,000. When we finished the projects, we finished Let me I just gota go to that slide. When we
032finished the projects, they came in at 1.5 million under budget, which was wonderful to have something come in under budget for once. Uh but that money has to go back to the taxpayers uh over time. So, what we've decided to do with that 1.5 million is to give back 250,000 of it uh as a credit to the debt service uh each year. And at the end of our audit in uh June of 2025, we had $779,000 remaining to return. So the 250 that we are putting into this and the state's 406 that they give us that's a total of 656 leaves us leaves the taxpayers with $580,000 at the as their portion uh that they need to pay for the debt service. this with this slide I'm just stressing salaries are going up $430,000. Um
033there's we can't do anything about that increase. Utilities this year are going up $105,000 and for the last number of years we were budgeting relatively flat for utilities and we were uh okay with that. However, the year that we're in now, we've had to make transfers into utilities, and what we're projecting next year is an increase of about $105,000 in utilities. Uh, all insuranceances combined are up about 850,000. So, those three categories alone are up $1.385 million. Our total general fund increase in this budget is $700,000. And the reason I'm pointing to this is to say be in order to get in order to be able to balance that 1.385 million increase and only increase the general fund overall 700,000. We had to find $685,000 in other areas to cut. Uh And that's a lot
034of cuts. You know, in in a perfect world, we would have been able to keep those uh those things in the budget. Um what are some of those things? Well, one of them's a a maintenance truck uh the district severely needed uh needs. Uh there are cuts in supplies that, you know, we'd love to have. Uh there are, excuse me, I mentioned uh the transportation uh how I feel that we're under budgeting in in transportation. Uh we were able to uh there's a staff member who uh you know makes close to $100,000. We're able to uh from applying for a grant, we were able to move her salary into into a grant. Uh so you know we we are making sacrifices if we don't want it to appear as if uh you know we're just
035going crazy spending things on whatever we want to spend. So how does it impact the taxes at a 4.9% increase? Uh you will see that ratables for the bureau have increased 7.91%. The assessed ratables. The average home in 2526 was $463,000 is valued at the new valuation of an average home is $52,000. So with the uh projected tax levy of 12.8 8 million which is a 4.9% increase. The tax rate would become 0.009629. So on an average home the annual school tax uh the annual payment to school taxes would be $4,840 which is an increase of $254 from last year. Um you would also get a $2 increase on the debt service. uh explain what the debt service is. Well, those payments are going up uh uh uh $2 as well. So, the total increase
036on an average house uh is $256. Um which I believe is in the neighborhood of $21. Uh >> 2133. >> Thank you. 2133. Uh we know that's not peanuts. Uh you know, we know every dollar matters. Um it I there's no way I can honestly say there is no way to do this budget for less and keep the current staff, you know, to not cut by. There's absolutely nothing left in this budget to cut other than other than staff. And even if you even at the 4.9, you know, it is going to impact us in two years because we are not carrying the fund. We're not going to be finishing off next year with the kind of money left over that we typically would. Uh this budget is beyond beyond lean. We're going to struggle
037just to just to finish the year under budget. So, you know, that's an impact, too. But the beauty of it or if I shouldn't say beauty of it uh how do I want to say this the the wish or or make what the perhaps the shining star that might be out there uh is that we are not unique uh every every district's getting killed with the health benefits. So, it's not just little keyport complaining or or saying this formula has to change. Uh, everyone is banging that drum right now. Everyone and we just got a a a new governor, meaning with a new regime, uh they typically this would be the time to implement a new funding formula. So, uh I feel like uh there is the chance that with uh a new funding formula,
038I think the best chance of a new funding formula uh happening for next year, I think there's a best chance of it happening than what we've ever had of actually seeing a new funding formula. And we can only hope that that will bring more money uh into the district uh for the future. I'm gonna give it back to Dr. Seavoy. So, I want to really take a moment to reflect on the positive action steps that are being taken within the district. Um, if you look on to the left, that is over $1.5 million in revenue that this district has generated. And that's with the support and and hard work of staff members, administrators, teachers, everybody pulling in because very often, you know, we have a lot of struggles in the district. But we say these
039kids in Keyboard High School are going to go places and they deserve equity and opportunity as well. So this team, some of which are behind me and the union president all know that we're in this together and we're generating revenue to bring new and extra programming, different, you know, competitive programming to the students of Keport. So we're not sitting idle and not trying to generate revenue in any capacity. Um, you know, I I give big credit to the team members behind me because they, let me tell you, they write amazing grants and and the staff members that you have. You know, Mr. Rapola referred to a staff member. We have to be careful for uh protection purposes, but that person is a rock star and we are so happy to have that person in that
040grant that we won, that Mrs. White wrote, and that everybody worked together on. So, $ 1.55 million in a small district is nothing to blink an eye at. In addition, we are advocating. We're advocating with legislators. Just recently, we met with Declan Oscan and Ben Gopal. And in reality, they're supposed to be coming in the next couple of weeks to visit us with a new commissioner of education. Um, we're hoping that that comes off the ground because I think very often you don't people people make assumptions and people don't always make decisions based on facts. It it's based on some perception. I met with a group of freshmen as recently as two week ago. two weeks ago a couple from Union Beach and they're like yep you know and again we can't control who says
041what but they were like we picked keyport we picked keyport and that's was really important and then they gave me some challenges to work on which was great you know what they came to the table with input so we have advocated with legislators legislators as well as our students there are they are our customers um we've tried to go in with sur with school regionalization as fast as going with we had a district they backed out. Um, one of the things I advocate for with our legislators is give us a feasibility study on our own. Make it we're willing to do it. This board of ed sign off on it. They did approve it. Um, get that information, but you need a partner district. I'm advocating for that kind of uh advocacy because I would
042like to see that happen. Um, what what is on the table for this board um and what decisions they need to make. In addition, you know, we do have litigation with Union Beach and it is about equity for all the students of Keyport. So, you know what? It's great that we have kids that go and do a variety of different things, but we have a lot of great kids here that are going to do amazing things and they deserve every ounce of equity and opportunity than any other child does. So, that being said, the funding formula must be updated. We're all pedaling as hard as we physically can to give your students what they deserve. So, we hope that the board does consider the proposed increase and uh next week we're successful. Thank you. Does
043anybody have question? Does anyone have any questions? Thank you. Uh so the only thing that I have for president's remarks this evening is a little bit of what you just um said. Um we did meet with Senator Gopal and Senator Ocanlin the commissioner of educa uh commissioner of education. We have also coming to our district. Um this isn't sustainable for our long long-term budgeting. This is not the permanent answer and we know we need to continue to advocate for change at the state level. Most importantly for KERT but for our entire state. This isn't unique to our district and we are seeing it across the entire state. Um so it's a very unfortunate predicament that we are all being put in right now. Uh Dr. Seavoya communication. >> Okay. So this we added a meeting
044next week. So I do not see any additional communication. public partic public participation on agenda items. I was excited for you guys on the budget, right? >> Yes. Yep. >> Good evening everyone. John Merilla, 34 Broad Street. just uh I do have some questions and you don't have to answer them but if you take them down I would appreciate if you answer them at a later time. Um regarding insurance um just wanted to know if the same insurance company does the insurance for um health and property and casualty if it's the same company. >> Okay, you can answer that. >> That's easy. Okay. And how many um employees do we have that receive benefits? So if it would be if it's a number of full-time employees versus part-time employees, anybody that receives that health benefit
045>> is your inquiry as to whether they take individual or family as well or >> it doesn't matter. I mean it's it's just to figure out >> just in totality >> people versus the >> Okay. Just because that varies. Okay. >> I John, that number is between like 100 and 120. I can get you the exact number. I just have in front of me right now. >> That's about what it is. >> Thank you so much. >> It's interesting because I had an opportunity to um I'm wishful too like Mr. Rapola. Um, I've seen some things that I haven't seen in many, many years, especially with the Department of Education posting the um on their website uh which took uh previous administrations months to post the aid that was going to be distributed and I
046seen this year it was posted uh three days after the governor's speech. So, I'm I'm remaining hopeful that our governor does the right thing because Nine years ago, we all know that there was a um there was a statement made by then Governor Murphy, candidate Murphy, that education was going to have a new pathway and uh that pathway led us to very dark streets. So, I'm remaining hopeful. The thing I come here tonight to present to the board, it's good to advocate with your legislators. I think it's very important even the departments in the state but the bottom line is it stops with the community the people that foot the bill and I honestly think one of your goals is to foster partnerships with the community last year you know I came here three times
047three meetings and some of those meetings were very tense and I don't think we need that this year I don't think we need it in any year, but last year especially um I come to you this year with a different angle and my angle is this. You know, I was the person that held meetings at the town and country and brought several people together to understand and advocate for the taxpayer. Now, I'm coming to you saying, let's try a different angle. Let's work together to get the word out better. So in the end, the children are represented as much as the adults are represented in the community. The taxpayer knows they know what they have to do. And it's the children that will suffer if we don't get this. And it's the it's the district.
048Now, in looking on the website, many districts got 6% a lot 3% and then there was like districts I believe that were abnormal they they received a higher amount of aid. Keyport was one of the 3%s. Um most districts were six. So what I'm saying to you is that maybe if we could get a group together to advocate and say it's good when the legislators hear from the board of educations in the school. Strength comes in numbers. We all know that. All right. So, let's let's be together. Let's let's do this together. Let's not be divided. And I come to you saying that I'll be an advocate for the board. You presented a budget tonight. Off the top of my head, I can tell you right now, it's not that bad. All right. That's my
049first instinct to tell you. Um, could it be better? I don't know that. You know that. So, if I'm out there telling people that it was a good and things were justified um for that increase. I think the more that that word spreads rather than say go to the meetings and let's just uh fight and argue and who suffers in the end. Nobody wins. So this is a winning proposition and uh I think if we do it the right way like you've done it tonight uh it can only get better and better strength for the board and district and most importantly the children. Thank you. >> Thank you. Any other questions, comments? >> Superintendent report. Okay, I'll highlight just a couple of things because this meeting was dedicated to the budget and I don't want
050to text everybody too long, but I get very excited. So, I'm going to share a few things and I'll take some off for next week. Um, the HA high school mathematics department has begun a series of professional learning sessions with Virginia Elonso from Magnolia Consulting focused on examining instructional practices and mindsets for participation in mathematics. During the most recent meeting, teachers engage in activities designed to reflect on how perspective influences what we notice about student learning and problem solving. Through discussion of classroom scenarios, student work and instructional practices, the department explored how traditional structures in mathematics classroom have historically historically emphasized independent work procedures and considered now how shifting to more of a collaborative discourse um and multiple strategies can support deeper understandings. Uh there was a letter that went out to families for all
051the children who uh were tested in dibble score reports. So that would be in your portal and mailed to you. Readacross America week was phenomenal. There were so many people in here and the activities were were just great. Uh we're proud to be featured in the Mammoth University School of Education for our work on advancing climate awareness and sustainability in our schools. So that article um is hyperl to my superintendent report. And uh we also uh were working with communications consultant to create a community outreach video that highlights our preschool program. There's a sneak peek linked to that as well. Uh in addition, um we the serial challenge fourth annual I want to say we hit over 3500. I might I might even want to go as far as saying 4,000. Um so I know
052that Coach Care came in clutch at the end and a few people did send serial after the fact. So that's all going to uh the food pantry. uh Mammoth Journal uh featured us the patch and if you caught it that day, NJ12 did run a video, but since they didn't put it on the internet, we couldn't get the link or something such as that. Um please come out to our college fair, career fair on the 14th. Uh we had a successful parent club meeting with the KHS uh parents last week. Miss Abrahamson as the rep for community was on that as well. They're very um excited to do some uh volunteerism, clean up the the sh it's a snack. I call it the snack stand down there and just community all involved as was Mr.
053Merlin referred to coming together. They're very excited to help with us. The tricky tray is underway for the keyboard education foundation. So if anybody would like to as a board member donate $10, we could put a basket together um sponsored by the board of ed if you're interested. But we are out there hustling. Um we also met with the municipal alliance the other night. Um, we're gonna have the senior prom that's on the books and Kuana met this past week. Um, in regards to some activities, everything is on the calendar on the KPSD calendar, but there are so many things going on. This is get the kickoff to to the spring uh that I I'm very excited about. So, please take a look at all of those things that are going on and please join
054us for some of them. >> U Mr. Rapola, board secretary, building and grounds and finance. >> I I don't have anything additional to to report uh from last week. Um there are a couple of bold motions on the agenda uh that we will approve next week. I can go over them next week. I can go over them now. Do both times. >> I mean, you can do them next week if you want or >> Okay. All right. Uh I'm sorry. I I don't have anything uh more to share. >> Uh Dr. Seavoya, curriculum personnel policy. >> Okay, let me go through the bold. I apologize. I was looking to see if there's anything else, but I um from the superintendent report also the school climate data is in there. Board of Ed, and I Mr.
055Staley knows I'm smiling at him. It is all in there for all of you to review. Um and the teams uh in each respective buildings are making their action plan. So I I didn't want to forget that one because that was something you guys asked for. Um bold items. I'm not going to focus on Mr. Rupola's. I'm going to go to curriculum and I'm not seeing any. No, I'm seeing the school calendar. Okay. What we just went with and it was out there communicated is that we are going to come to school on Thursday the 18th. We're going to be off for June 19th. We're going to come in on Monday and Tuesday, 22nd and 23rd, and graduation will be on the 23rd. That is what's going out there. That will be approved next uh
056next Wednesday. So, sorry. Um and then I'll put that out to the community, but uh as well, but I did say it's pre-board approved, so it is out and about, so everybody can plan accordingly. And the KHS drama club is going to go to New York City. Uh in terms of personnel, we have another baby on the way. So, that uh reflects that in 12.4 for and an additional uh parent from the district is going to serve as a substitute nurse for us. >> Thank you. Uh old business, new business, uh public participation on agenda and non-aggenda items. >> 34 Broad Street. Um the one question I did have was regarding the aid um security aid. What is that actually when it's listed? Is that for the people the police officers that >> John? It's
057a excuse me, Mr. Merlo. It's a an amount um that is calculated as part of the state aid and it's just it's based off of the same sort of resident uh enrollment. Uh it's simply they're giving you an amount of money like per student. >> Okay. uh they say I mean they it's in the category of security but we have the ability to put it where we need it. They're giving us the money on as security but we're able to move it anywhere within the general budget. That being said, we do have a large amount of money uh budgeted each year for security and the biggest part of that would be the is it the SR? Am I saying class three officers would be the biggest part of that? >> We fully fund that. the
058burrow doesn't >> My second question is I know the um the district always has an abundance of uh volunteers participating in many different aspects of volunteerism throughout the school field day whatever um associated does the board have a policy where they do a background check on a on a volunteer before they volunteer >> we do there is it's policy it's in the 9000 series Okay. >> Um, definitely every coach that comes through goes through a background check. If it's a one-time volunteer, I can approve that to come in and they're super they're never alone with with a child. So, like if it's Recross America, I'd give that example. I I don't need to board approved them. I have criteria in place for that. But if somebody is going to be consistently with students like drama
059volunteers, coaches, um, things to that capacity, yes, it is it is done. >> Can I ask you who does the background check? >> The state of New Jersey. >> Can I ask you if they fingerprint the individuals? >> They do. >> Okay. And that comes that comes back to the uh district. >> Yes, it does. >> Those findings. >> Yes. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Any other public participation? >> Uh we need a motion to adjourn the meeting. Make a motion. >> Second. All in favor?