001Please stand for the pledge. Public notice public notice of this meeting was advertised in the Asbury Park Press on January 14th, 2025. A notice was provided to central jersey.com on January 9th, 2025. 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 to 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
002addressing 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 the 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 nor 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
003the preparation of minutes. QR codes are available at each board meeting to access the agenda. Mr. Rapola, roll call, please. Mrs. Abrahamson, Miss Cunningham here. Mr. Fopoulos here. Mrs. Grabowski here. Mr. Houseman here. Miss Kahane. Mr. Stall here. Mr. Staley here. Mrs. Teas here. Mrs. Vanhton here. We have a quorum. Thank you. Uh we don't have a student representative this evening. Today is her birthday. So, happy birthday to Miss Muhammad. Um our next thing on our agenda will be the public budget hearing. Um Dr. uh Mr. Ola. Uh, good evening everyone. Thank you. Um, this is I'm sorry I just got I always struggle with this. Let me just get this on please. Okay. So, uh, tonight is our public budget hearing. I just want to first say I'm I'm going to be facing this
004way. Uh, please, I'm not trying to be rude in any way. I just need to to see the board. Uh, I'm going to go through this a little bit faster than I I did. This the same exact presentation as last week. Nothing has changed numbers wise. I'm going to go through it a little bit faster, but if you have any questions at the end, of course, uh, I'll answer any any questions that I can. So uh in this budget first we'll review revenues. revenue is the money that we uh we we take in and the biggest portion of our our budget comes from a local tax levy which uh historically um has been in the neighborhood of 2%. uh as I believe everyone is is aware this year through a program called the tax levy
005uh incentive uh aid we are have the ability to go higher if the district is below adequacy and below local fair share um and and so this budget is calling for a 7.5% increase the which is 12 thou uh excuse me 12,219,000 the tuition that we bring into the uh this budget from other districts, which our only district we we uh take students in from presently is Union Beach, uh is down 10% uh revenue or about $221,000. State sources is down 2%. Uh it's 140,000. It's 170 total. 30 of that's in preK, which is a different fund. Uh, but I'll go over that in a later slide. We're going to be using $500,000 in tuition reserve and four and 400,000 in maintenance reserve in this budget. Uh, and we're making use of $2 million of
006fund balance or uh money that's carried over from one budget into the next. And we're going to be utilizing $256,000 in uh mis miscellaneous and and enterprise funds. Uh and this is our solar revenue that we sell for the so solar panels on the roof and also interest we receive on uh the money that's in in our accounts. And here you also see at the bottom 42,000 in tax levy incentive aid. That's uh the state is going to uh give 5% for the for the increase in the taxes uh this year. Moving on to appropriations, regular instruction is scheduled to go up 38,000. The majority of that is salaries, uh, educational supplies, um, textbooks, but the the the the largest portion of that, uh, of course salaries, uh, special education instruction is um going to
007be down uh, 50%, I'm sorry, not 50%, $50,000, 2.9%. So, in addition to special education teachers, um there are things like professional services uh that also go into that budget. Things such as occupational therapy, uh physical therapy, um actual tuition that we pay uh to go to places such as the magnet schools or added district um added district placements of special education students or vocational schools. Uh that is scheduled to go up 4.85 85%. We are uh making cuts in the operation uh and maintenance of plants part of the budget. Um that is things like the maintenance department, things it takes to run the building. Uh electric, gas, um excuse me, insurance, uh security, uh there's there's a number of insur I'm sorry, I don't know if I said insurance, insurance as well. Uh employee
008benefits is the second biggest part of of our budget scheduled to go up 8.96%. Uh in a later slide you'll see that health benefits is going up 9 and a half%. Uh there's other factors in employee benefits uh such as social security uh there's workers comp falls under this uh unemployment falls un insurance falls in this area. administrative cost are scheduled to go down uh 6.94%. U this is uh mostly due to less software licensing but also being able to move most of one of administrators salary uh into uh the prek funding which is a a different uh different fund a different revenue stream. Uh and co-curricular activities are scheduled to go down $24,000. That is uh things like clubs. Athletics $44,000. Health services 6.74%. That is uh nursing salaries, uh nursing supplies, uh school
009doctor, uh defiill, uh maintenance, um support services scheduled to go up 2.85% 85% which is guidance uh child study team improvement of instructional services down almost 11% that's uh the curriculum department transportation relatively flat um I'm projecting a 1% decrease and capital outlay uh 98,000 is in this year's budget uh we have one project uh that that is in uh the budget budget this year. It's uh it's um wireless a excuse me, it's LAN and and and Juan wireless at work access network and uh the wiring and and some of the towers and things are needed basically for for us to utilize the technology in this district is uh the licenses for for those materials are up. Uh the good news is that we're only paying for 20% of what it's cost to fix that.
01080% is coming through a rate program which is a federal program uh that pays for some of these things that are required uh to have technology in the schools. So first want to talk about uh state aid. State aid is based on a formula from the straight uh state, a very uh detailed and lengthy uh formula that takes into different factors. biggest factor being resident enrollment and that is uh the students who attend our schools and who live in Keyport and they take the last six years and um they weigh the the last three years as being heavier in the formula than uh years four to six. Uh almost as important as the amount of residents is the demographics of the enrollment. Uh it what's factored in is lowincome uh students, special education students, limited
011English uh proficiency students are all weighted heavily uh excuse me heavier in the formula. Um the adequacy budget is a part of the formula and that's an amount that the state thinks would is a school should be paying based on a certain amount of kids to provide an adequate budget. Again, adequate is a key term. uh not an excellent uh education but an adequate uh education. A local fair share comes into the formula which is what they feel that the uh the town or the or the bureau should be contributing through the tax levy. Uh and they get and what goes into that formula is district's equalized valuation or or property values and commercial values. uh and the district's income uh what what the residents in that district uh make in in the form of
012uh income. So they crunch all these numbers up and the state determined that they overfunded us by 1.3 million last year. Um so what they would normally do is take 1.3 away from us this year which would have been devastating. However, they uh and of course, we don't and by the way, we don't agree that we were underfunded by 1.3 million. Uh but that's what the what the formula called for. And out of that uh 1.3, you know, they they were saying um over a million of that was they were saying was being shorted by the local fair share. And not that we agree with that either, but that that's how the formula was pointing fingers, I would say. Um, so the state instead of us having to lose 1.3 million, they came out a
013few days before uh our budget came out and said any schools that are going to lose money this year, we're going to cap it at 3%. So 3% of uh of our decrease in state a excuse me, 3% of the budget ended up being 170,000 which was our decrease. uh 140 was the regular and and it said another 30 in in prek. The state believes that the local fair share should be 15,57,000 but the tax levy at 2% which is the maximum we can raise and with and with um another uh 87% uh for for increase in health benefits is 11,693. So, uh, had this been any other year, uh, the maximum tax levy we would have been able to ask for in this budget would be 11693. But with that, they're saying the local
014fair share, the tax should be $15 million. So, they're so they were saying this year uh, the local fair share was coming up $3.3 million short. We don't agree with that, uh, either. Um we pro but again we do agree that we our funding was short from from somewhere. Again not looking to to point blame. Uh we feel I think many people we spoke to feel that it's this the state who is just shifting this burden on to somewhere else. Sorry. biggest factor is resident enrollment in in deciding uh state aid. And you can see here our resident enrollment has decreased steadily over the last uh six years from 833 uh to 750. You say what's a half a student? Um that's someone who would attend a vocational school uh for for half the day.
015tuition that we're receiving from Union Beach uh has been decreasing steadily uh over the years. It actually peaked in 2021 at 2.8 million and then has been falling steadily except for 2324 which was a year uh where Union Beach went to contract with Keyport for a greater amount of students than they were going to actually be sending us which is going to result in a refund two years later. uh once all the costs are audited at the end of the year, we're already in the middle of the following budget. Uh so they take that difference and it comes across at the budget after that. So in this budget, uh we were required to give a $713,000 refund to Union Beach. Uh, I did receive a question from someone in the public saying, uh, does that
016mean we're only receiving 1 1.1 million this year? Because it would have been 1.8 and if we losing 700,000, were we only receiving and the answer to that was no, it would have been 2.5 million. uh if we weren't uh giving 700,000 back, insurance rates uh continue to increase everywhere. Um that is health insurance, that's uh dental, that's vision, that's prescription, that's property and casualty. Uh it is errors and emissions uh workers compensation. Our biggest uh biggest quantity uh biggest amount comes from health and prescription. Our health and prescription costs are scheduled to rise 9 and a half%. Which, you know, is a high number when you're talking about millions of dollars to to go up 9% is is a lot of money. Uh for what it's worth, the state health benefits went up 14%.
017And because of that, uh because we are saving money by not being a part of the health benefits program, they let you take a certain portion of that savings and and uh and it comes outside of the cap. So uh our our health insurance is 9 and a half%. the property and casualty workers comp and errors emission insurance. Uh we still do not have our final projections but they've given us uh data that is in the neighborhood of 8.2% increases in in that this slide looks like it's a little bit cut off and uh apologize for that. It didn't look like this on my computer this morning. Um, so historical uh transportation. Oh, it's shifted down. Um, Mr. Owens, is this uh is this right now in there? Is it running PowerPoint or is this
018the uh is this the Google? All right. It must have in the uh inversion it must have shifted. Uh still not going to be able to see the numbers on the bottom. Thank you. All right. I'm sorry. uh apologize uh to the public. This this is slide showing transportation costs. Uh transportation costs have increased by large amounts over the last seven years. usually like over $100,000 a year for various things like driver shortages, uh fuel cost, uh um just a number of reasons. Uh making it harder for uh people to be to get their license to be able to to purchase, excuse me, to drive those vehicles. uh and just recently just within this past year have we seen it flatten out. So we are projecting uh a slight slight decrease in transportation cost. You
019can say uh and you should ask well if we're a walking district where is the busing uh coming from? So, we bus for uh athletics and our athletic program historically uh transportation has been in the neighborhood of 135,000 to 160,000 a year I would say. Uh we also bus to the magnet and and vocational schools which uh any year can can run from I'd say between 350 and $500,000 a year. And for our added district students, uh certain uh students uh special education students attend certain added district uh private schools and their transportation uh is similar to the magnet uh excuse me, similar to their transportation and cost from like 350 to maybe 550,000 a year. Every year is different based on how many kids we have sending places and and where we're sending them
020to. kids programs change or in some years our enrollment could be higher somewhere than than somewhere else. Our use of fund balance uh money that has carried over from one budget into the next uh you see in 22 23 this number start to climb and that is because we were receiving ESSER and ARP funding which are COVID relief funds. We received $4.4 uh million dollars during that time and it was uh use it or lose it and we spent uh every every cent of that money so we did not have to to give it back. But to be honest, some of those um some of that funding was being used to pay for things that uh we would normally pay from from the general budget which left us with some extra money uh in the
021budget. Uh and also you see uh that 2.6 it also climbed up to 2.6 million that that's based on the COVID funds over a four-year period uh accumulating or or giving us some surplus in the general budget and also what I mentioned about the Union Beach uh when they went to contract for more students than than they were sending us that year. Uh so what happened there was they paid us for you know 700 roughly $700,000 more than they would have uh if it was the right amount. So you see we we knew uh we we see the numbers that were coming in early in September. And Union Beach even expressed us we're not we're not going to be sending you the amount we went to contract for. So, we knew we had to make
022sure that 700,000 didn't get spent and and would get uh carried over into surplus because we knew we're gonna have to give it back. Our prek funding and prek program is 100% funded by the state. Um, and in our prek program, uh, you will see it was 692,000 in 2223 and since that time it's increased to 1.5 million. The biggest difference being bringing in prek4 uh excuse me, bringing in three-year-olds into uh into the district. As I stated at the last meeting, our prek program uh is looked upon very highly at the state level. It's there's been times when they have sent other districts uh in uh to to to come see how you know how we do things. So, it's a successful program and uh Dr. Seavoya uh built the program up. Um, and
023excuse me. Uh, and with that, um, the theory being that we're going to be hopefully bringing extra kids into the district and retaining those kids in the district to help with enrollment, state aid, and maybe also most importantly, or probably most importantly, depending on who you ask, uh, getting them exposed to, uh, education and socialization at an at an earlier age. And some parents also appreciate the kids getting out of the house as well. capital projects. uh we have technology infrastructure um that I said is going to be uh 80% uh funded by federal program and this slide is off a little bit well the year is off on the right should be shifted down one but we this slide we can make work uh the this debt service is what we owe for bonds
024that we've borrowed dur when the referendum passed Uh we went out for a referendum. I believe it was in 2019. Uh it was uh it passed overwhelm, excuse me, overwhelmingly. I had great support from the community. uh many people in this room uh sitting at at the tables in front of us and and and also in the chairs behind behind me uh took an active role in in making sure the referendum got passed and some wonderful things came into the buildings. uh HBAC. Uh we had security. Um we had uh excuse me, I refer to my notes on this my mind. Uh we put in some secure door locks. We put in drainage into the high school. Uh as I stated that uh people who maybe went to high school or who are people who
025teach at the high school who are here tonight would be able to tell you that when it used to rain, the whole bottom floor would would flood. uh on a regular basis. Um but HBAC being the the biggest part of of this project. Um the ramp that you see at at the front of the um high school uh for accessibility that was put in during the referendum as well. Um, and at the end of this project, we had a a balance. Uh, we went out for $16.9 million and the project came in under budget by um I want to say $1.5 million. So, we have to we have to pay back these bonds on an annual basis. uh they expire in and so the year is it's shifted. So you see 24 and 25 on
026the top. I'm sorry. Pretend that's on the left. Pretend 2526 is on the right. Uh the debt service due we have to make payments of 1.2 million in 2526. But we see debt service 8 of 400,000 that comes from the state. They say since you passed the referendum uh we are going to pay for roughly 30 to 40% of of those uh of your construction projects because they qualify for thorough and efficient education. So the way they do that is they give us a a payment in in debt service aid each year. So from 1.2 2 million. They give us 400,000 and we're transferring transferring another 250,000 in which is the money that was left from the referendum that you're required to to give back to the taxpayers and we're giving it back to the
027taxpayers over a course of six years. So on the debt service, we'll be making a a payment from the local tax levy of 578,000, which is about $1,000 less than it was uh the year before. And this is what I just spoke to earlier. We ended the referendum projects with 1.5 million balance. We're giving it back in the form of a $250,000 credit uh for six years. And here you see to the right the general fund school tax rate um steadily decreasing. Um what that's really showing is the ratio of the tax levy to property values has been steadily decreasing. assessments and how it impacts taxes in 20 and and these numbers come from the tax assessor in the burough keyport. Um the res the average residential home value was $418,000 for 2425. That was
028based on 833 million uh dollars in residential value divided by 100, excuse me, 1,95 homes. Including commercial property in 2425, we had 1.127 uh billion. In 2526, property values have gone up to 925 million. That's based on three more homes, 1998. Now average value increasing to 463,000 including commercial property. Uh total valuation is now 1.228 billion. How that impacts taxes. In the current year we're in the tax levy was 11,366,000 ratables. And these numbers you just saw on the sheet previously ratables was 1 bill127 million sorry ratables was 1.127 billion. So the tax rate was 0.0183 on a home valued at $418,000. At that tax rate, the annual school tax was $4,215. But they also had to make a payment on the debt service, which was $579564, which was another 0.00005141. So on that same
029average house, $215 on the debt service. So total of 4215 and 215, it would have been $4,430 in 24.25. This year at the 7.5% increase in the levy of 12,219,000 ratables coming off the last page 1.228 billion. So the new tax rate has gone down by 1.35%. Now it's 0.009947. on a home valued at the new average of 463, they'd be paying 4606, but they also making a payment on the debt service as well. That rate has gone down. Uh, and the payment there is $218 or $3 more than than it was. So, for a total of 48.24, the difference, a projected difference being from 4824 to 4430 of $394 a year. uh $394 a year uh I believe is is in the neighborhood of uh 134 dollars a month. I'm sorry. Uh that's off
030on that one. Huh? Uh I had it on my sheet. I'm sorry. Give me one sec. That was it. 33. 33. Um, we'll answer questions. Uh, and just so you know, uh, we also will make sure we put this information up, uh, formatted, uh, in in the right format, uh, uh, this evening. And, um, if I can answer any questions, uh, I'm going to come to the side for this so I could see. Anybody have any questions? Mr. Mera? Do we have a microphone that we can give to them, please? I'll give you this. How about I go to How about I go to my seat perhaps and you take the podium? We're going to have a chance. I'm saying I'm assuming this will be a time we can answer some questions. Okay. Is that
031all right? Is that all right with you guys? John Mela 34 Broad Streetport. Um Mr. Paul, one of my concerns is the question would be the Union Beach tuition. Um h how could that like happen and how do we avoid that hap happening in the future? Because if you look at the tuition Union Beach students pay and the contract that's like 35 students, how did that like based on $20,000 tuition? It would be a better It would be a better question uh Mr. Merlo to ask um Union Beach. Uh oh, Miss Manhattan says feels that she can answer that. I can answer that. Okay. So, we're asked in January or February to predict how many students will be coming to the district. This is before the students in Union Beach receive their acceptance letters to
032any magnet school or private school or Redm Regional. um before they receive their acceptance, right? We can only guess how many students will be coming, right? Then you also have to look at how many students have moved out of district, how many other students have moved to private schools, how many other students have gone to charter schools. So, we're asked before students are even accepted to another high school. Okay. So, we can't we can't tell you until probably the earliest April. Okay. So, what's changed? How's the number? How what kind of guaranteed does our district have? There is no guarantee. Well, that's that's that's poor. Um because then we have to change change how we're doing things because if you're projecting um we're required to project because Keyport asks asks us to project, right? Wouldn't
033you think you should project to the parents of those children to see if they're anticipating going to keep we can't because their letters are not received. So if a student is testing in to a magnet school, those letters are not received until March or April. Now if you look at the school at our budgets when they have to be approved, they have to be approved sometimes even before these acceptance letters come out. It's we have to have the budgets before the school year closes out. Okay. Let me ask the board attorney then. Was this um incident litigated or was it handled without litigation? They are. Okay. So, the litigation's over. Oh, it's not. Okay. Thank you. [Applause] Any other budget questions 10 Main Street in checking uh on the internet I noticed that this school
034system looking at the best to the worst for the amount of students you have are not doing very well in reading proficiency. You're at 40%. That's not good. That's not good at all. And you only have 1,04 students going to these schools. Math is down. I'm sorry. You have to confine your questions to the budget presentation. You just well the bud this is part of the budget presentation because you're asking for money and you're not doing your jobs. Simple as that. Okay, that's all I got to say. You don't deserve the money. That's number [Applause] one. Does anyone else have a budget related question? board members also. Mr. Rapola, you're good. Um, president's remarks. So, happy um teachers appreciation week. Uh, thank you to all of our teachers. Uh, happy nurses day that also happened
035this past week. Um, we appreciate all of our teachers and nurses for all that you do for our students. Um, last night we attended the Mammoth County Board of Ed meeting. Um, some of our board members were recognized for reaching certification levels. Uh, congratulations Mr. Fatpapoulos for new board member certification. Mrs. Abrahamson, Mr. Stall, and myself for achieving master board certification. And congratulations to Mrs. Gowski on her certified board leader certification. So great job everybody. Uh Dr. Seavoya communication. We did receive a letter of resignation from one second. I'm so sorry. from Miss Mcnola. Uh public participation on agenda items. Good evening. Uh John Merilla, 34 Broad Street, Keyport. Um tonight I come um representing a small group of about 65 residents, parents, business people, and most importantly taxpayers in the bureau of Keyport. We
036as a small group had an opportunity to continue to ask questions and receive answers regarding on the past budgets, audits, and this year's tax increase of 7.5%. At the last meeting, I reserved my time to ask questions and rather made a statement to the board. I had the opportunity to submit 11 questions to Mr. Rapola, for which I thank him for being uh very forthcoming and honest and allowing um us some time to digest by giving those answers to the questions yesterday. Most questions were budget related and explained in a very professional and honest manner, which I appreciate. I'd like to point out some things I did learn from the past audits and budgets and correspondence that I've had with other board members. The board can use um fund balance from referendum if they wanted
037to to offset this tax increase. I understand that funding is put aside and $250,000 is used every year for six years until it's depleted. Otherwise, it could be used as a rainy day fund. Well, to be perfectly honest with you, it's raining and I believe tax relief is needed. Today, I'm sure all of you know, state attorney general received word um through the United States District Courts that um it was ordered that the Department of Education, the United States Department of Education to immediately restore states access to those um certified funds as the uh case continues regarding state funding. Uh, this will have a $85 million impact on the state of New Jersey. I'm sure most of all you are grateful to hear that decision today. New Jersey will, like I said, have access to
03885 million in federal funding. Now, I don't know if our board or our district is going to be part of that. And the reason why is because I believe we depleted our CO funding. So we may not be allow we may not be have the opportunity to do that but I think if we are we got to you know put our heads together as a board and leaders in this community and see that we get every penny that we deserve and now that it's been restored it makes sense. I'd like to just um say uh on a personal uh uh manner this is not personal towards the board and I don't want anybody to feel that way. This is just constructive criticism that as an outsider looking in and you you'll be able to understand
039if you were here and I was there. Um earlier it was said um by some board members that they're there to represent the kids and not so much the taxpayers. However, the New Jersey School Board Association says something totally different on their website. They said there's a responsibility as a board member to the taxpayer. And to further state, the frequently asked um question statement that the board put out stipulates one of the reasons why you lowered the increase was because you were paying attention to the taxpayers, which is very good and and we're very grateful for that. I believe the board has many strengths. However, over the past six week weeks, we have witnessed both strengths and weaknesses and everybody has that um you know, it's nothing that no one doesn't have. Everybody's strong in
040one sense and could be weak in another. So, the biggest issue I believe residents have from the board um is communication. I have to be honest with you, if everything was communicated a little bit better, I don't think you would have had as many people the way they were thinking and the way they were acting and responding to um social media and when I say communicating just like take for instance tonight we couldn't put a note on the gym. The meeting is in the cafeteria. I mean it makes it takes two seconds to do something like that and it would have relieved other people from walking around parking on Broad Street. That's just a simple thing. The other thing is when you say five minutes is up Mr. Okay, as I said at the last
041meeting, it's not personal. It's not political. It's in nothing to do with the board. the board has to do with you know what they have to do. Communications I think if you put it on TV you have a channel 15 that would have been something great too. It's another act of communication. In wrapping up, in 2017, the citizens of this state were promised as it relates to school funding formula, a a law would have been passed. And the governor at that time stipulated in 2017, we're looking for a new school funding formula, and it's a path to progress. Well, it's 2025. The path is nowhere in sight. And all I can say is as a former board member and elected official, I'll continue to lobby our rep state representatives to see keeps their fair share
042of of funding and I hope you'll join me. Thank you very much. Thank you, Mr. Thank you. [Applause] other public participation on agenda items. You can you can come up Elmer J. Graham Jr. 22 St. Peters Place. Good evening, Dr. Sabo Boy. Um, members of the school board on this uh 7 proposed 7.5% school tax increase. I'm going to be quite honest with you. Personally, I think the citizens of uh Keyboard of our beautiful bureau of keyboard, hardworking citizens cannot afford it. Now what I would suggest as alternative is you take a look at this budget and you take a look at your past budgets and see what can be you know what can be no longer of use in those budgets which programs that you no longer need to use and everything like that
043and and uh to avoid a 7.5% tax increase. Now, it won't hurt the kids of our I don't think it's going to hurt the kids of our beautiful burrow of Keepboard. Matter of fact, may help them. And again, this 7.5% tax increase, it's citizens of Keepo, hardworking citizens, they some of the families, they they won't be able to afford it and stuff like that. And it's and of course, this goes back to the state of New Jersey. We need uh we need to um state of New Jersey needs to at last fix their funding formula for schools and that should be up to the next governor and the next legislature. Thank you. [Applause] Thank you. Any other public participation? Hi, I'm Courtney White, 90 Fton Street, um Keyport. I you know, I um I appreciate
044the comments from um some of the previous commenters um and the citizens of the uh the district about the need to be fiscally prudent and to to try to do the best that we can um with the taxpayers in mind. I have a slightly different perspective. Uh, you know, I really want to thank the board uh tonight for the work that you have done, all the work that goes into developing this budget. Um, Mr. Rapolar, Dr. Zavoya, the rest of the board, all of the tough decisions that you must necessarily make um on different line items, knowing that every decision you make will impact either a kid or a taxpayer or somebody in some way, whether positively or perhaps negatively perceived. It's an unenviable task. It's a task that sometimes you get, you know, as
045as a volunteer board, you you get no credit for other than um sort of the the feeling of pride that you get when you see the end results of the kids graduating, going on to to their lives. Um so it's a tough decision and you must necessarily balance what you're doing right now with the needs of the citizenship. There is no magic number when it comes to um what number should we raise the taxes by. I know you have the formulas and all this stuff that you you you you use when you're trying to calculate what should be done, but whatever number you arrive at, uh it's going to impact somebody in some way. So, I really want to just thank you, lend my voice to thanking you for the work that you have done.
046Um, also being mindful of the community and understanding that um, there are many of us who um, have been on this side of uh, the aisle as well who understand um, how tough it is and how hard it is to have to uh, look each other in the eye, look the citizenry in the eye and say we must do this. We all have to balance budgets. We either have to cut expenses or raise revenues. Um, and when you cut expenses necessarily, you probably have to cut programs. So, it's always a balancing act and a tough uh thing to do. So, I just want to lend a little bit of support to you, the board, tonight in some of the tough decisions that you're making. Um, and understand that all of us understand that it's something
047that needs to be done. Um, and when we work together and try to really listen to each other, um, and balance the pros and cons, the good with the bad, I think, um, as we have done in the past, we'll find a path forward, not only for the board, but for the citizens and for the students. So, I just want to lend my thanks and offer my thanks to you on your on on the work that you're doing. Thank you. Any other public participation, uh, Becky Fish, 5 East 3rd Street. Um, I want to say happy teacher and staff appreciation to everybody. I see faces in the room, so I can't say that enough. Um, I think the part for me that in the past few meetings I've attended, um, I've heard a lot about
048deserving of, um, increases, funding, whatever the case may be. I think there is a a fine line between deserving of something and being able to afford something. Um, as taxpayers in a district, um, I would easily give double-digit raises to 95% of the teachers that I have encountered since I've been in district with my son for two and a half years. Could not say a bad thing about any of them. Um, it's whether or not the town can afford that. So, I think that's just something to keep in mind going forward and making decisions on it. Um, again, if I was a multi-millionaire, I would fund it myself, uh, to give them all raises, to give everybody raises. Um, but coming from a world of private school education, um, I think budgets play a very
049big factor in tuition is not coming in, we can't spend the money going out. Um, so I think that's something to look at. I'm not saying look at schooling like a business, public school education, but I'm saying there should be some things taken from that moving forward when it look when we're looking at funding from taxpayers dollars being used for that expense. Thank you. Thank you teachers that are here. Thank you. Any other public participation? Uh Dr. Seavoya, superintendent report. Okay. I'd like to report out on a variety of items um in relation to our goals. Uh the central school teachers and uh staff have done an enormous amount of work on updating the report cards to align with our New Jersey student learning standards. And all of that will be presented to parents prior
050to implementation in the 2526 school year. Information regarding summer reading and math assignments will be released to families on May 16th. Teachers will meet with the curriculum team and grade levels on May 12th to create folders for students in grades K to 5. Teachers in grades 6 to 12 will post assignments in their Google classrooms and copies will be distributed and reviewed to all students in grades K to 12. Uh staff will engage on professional develop in professional development on May 22nd. And if you recall, the calendar was modified as we did not have snow. Teachers in 6 to 12 will receive uh AI training in preparation for the fall. K to 5 ELA and special education teachers and staff will participate in Dibbles training to prepare for fall implementation. Keepwork continues to be ahead
051of the curve in the recently released early literacy legislation. The summer uh Red Raider University flyer information will be available for families on May 22nd. Information will be sent via school messenger, teachers portals, and posted on our website. Spots will be very limited as funding is limited. This year's program will be supported by the climate grant. Activities will be project based and inter and interdisciplinary. Students will be grouped in grade bands by next year's grades levels 1 to three, 3 to five, and six to eight depending on availability of staff. The program will kick off with a robotics lab week on June 30th, and we're currently in the hiring process for teachers. We have been awarded expanding access to computer science high school course competitive grant in the amount of $41,498. This grant will allow
052for a teacher to further their education uh district-wide family events and the purchase of a dedicated server for the growth of the coursework. We have also been awarded the climate uh education resil resilience continuation grant in the amount of $15,000. This funding is what we'll be using to run our small inter interdisciplinary summer program. As I spoke to previously, the comprehensive equity plan for from 2025 to 2028 will be on the next agenda for your review. This was actually shared this evening with the policy committee. The document uh that the DOE uses to ensure districts are providing equitable and educational activities and programs. So, the board has access to that as well. Uh in addition the literacy magazine for the keyboard high school um peaceful moment edition. Thank you miss series and all the students
053who contributed that is um linked to this agenda. The New Jersey Department of Ed of office of special education is sponsoring the dare to dream student leadership conference on May 28th at Mammoth University. And this program will highlight strategies to promote self- advocacy skills for middle and high school students with disabilities. Each conference will uh feature keynote presentations from accomplished students from local education agencies across the state, presentations from young adults as well. Additionally, the conference conference will uh program will include a variety of studentled workshop sessions on topics such as self-discovery, student advocacy, preparing to lead individualized education, IEP programming, and understanding your rights. Keyport District will be presenting. We are working to identify our topic as we speak and I look forward to seeing what the students will present. Um important survey for
054parents of students with disabilities. The office of special education is responsible for conducting this annual survey for parents of of students u with a disability in ages 3 to 12 3 to 21 to determine how schools are supporting parental involvement in the educational program. The survey is conducted as a part of the federal requirement uh indicator number eight for parental involvement. We urge all to complete that survey. Uh in addition, it is teacher appreciation week once again. Um thank you to each and every one of you for all that you do for our students and I hope that you're enjoying some of the uh little recognition if you will um throughout the past week and continue to to uh through Friday. On Mon on Monday, May 5th, Central School will hold a test prep rally
055for grades 3 to 8. May 6th and 7th uh begins the NJSLA science testing and again that started this week. On May 13th, the Keyport High School Robotics and E- Gaming Club will be hosting a family night from 6:00 to 7:00. Students of all ages will get to experiment with robots and put their gaming skills into to the test. On May 28th, we'll h hold our summer reading and math kickoff party from 6:00 to 7:00. Yesterday, we had a bilingual council advisory meeting which was uh highly attended and was very very productive. The eighth grade uh will treat be treated to class to the Liberty Science Center on June 5th. They will experience individualized and personalized workshops on environment and climate. They will also get to tour the new Titanic special exhibit. I know a
056student right in Central School who would love to see that. The event was supported by the funding from the climate grant. And congratulations to our April perfect attendance winners for the stu uh support staff, Miss Ortiz and Miss Walsh. I must say that last week when I did prek for Miss Camper and I did not have enough milk, it was very chaotic. So, I appreciate them and let me tell you, they definitely go home tired. Um, on Friday, May 2nd, preK and kindergarten students participated in the bubble show. The pictures were just spoke for themselves. The kids were really, really enthralled and it was a great productive activity. Um, and today we had uh Miss Bodafoli hosted our third ECAC. The acronym is early childhood advisory council meeting. Um there were a variety of stakeholders
057there. We discussed anything from flu shot clinics to VNA to 180 to um mental health symposiums. All of that will be listed on our virtual backpack. Since um the updated as of today, but there were no new incidents of HIV at Central and none at Keyport High School since we met last week. uh the burrow and the community. The KF is hosting a 5050 for $10 each. Miss Tas, I'll put you down for three tickets. Um they're $10 each. The winner will be selected at senior award night on the 10th. We'll also be at Stop and Shop um and we'll be down at Keyport Day this weekend selling them. And a huge K uh thank you to the KF for hosting our first summer instrumental program. So Mr. Sheets and Mr. Aragonus will be in
058charge of that and we're very very pleased. I will not repeat everything that Miss Cunningham said in regards to last night at New Jersey school boards other than thank you again because this is this is a free uh a volunteer position and keyport in my tenure here the board has not received these level of certifications as as um as I recall um in fact miss um Grabowski being a certified uh the highest accomplishment I'm even stumbling on it the certified board leader leader. Let me Oh, okay. Whether you got that last night, but he has it as well. The levels of certification that the board is holding, whether it be a new board member or certified or being a master board is exemplary, and you do deserve the uh definitively the credit for such. Um,
059in addition, let's see, I think I'm almost done. Um, we did answer the budget questions. We did receive also questions from uh Miss Magnamera that Mr. Rapola answered as well and and Mr. Merlo got his answers. um and the finance and policy committees uh met this week. A lot of things going on in regards to senior signing days, activities, upcoming events. All of this will be in the minutes um and is on our district website. Thank you, Mr. Rapola. Board Secretary report, buildings and grounds and finance. Yes, thank you. Uh just wanted to comment about a sign not being on the door. That's on me. I take the blame for that. Um it's not it's not the board's fault. Uh this is where our meetings always are. Uh so it didn't connect in my brain
060that the last two meetings were in the gym and and so people maybe thought they were in the gym. So not getting a sign on the doors on me and uh I apologize for that. I do want to comment about uh Mr. Merilla stated about uh funding or winning winning uh a court case and funding going back to the districts that that had lost that I believe he said 85 million. Um that's that's not going to impact us. Uh but I just want to try to explain what I believe uh happened in that situation. Um, New Jersey school districts were given many many millions of dollars uh during uh COVID and a different different funding streams that came in uh in in waves and ultimately ours accumulated to about 4 uh 4 million and each
061of those I said there was four waves each of those waves had a deadline when the funding had to be uh spent by so like one came in one was called SR1 uh it came came in and you had about a year uh to spend it. Uh while you were spending that money, another funding stream came in and and that's how it was working. And so one would end and you had to spend it or or you would lose it. Of course, we were making sure uh and I think most districts were making sure they were spending uh you know every cent that that they could. Uh however um when we got to the last funding stream which was the largest uh funding stream um and we made a a point of spending there was
062there was remember that's federal funds federal funds that were given to the state um state had at the state level they had to answer uh for those funds. So at one point while the funds while while the time period was almost out, not Keeport, but the state had a large large balance of funds that were not spent. And so there was pressure on school districts coming from state level to the county level to the business administrators level like you better spend your money. You know, your taxpayers expect you to spend that money. how you going to explain giving back your money which we which we all agree with. Uh there were some districts that I feel were irres my opinion irresponsible. Some of the very large Abbott districts to just you know never got around
063to spending I feel mismanaged funds but that's just my opinion but the majority of this money I want to explain what happened there. Uh this with COVID these funds came in with biggest priority first fresh clean air for for students. Um if you remember, we were all wearing masks. Um in order to bring in the fresh air, most these districts received funding and and had the ability to go out for uh ventilation systems. Uh most schools, we had just actually done that. We we had just completed that sort of project. Uh but other districts moved in that direction. So you can imagine how the limited amount of certified corporate or or largecale air condition companies, ventilation companies, they were swamped. Uh they were getting too many orders, I would say. And also during uh that
064time, if you remember, the supply chains had frozen. You couldn't get materials for anything. We even waited weeks on on our uh some of our ventilation units because you just couldn't get parts or anything for anything and and I think we're still in some ways just starting to come out of that now. So anyway, what happened was district spent, you know, some districts spent millions of dollars on these or dedicated funds for these ventilation things. Uh the time was spent. They still weren't the projects still weren't complete. So, they didn't pay the bills because there why would they pay the bills? Their projects weren't done. Some some of them the projects weren't even started yet because the contractors hadn't gotten to them. So, there was an agreement made with the state said, "You've got to
065fill out this application, very detailed, very specific, and show us where that money has been uh placed or or where that money's uh appropriated for. Show us the contract, show us this and that, and uh we'll let you go past the deadline." um new president uh new regime came in uh in January and at one point a few months in uh said this is ridiculous they had long they had plenty of time to spend that money uh they've had four five four or five years no more funds are going out pull those funds so there were about 85 million or so uh million dollars in New Jersey uh that those funds there were people still planning planning on spending that money had filled out applications had had agreed uh state had told them you're going
066to get your money but then the feds pulled it pulled it back uh and many people felt that was unfair which I understand and I think that is what was uh changed today at the court level uh but again it's unfortunately uh we spent our money uh and we're not going to be able to get any more funding from that but I do agree uh with hopefully in general, uh the funding formula, which was supposed to have been uh redone many years ago, uh will will get done again uh soon. As far as uh the agenda items we're voting on tonight, uh I do want to make reference uh because this is the budget motion, I want to make reference to certain uh agenda items uh on the budget, I want to explain it. Um
067in 10.3 this this motion which is very long. Uh first I want to make it clear that this is a this is pending NJ DOE approval. This is not normal at this time for us not to have official NJDOE approval. um with the tax levy uh incentive aid the 300 schools applied the states the state hasn't been able to process those applications in a timely enough fashion to hit this deadline of May 7th uh which I believe this statute is today May 7th where we have to pass uh by law we have to you know pass our budgets so uh they did give us a letter approve approving what we submitted for uh temporarily or or pending um final approval and then they were supposed to send districts letters you know in advance of their
068meetings with hey you know we agree with you we're going to pay for this this and this or I'm sorry you can ask for this this and this but we you know we don't think that qualifies so we have not received that letter yet I want to make that clear if we get a letter back within the next week. Uh they're they're saying we should receive that letter within the next week. If we receive that letter in the next week and there are certain elements of that that have not been approved, then this board uh will be back here uh next week uh making adjustments and having to approve it by May 14th, which is one week from uh from tonight. So, first I just want to make that clear that uh there is a
069chance that this gets adjusted if things come back from the state where they say we don't agree with this. Um, however, if the letter comes back tomorrow or or Friday or next week and it and it's clear, we don't need to come back uh to reapprove again. Um, in this motion, because we're using uh tax levy incentive aid, we have to identify the increase in revenues um which you see in this one chart on page seven. And we also have to demonstrate the increase in appropriations. When I say increase, this is from the tenative budget that was uh put together in March um which was approved. These are additions to that tenative budget. So because this board passed that in in March, these items and this these dollar amounts uh weren't in that budget. So
070I have to show where that where that money is going to. And also just speaking about the Union Beach question, I do uh just want to back Mrs. Vanhton up on on this point of uh we have to submit our budgets for tenative tenant budgets. uh we have to submit them in in March and so as we're preparing for that discussions are in February uh January uh but even if you go as far as as March uh and then so you know the time from March till till now you know or perhaps even September I do understand uh how some things could change uh during that time Um, moving on to page nine of this motion. Um, you will see that 23 uh million uh in the uh total expenditures, but then you see um
071special revenues. That's your federal funding uh like title one, title two, and prek funding as well. um total taxes uh to be raised on the general fund which was stated in the slideshow of 12.2 million and an additional $578,000 for the debt service. So the tell tax levy 12,798,000. Um, and we also have to demonstrate or we have to state in this budget motion uh the tuition res withdrawal which is 500,000, the maintenance withdrawal which is 400,000, the healthc care uh cost waiver which is 98,000. Uh we always have to approve it our budget motion uh travel and related expense reimbursement uh motion uh the adjustment for debt service at 250,000 that's going back into uh the budget as a refund that has to show up in this motion. We have to approve the preschool
072uh budget missavoli you'll have it tomorrow morning. uh and the adoption of the tax levy schedule. So that 12.7 million we're collecting, we also have to approve the schedule of time frame which when we're we're going to collect it. So uh Miss Cunningham, I would be looking Oh, I want to point out 81 also to this board. Uh we are looking to move the June 25th uh meeting to June 16th. Um so you'd be voting on that as well. So we have nothing in in nine to approve but we are looking to approve 81 uh to 103. Um I need a motion for 8.1 to 103. Make a motion. Second. Second. Uh questions. Mr. Roa. Roll call. Mrs. Abrahamson. Oh, I'm sorry. She's tough for her to answer. Miss Cunningham? Yes. Mr. Vatopoulos? Yes. Mrs.
073Gowski? Yes. Mr. Houseman? Yes. Mr. Stall? Yes. Mr. Staley? Yes. Mrs. Teas? Yes. Mrs. Vanhound? I abstain from anything for preschool, elementary, middle school, and say yes for anything for high school. Okay. Motions pass. Thank you, Dr. Seavoya. curriculum, personnel and policy. Okay. Uh the traditional motions within a curriculum in regards to security drills and HIV underneath personnel approving the resignation and a leave request. Um congratulations to Miss Silva for upcoming child and coming into their lives. the prek advisory meeting preparation, our afterare, which again, huge shout out to all of those people because Miss Romanetses and uh Miss Mantino really have uh they just keep it going. So, thank you to all of them, but that's on the agenda for approval. Uh so, I need a motion for 11.1 to 12.4. Make a motion.
074Second. Second. Questions? Mr. Apollo, roll call. Miss Cunningham, yes. Mr. Poplos, yes. Scowski, yes. Mr. Houseman, yes. Mr. Stall, yes. Mr. Staley, yes. Mrs. Teas, yes. Mr. Vanhen, I abstain from anything from preschool, Central School, and yes on high school. Okay, motions pass. Thank you. Uh old business, new business. I have um the policy meet policy uh committee met uh immediately before this meeting tonight and um just a few things. Um a group of uh admins met with us to fill us in on how they uh plan to implement the uh new AI policy and incorporate the AI grant into the curriculum. Um and they filled us in on a comprehensive equity plan that they have to renew every 3 years. And um there's going to be some things in the next couple months that
075we're going to have to approve related to that. And we started looking at um policy number 7510, which is the uh use of facilities uh policy and um and how we want to handle that going forward. Thank you. Yes. I'd like to u report from the finance committee. We met uh this past Monday. We did review um Mr. Rapola's presentation since there wasn't any changes. That was brief. Uh we spent quite a bit of time talking about this delay uh what it meant h how we will deal with it in the compressed timeline. Uh but just to add maybe something that that might clarify is um if if something in that application if there's if there's an expense that is denied uh of course we're going to come back and need to vote but also
076the net effect would be that the 7.5 would be a different a lower number. So, um, of course, as it was described, if everything is approved, it'll stay at 7.5. If something is not approved, we'll be coming back and voting on a budget with the local level at under 7.5. And of course, that will change the rest of the budget as things will have to be adjusted accordingly. So, we spent some time just wanting to understand that. And another factor is that when we do if we do have to meet, we need to make sure that we have enough board members that we have a quorum so that we can have a vote. So it was more of kind of just understanding it, planning on what we would need to do if it happened all
077very quickly. The other thing we did is um Mr. Rapola reviewed with us his responses to uh this two residents uh questions and uh so we spent some time talking about those things and um helping him a little bit with some clarity. Um uh but that's the that concludes my report. Thank you. Any other new business? Uh public participation on agenda and non-aggenda items. Madam President, I just wanted to because we also discussed this briefly in the uh in the finance meeting as well. Just wanted to bring up uh you know the fact there's a few things that I wanted to bring up and um what I don't know if what I didn't understand before I was on the school board was the limitations that the school board actually has when raising taxes. And in
078since 2003, the school board has raised taxes 5% or higher three times. Three times, including this time. So, prior to tonight when we approved the budget, we raised taxes, our levy 5% or more twice. I want to I I want to make sure that people understand that over the past 22 years except for those times we've exceeded 4%. We've hit 4% four times and three of those times was prior to 2010 when we were mandated at the 2% in the same time frame. And I'm not pointing fingers because I was also a council member and I understand how hard it is uh to raise revenue in a town that has limited ratables um and quite frankly sometimes struggles with the tax increases that we experience. The burrow in the same time frame one two three
079four five six seven eight has raised taxes 5% or more eight times. In 2003 they raised taxes 20%. Most recently in 2023 22 Madame President the taxes were raised 9%. And then in the last two years prior to this year, they were raised 6% respectively each year. I understand why that happens. And if you if if I also understand the frustration, Madame President, that people have when taxes are being raised. Um, but just know that, you know, none of these decisions, whether it be certainly during my tenure, my short tenure on the school board and frankly my short tenure on the on the council as well, none of these decisions are made lightly. Um, and quite frankly, the limitations that we've had, and we've expressed this before that are mandated by the state, um, have
080resulted in the situation that we find ourselves in tonight. And I just want to take the time to thank uh through you, Madam President, the residents of the town um who allowed me to speak to them personally to explain some of these facts to them, you know, to to have a clear understanding that in the last 20 years, the school taxes have gone up 80%. The levy has increased 80%. And the levy in the burrow has increased 180%. I don't want people to go pitchforks and uh what was it? Tiki torches to the burrow because they don't deserve it as much as we don't deserve it. However, the discerning nature that we take when we are citizens of the burrow and the examination that we took in this exercise over the last three or so
081weeks is not only relevant, but it's useful and it is also necessary and I appreciate the uh uh the the civil tone that we're everyone is taking now. Madam President, um, and I also look forward to a deeper understanding within the community of the examination that's required to understand what exactly our tax dollars are paying for. Madame President, I also want to point out and I'd ask I'd ask if with your permission, I'd ask uh Dr. Seavoya to reiterate when um when the state of the schools presentation is going to happen because I think the perception in the in the district is that our schools are failing with some when in fact we on the board the teachers in the in the in the audience and many many I'd say the majority of the residents
082know that's not the case. We were actually we've actually been improving over the last few years um even more and if residents are interested in absorbing or seeing that please Dr. Seavoya when is the when is the state of the schools? It will be on June 4th and the ones that were conducted in November and February are up on the website for review. So that happens three times a year and if you're interested in seeing the meeting that where um uh Ms. White present and her staff presented. When was that date? Was that uh I'm I'm putting you on the spot. Both of those opportunities everybody presents. So, we're a pretty united front. So, it could be any one of us on that November. When was it the last one? When was the last one
083that they can they can look up? February uh 5th, fourth when I'd have to look at the board meeting. It was the fifth. Okay, good. I'm close. So, if you want you can go to our school website because we record all of these meetings. Is it okay if I address the public for a moment just for a second? I will direct. Madam President, I I want to make sure that the public understands that they can go back and watch that recorded meeting so they can also understand the progress that has been made over the last few years. Thank you for letting me comment. Thank you. uh public participation on on agenda and non-aggenda items. Uh so we have executive session this evening. Uh so resolved by the keeper board of education as per chapter PL197517.1.1
084that hereby determine that is necessary to meet in executive session to speak about legal advice, personnel and litigation. I need a motion to go to close session. Motion second. All in favor?