001Yeah. I'd like to call this meeting to order. Please stand for the pledge. I pledge algiance to the flag of the United States of America for one nation under Godisible with all. Please remain standing for a moment of silence for Carol Sner, mother of KHS teacher Christine Cowan. Thank you. Public notice of this meeting was advertised in the Asbury Park Press on January 14th, 2025. and 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
002state 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 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 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 and employees of the board are discouraged and will not be responded to by the board. Students and staff have specific legal rights afforded
003by 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 preparation of the minutes. QR codes are available at each board meeting to access the agenda. Mr. Okola, roll call, please. Mrs. Abrahamson, Miss Cunningham here, Mr. Fopoulos here, Mrs. Grabowski here, Mr. Houseman here, Miss Gahane here, Mr. Mr. Stall here, Mr. Staley here. Mrs. Teas here. Mrs. Vanhound here. We have corn. Thank you. Um, I would like to make a motion to move president's remarks before the presentations this evening. Would anybody second that second questions? Mr. P roll call. Miss Cunningham here. Um, yes. It's okay. Mr. Fopoulos, yes. Miss Kowski,
004yes. Mr. Houseman, yes. Miss Kane, yes. Mr. Stall, yes. Mr. Staley, yes. Mr. Teas, yes. Miss Vanhen, yes. Motion passes. Thank you. Uh, so good evening everyone. Before I turn the meeting over to Dr. Seavoya, I would like to take a moment to speak on behalf of the Keeper Board of Education and express my gratitude to everyone who played a role in developing this year's budget proposal. First and foremost, thank you to the entire board of education for your collaboration and support throughout this process. A special acknowledgement goes to our finance committee whose countless hours of meetings, discussion, and review helped guide us to this evening's proposal. Thank you as well to Mr. Rapola, our business administrator, for his tireless work behind the scenes managing the complex and shifting guidelines issued by NJ DOE, and
005to Dr. Sephoya for her steadfast commitment to excellence and ensuring that we continue to give every child the opportunity to dream big. I also want to recognize our leadership team whose school-based budget planning ensured that the needs of our students and staff remained at the heart of every decision. Tonight's budget presentation represents the culmination of a process that began back in October. This year's development process has been especially challenging. Not only was the official state aid notification delayed, but the state also introduced the tax levy incentive aid program with little notice. Only weeks after we have already submitted a preliminary budget to the county with a modest 2.87% increase, despite the timing, the board moved swiftly to evaluate the new opportunity. As a result, we are now proposing a 7.5% tax levy increase for the
0062025 2026 school year. This proposal includes the standard 2% increase allowed under law and an additional 087% to address rising health benefit costs and a 4.63% through the tax levy incentive aid program. This newly introduced program is designed to help districts like ours spending below the state's adequacy level of and taxing below their local fair share by offering matching aid to support essential educational services. However, to access that aid, districts are required to raise their local tax levy. Initially, the board considered a 20.11% increase, the full amount needed to close the budget gap and restore all reduced services. In response to in response to community concerns, that proposal was first reduced to 12.5% and later to 7.5, which reflects a thoughtful and measured compromise. It enables us to protect class sizes, sustain academic interventions, and
007ma maintain critical programming while being mindful of the financial impact on taxpayers. We are proud of the collaborative process that brought us here. We know the budget decisions carry real consequences and as taxpayers ourselves, we do not take any increase lightly, but I am confident that the proposal represents a responsible investment in our students, our schools, and the future of Keepart. As part of tonight's presentation, the public will have the opportunity to share their thoughts and ask questions. Once the presentation closes, there will be two additional opportunities for public comment. First on agenda items and then non-aggenda items. We welcome your input and appreciate your continued involvement. Thank you again to everyone who contributed to this effort and to all who joined us tonight. Okay. So, first we will have our student um we don't
008have a student representative this evening. So, we'll be moving to our presentations. So, our first presentation is student of the month. So, Mr. Flynn Good evening everybody. Um I just want to recognize some important hard-working students. Uh I want to thank the families for instilling these values that are very important to us as educators. Um so congratulations to the parents and students for their hard work. When I call your name, please join us up here. We'll shake your hand and then we're going to want to take a picture. Okay. Uh, first grade Charlie Vona. Congratulations. Declan [Applause] Hall, second grade. Alice Kennedy [Applause] Finn [Applause] Mortell, third grade. Ghar Pri Core Cameron [Applause] Angstrom in fourth grade. Alanise Rosa Gil, Carla Cholula. Good job, Carlo. He's okay. In fifth grade, Arl Rosa Gil and Landon
009Paley. [Applause] Congratulations. in sixth grade. Penny [Applause] Sergeant Ryan Mata in seventh grade. Brenda Jimenez We're going to be slow. Alex [Applause] Rowald in eighth grade. Leah Dne and Summer Firm. Miss Butteroli, I'm gonna need you in the center aisle here, please. Yes, he is. He has a process. [Applause] Congratulations to all of our students at this of the month. At this time, you guys can feel free to leave if you would like before the rest of the meeting starts. So, good evening. Next, we're going to hear from uh the administrators on the budget presentation, and we're going to have a public hearing on the chief school administrator contract. Um after the presentations, the public will have a a point where they can make public comment on uh matters that are both on the agenda
010uh that are on the agenda initially and a second public participation period where you can discuss matters uh that are on the agenda or not on the agenda. Um reminder there's a fivem minute limit uh to allow everyone who wants the opportunity to speak to speak. I will remind speakers when we have a minute left to uh that uh to that it's the time to wrap up the comments. Again, the goal is to get everyone a chance to speak. Um a reminder public it's public comment and not necessarily a question and answer session. The board will take time to respond to anything it cannot respond to immediately, but they will certainly provide responses where they can. Um reminder also the board has an ethical obligation to protect staff in the proper performance of their duties.
011So we're going to be mindful of disparaging and inappropriate comments tonight and we'll certainly point those out when they uh uh surface uh and it may limit your ability to continue speaking. Um you know there are going to be students here and I hope we can be role models for public discourse uh this evening. Uh a reminder again um when we get through the first public comment which can be on any matter on the agenda including both the budget presentation and the CSA contract um then uh we will have a second opportunity for those who don't get a chance to speak uh in the first uh goound with that. Thank you very much. We'll hear from Dr. Seoya. Thank you. Okay. Good evening everyone. Um you have heard me speak a few weeks ago and
012in um in in conjunction with the board president statement um we did not uh match up our our presentations but some of the comments that I will make this evening are similar and do show the the commitment to all the students here in keyboard. So good evening to begin I want to emphasize that the tax incentive program should not be a source of division between the school community and the school. We are tight-knit 1.4 4 mile square town of which I live in myself and I am proud to call home. At at the heart of it all, we all share a common goal which is that of to provide equitable opportunities to our children. Tonight, I'll be offering an overview of the developments that we have said that have taken place over the past two
013weeks. As many of you know, the tax incentive program has been thrusted upon us and it was introduced um after we submitted our tenative budget on 31925 with a 2.87 um increase that did include all things on this agenda this evening, including personnel. So, that was not factored in after the tax incentive, and it's not a part of the application. Since then, we've made adjustments and shifted priorities to direct responses to the concerns raised by the public. These changes were not made to obscure the truth but rather as a sincere effort to listen and to respond to help everyone on to be remain on the same page. The FAQ which is uh hyperl on the website up there as well are directions on how to download our app. There's also a Google form that with
014directions on there that teach everyone how to um enter your email address etc. so that if you are not a part of the school community, you can receive updates that they need to be sent. The the thing with the postal delivery, in all due respect, is that sometimes it can't get mailed and it doesn't get to you in timely fashion. So, if you would like to be uh receive school information, there's a way in which you can sign up for that as well. Um that is definitely a positive out of this experience is that more people want to be involved. Okay. Um our board of education, as you just saw, thank you to them for all the hard work. I will not repeat what Miss Cunningham had to say. However, I do want to be
015brief because Mr. Rapola is going to take over for me and get into the specificity of the accounts and what's going to happen this evening. So, that being said, this is not the first year we've had budget cuts. We've been working within that 2% cap since 2010. And somebody mentioned to me personally, well, how did you h how is this not coming up earlier than it is now? 2%'s only 2% in Keyport. That's about $227,000. Okay, that being said, we did have CO funds. The federal government did give the districts federal funds and we were able to allocate them accordingly. It is now since CO's over and those funding that funding is exhausted as of September 24 in which that 2% is tougher to navigate for sure. Okay. On the fir on the chart on
016the left are your are some major revenues and on the right are some budget cuts. Okay. As I said previously, the tax incentive program is developed or was developed. Timing and communication was not spectacular by the Department of Ed, but it was created to make up for the deficiencies that they identified we were due in the funding formula. But this board has been fiscal fiscally responsible and as Miss Cunningham did indicate, the admin team, we sit down, we sit down with teachers. This is an all-in experience because we know that 2% is not going to do what we need it to do and we work harder and smarter to make sure that that happens. But we have not replaced people that have retired. We have made cuts in some of our supplies. We have made
017cuts in the kindergarten uh aids this year. Hopefully we do get the u the applications all approved. Budget is approved on May 7th and then we can reinstate those positions. They're critical. So there are many things that are critical to operate the district irrelevant of it being a prek to 12. We are still a pre-k to 12 district and every child here deserves an equitable opportunity. Further on the next slide is the 2% cap. Okay, again I spoke to that. I don't need to, you know, be mean to be redundant, but basically 2.87% is 326,000. Our health benefit increase alone was $400,000. So, we definitively welcome input. Um, and there's definitely uh cuts we've made and we'll have to continue to cut. Yes, you're absolutely right. 2% is not going to be correct, not going
018to be adequate to do what we need to do, but we are here and the children of keyboard deserve everything that they should have that any other child would get. Okay, that does say in that slide um just going backward for a second. It does say that based on the funding formula that the district is not being provided uh is being shorted not being provided $3.6 million because that's what that funding formula dictated that the tax levy should provide. That again repetitively is what makes that tax incentive program come to life. Okay. So with that, this is the the information Mr. poll and I got received from the DOE and what you see there's a 2.384 they're saying and and this is my my interpretation which I think is is right on point is that
019we are underserved from the tax levy but the DOE is actually saying that we're educating our kids under adequacy so that's why that number at the end looks a little different than the tax levy amount so the DOE understands that that for funding formula needs to be revisited but did give 20 districts in Mammoth County, 300 in the state of New Jersey the ability to apply for this. Okay, this is just another breakdown. This is the journey that we took and this really was a journey in all sincerity. This was something that we did not know was coming. It was a surprise. We presented a budget. If I was, you know, a taxpayer, I am a taxpayer. There you go. Um I would question, well, how did they do that? You know, how does that
020happen? We don't know what we didn't know. They did not do a spectacular job of communicating. So, please don't ever hesitate to send me an email or contact me. My heart is there all the time. You can ask any question you'd like. But that is what happened to us. And that's why the board we started at 20%. The journey took us to 12 and a half. They sent us back to the table. They heard the the community. We understand they're all taxpayers as well. And we ended up with where we are this evening, 7.5% and of that 2.8 87 was already included. So that 4.63 is the increase in there. And I will go to the next slide. I'll show you what we're going to bring back. But give me just a a me a
021moment. Sorry. Hit you with fist. Is that the next one, Nick, or is that the Okay. Okay. This is the one I want to be on. Okay. So again, this is where we were on what I just said. Fair enough. Sorry. My apologies. These are the things that we included in our application. Okay. Um the 12.5% increase when we went from 20 to 12.5 was not a tactic. It was not something to say, oh, you know, this is the master plan to, you know, make it feel better. This is tough for every each and every one of us. And, you know, I have my own children. They look at the tax bill now, too. They're understanding this. So, it was not done as a tactics a tactic. So, looking at those things, the items that
022we're bringing back, if the application again is approved by the Department of Education and the board approves the budget on May 7th, are the items that we're looking to bring back. Not everything matches a one for one thing. For example, throughout the years, we've reduced staff, one or two staff members. For us, it's not like Jackson or somebody who's closing buildings. For us, two teachers, it puts a a huge weight on the teachers in this room. Things like, you know, people saying um uh class size ratio. There's lots of variables in there that relate that's in the FAQ to to say to you things such as, you know, well, it's 11 to1. It's it's not. It doesn't take into account electives. It doesn't take into account special education needs. So, all of that being said,
023there's a lot of information that I would love to provide in the future and I will plan to do so, but this these cuts here were not necessarily if I had a one teacher in 2022, that same teacher might be different. The requirements are changing of what we're required to do by mandate as well. So, in there we have a computer science teacher. We have several grants, at least $350,000 worth of grants that this uh admin team has applied for and received. again, one of the only ones in New Jersey, it's one of the 10 in New Jersey that received the AI grant and we're a small district. So that's a huge accomplishment. So that teaching position will support that. The media specialist, edtech, we don't have that right now. That is something that we
024need to be pro we need to provide. We've tried to provide and we could do it at a moderate uh ability such as hours, contracted hours. We need a full-time person in that position. That's the second thing. Special education teacher. Uh many many questions come or comments come our way. Why are you not bringing those kids back? We want them all here. We want every child here. There are some needs that the child needs to have elsewhere. However, we are going to be building an LLD classroom at the high school so that we can try to retain some of our students and provide them the inclusion that they so deserve. In addition, high quality curriculum materials, ELA, math, science, social studies. those materials. We are coming up on a math cycle, a math review. I
025hope that I see as many of the of these people here, you people here this evening in the future meetings because that's where we get to talk about all of those decisions that are made, but those supplies are going to be needed again to provide equity in addition to meeting the state standards. Um, in addition, I I spoke previously about the kindergarten aid. Uh, we kindergarten aid, we'd like to bring them back. They're very essential. Um, with that, I'm going to turn the the meeting over the presentation over to Mr. Rapola so that he can speak into the specificity of line items and what it how it'll impact all of you. Just turn this around. Am I able to move? Can I move this a little bit back? Is that okay? Is this working? Okay.
026Okay, great. So, next week is the uh public uh budget hearing and the board will be voting on the budget. Um, tonight was scheduled uh to be able to present those materials to the board in advance of the meeting. uh again just to see if there were any kind of changes that needed to be uh made. Prior to I know many people are here because of the tax levy uh incentive aid program. Um but prior to that coming out, we had already had two budget meetings, well two meetings where we discussed the budget and we had planned this evening uh to give the board one more uh you know chance to see what the budget looked like. So that's what is going on tonight. we're we're we're presenting uh the budget and so it's going
027to look very similar next week at the public budget presentation. Um so when we talk budget, I want to first start uh with the revenues, which is the money that the district brings in. And these are our major revenues. And our biggest revenue uh is the the taxpayers uh the tax levy. So I want to see if this red light's working. I hope so. No. Uh okay. So, uh in the current budget 2425, uh we have 11,366,000 we collect from from taxpayers from the bureau. Uh this budget has a 7.5% increase in it, bringing the levy to 12.2 million. Uh we also collect revenue uh for tuition and the only tuition revenue that the district receives is from Union Beach and you see our revenue projections for tuition are going down uh approximately 200,000 uh
028for the 2526 year and I'll uh get into that at a later slide uh more specifics. Uh uh our second biggest revenue in the district is uh has been state aid uh money that the state uh gives to the district to support schools and that's dictated by a very sophisticated uh funding formula that I will also speak about uh in more detail in a few more slides down the road. Uh we also contribute to the budget from our reserves. We have in this budget is last year we used 775,000. This budget calls for 900,000 which is $500,000 in a tuition reserve account and $400,000 from a maintenance reserve account. Uh we're also utilizing fund balance and our current budget we had 2.6 million fund balance. Uh next year we have $2 million in fund balance.
029And I sorry I have a slide dedicated to fund balance also. Um and we are increasing uh our miscellaneous and enterprise revenue and the majority of that revenue comes from the selling of our uh solar credits from from the solar panels on the roof uh and also from uh interest rates have have gone up over uh you know the last year or two. Um and then you see this little bottom number, the 42,000 is the tax levy incentive aid from the state. Uh which is uh with the program they are kicking in five 5% of what you know a minimal amount but uh we would be getting 42,000 from the state. That's the money coming in. And these are some of the uh large monies that are going out. And regular instruction is scheduled to
030go up $400,000. And you could say what is in regular instruction? The majority of that, the large majority is teacher salaries, aid salaries, educational supplies. Special education instruction is uh budgeted uh excuse me at a 2% a 2.95% reduction. What makes up special ed instruction? Uh that is special education teacher salaries and professional services that some uh special education students qualify for such as occupational therapy, uh physical therapy. We also pay uh tuition to a number of places. Uh we pay tuition to um the magnet schools for the keyport residents that attend the magnet schools. We uh majority of our added district tuition is for added district uh placement of uh of special education students. We also uh have the vocational schools that we pay tuition to. And so in this budget paid for through
031the general fund, we are we see a $52,000 increase um where budgeted in the general fund is 1.1 million, but over to the left you see a note that says actual tuition costs 1.4 million. And that's because three million, excuse me, 300,000 of uh our tuition is paid for by an idea grant, a individual disabilities something something grant. Um and and uh excuse me, that they give us $300,000 that we're able to put towards the tuition. It's a it's a federal program. We uh have the budget uh cut by 6.92% or 150,000 in the operation of maintenance and plants. Well, what is that? That is um basically what it takes to run the buildings. Uh custodial maintenance, uh property insurance, uh security, uh the the officers that are in the building are paid for out
032of there. uh all our utilities, electric, gas, um water, um and and so we're we're projecting a lower uh cost. There will be some costs within there, you know, are going up like electricity uh and gas. Uh some utilities are going up. Uh but there are some items that we're projecting uh to go down. Employee benefits is one of our largest expenses other than salaries. uh included in benefits is not just health benefits. Uh it's also contributions uh to pension program u certain pension programs, unemployment, workers compensation, social security. Um and so those expenses are scheduled to go up 8.96%. The majority of that though is from uh health uh insurance increase that I have another slide I'll speak to you about. administrative costs are projected to go down 128,000. Um these costs are are
033the major the majority of this is coming from uh some technical uh some licensing softwares uh which believe it or not fall into uh the administrative category uh uh legal bills uh communication services. That's where you see most of the drop. There also u was a portion of one administrator's salary that we were able to uh to charge out of our prek funding which is a separate uh stream of funding. Co-curricular activities are scheduled to decrease uh by $24,000. Athletics $44,000. Health services is health supplies and the nurs's salaries and some professional uh services in the medical field. Um and support services are your uh excuse me, your guidance uh department uh child study team uh and they're scheduled to go up 2.85%. A majority a large percentage of that is uh is salary driven.
034Improvement of instructional services is is basically the curriculum department uh that is scheduled to be uh decreased by 37,000. Transportation is a slight decrease of 1.12%. This is the first year that we're projecting uh a decrease in uh transportation. Um there'll be a slide that talks about transportation and capital outlay. We have a a project that surprise surprise I have a slide on. Okay. So this is very important. And the reason I think every a lot of people are here tonight is uh because state aid funding formula is uh is not working well for uh for many districts and and we would be uh one of them right now. So I I need I would like to explain to you what goes into the state uh funding formula. There are a couple of uh real
035important factors that uh go into this formula and this is not an exaggeration. And uh the packet of formulas is is a 10page uh when they when they send us the state aid packet which comes out u in late February. Uh it's a 10-page packet of calculations and one pages the solutions from one page feed into the factors on the next page and it just keeps going like that until you come out the numbers. Uh when you get through all the 10 pages, the major factors that go into the funding are your resident enrollment. So that's number of students you have that live in the district. So for instance, uh Union Beach uh students who come to the high school, we wouldn't get funding for that. Uh Union Beach would would get the funding for
036that, but we know the our students here uh that live in Keyport uh we we get funding for. and they look at the last six years of enrollment and they weigh the the the last three years as heavier than than the previous three years and they look at what makes up that enrollment. Uh what what percentage of uh lowincome students, what percentage of limited English proficient, what percentage of special education students, and those three factors I just said are weighted heavier. Uh so they give you, you know, they give you a little bit more money. uh for students that qualify uh in those categories. They also care about something that's called an adequacy budget and that is a number that the state feels uh based on you have so many kids. This is a number
037that we think you can provide an adequate budget uh to the students. I I think it's comical that they use the term adequate budget. uh they don't say provide an excellent education. Um they say this is a number we think you can provide and and adequate. So adequacy budget and and that's something that plays heavy into how much they decide they're going to fund you as well. Another key factor you heard the term by Dr. Seavoya is a local fair share. And you know this is an area where we have fallen short. uh historically we've typically fallen short in the in the and when I say fallen short just in the in the state uh the formula you know historically about a million dollars and this year balloon to to three million uh I I
038believe uh not to have political messages I I think they're shifting some of the uh shortfall to the local I think they adjust the formula to make it work for how they needed to work that year Uh but that's just my opinion. Uh local fair share is calculated by two main factors. The equalized uh valuation and that's the the value of properties in the in the bureau uh and you know commercial property ratables uh and also the district's uh income. So you know that would come off of uh tax filings. Uh they take into consideration what people are making uh in the district. And so they take these factors and and and based on looking at what our numbers were, they said last last year we overfunded you by 1.3 million. Now they definitely didn't
039underfund us by one I'm sorry overfunded us by 1.3 million. So this year we're going to cut you by 1.3 million. And that would have been devastating. Uh we're already we're hurting for some of the cuts that we were projecting, but 1.3 million cut would have would have had this gym even even more filled this evening. So uh ironically, two days before and that's how it's always worked all the years. They take what they overfunded or underfunded you the previous year and they give it to you the next year or take it back the next year. this year, two days before, uh, a memo came out that said, um, districts that are losing state aid, we're going to cap the loss at 3% for for every district in the state that's scheduled to lose aid.
040So, at our 5.6 million, 3% of that is 170,000. So instead of being cut 1.3 million, fortunately uh they cut us one point, excuse me, $170,000. And with that, the state believes the local fair share in the form they're saying that we should be collecting 15 million57,000 from uh locally from the taxpayers. However, we can only raise taxes historically 2% and some there are uh there's some very minor adjustments uh for health insurance increases. So uh what we in our budget that had originally been submitted uh had a 2.87% increase which was 11,693,000 uh in the tax levy. And you see a difference there that even in raising our 2 our scheduled 2.87 87. This year we were going to they were saying that we were going to be shorted over 3.3 million. So I
041told you resident enrollment is a key factor and we're losing students over the last six years. Six years ago, we had 833 uh student resident students and uh presently 750 and and a half uh how to explain what a half a half some if we have a student who attends vocational school uh uh half a day, you know, that that would qualify for for half a student. Um, Union Beach tuition of course is very important to us and you see how over the last uh, seven years that has been uh, decreasing. We peaked at 2021 at about 2.8 million and then the revenue started falling except you see this year 2324 this anomaly of 2.8 million which I I'll be able to explain. Uh, Union Beach tells us how many students they're going to send
042us and we went to we went to contract for number that year. Uh, they end up sending a lot less students uh than than had been projected. So, and we saw that right away. I mean, uh, and they even knew after once they became aware of it, they expressed it to us also. Uh and so going into the year we knew we were getting more money from Union Beach than we should have been getting. So what do you do in that situation? You don't spend it because you have to give it back. So uh it's one of the it's going to tie into a fund balance in a later slide. But uh we're presently at you know at at a at a very low amount of 1.8 8 million and that includes a $713,000 refund
043to Union Beach uh based on the 2324 when they sent when we went to contract uh for for for more students than than we were sent. Um insurance rates, as I'm sure you know, are are blowing up everywhere on your home, on your cars, and and to us as well. Health and prescription costs are increasing for the district by nine and a half percent. Uh seems like a high number is a high number but uh every district in the state that is in the state health benefits plan uh they went up by 14% this year. Uh so I if I can say we were fortunate we were fortunate not to have state health benefits uh our our uh health and prescriptions going up by nine and a half percent. um they're blaming uh weight loss
044medications and and things like that as far as why the rates are going uh so high. Um I don't know if that's garbage or not to be honest. Uh property and casualty insurance, workers compensation, uh these other insurance are projected to go up at 8.2% for the district. uh transportation cost skyrocketed over the last seven, eight years. In the beginning, part of that had to do with driver shortages. Uh it also had to do with a a lack of of people having the proper uh credentials, uh licenses. There were uh ridiculous tests I feel they they asked some of the the the bus drivers to have to pass. Meaning, you know, they they needed to pass a test of how the mechanic like every little part inside the engine of the bus and what it
045did. So, there are various uh fuel prices uh impacted it. Um COVID impacted it. Uh so it it it it rose steadily uh by at least like a h 100,000 a year but we feel like it's it's flattened out right now and and you know I hope to see it move in in another direction or uh at least just only increase slightly moving forward. Use of fund balance is the amount of money carried from one budget into the next. And historically we had been about 700,000 which was a you know probably an amount you want to want to have. Our auditors felt that that was a number that you know would be a good number to to be at. Uh and then we started receiving and we're not complaining but we started receiving uh a
046lot of money uh SSR funds and ARP funds uh COVID relief funds. Uh in fact we received 3.97 million over the course of you know four years or so and it was spend it or lose it and uh we had to spend and we of course we want to take advantage and we don't want have to give any of it back but we as we were spending it understand we were saving money in in in some areas. So if we were able to put any of it towards transportation or through add a district student uh you know we we were trying to put that money there and we so we started uh to accumulate a fund balance uh and it's and in the 2526 budget the fund balance that's going in is is is 2
047million 2 million83,000 the four in 2223 We had a a four-year-old prek program. Um, by the way, going back many years, uh, Keyport's uh, preK program has always been viewed as a an exceptional program uh, at the state level as a model model program. I know we don't say that enough or maybe you don't get a chance uh you know as the community members or or parents like maybe that doesn't show up on TV or in the newspaper but our prek program without a doubt has been uh raved about at at the state level and so um Dr. Seavoya in an attempt to uh increase resident enrollment and to ex extend a program uh that was working well and to provide uh access and needed services to to the community uh and because get the
048students in school early, get them exposed to educational materials early, we went to a three and four year old program. And so you see that what our funding from the state has been for our prek program uh has increased from 692,000 a few years ago uh to 1.5 uh million uh in the 2526 budget. And I and I know one of the thoughts by Dr. is uh also that hopefully building this solid prek program is going to increase our resident enrollment, get more people uh to want to move here, more people to want to stay here, increase our enrollment numbers, increases our state funding to try to try to get out of this hole. We have some capital projects in the in the budget which is uh local local area net excuse me local area
049network wireless app access network uh basically it's my understanding that a lot of our switches and uh uh I I I'm not going to put you on the spot tonight but I I'm not thinking of my proper terminology right now but we do need some equipment uh or we're gonna struggle. Everything goes by technology now. Uh so you we do have some capital projects. The good news is uh -ate which is a federal program is going to pay for 80% of uh of the projects. Uh- rates a program where certain things qualify for uh funding a funding amount and then we qualify for 80% uh for certain technology uh needs the district. Uh hold on. We did pass a referendum a few years ago and I know there's plenty of people I saw in the
050audience this evening uh walk in the door that were critical uh and extremely supportive in helping us uh pass the referendum. And I know that this board and myself uh and Dr. Seavoya are are very grateful and the and the teaching staff that's here uh this evening are very grateful for uh passing that referendum and your support. It's done some wonderful things for the district. It it brought in uh HVAC to the district. Um it it it increased our security. We had secure vestibules. have provided uh access like uh things like the the ramp uh the staircase in front of the high school. Um we used to have very bad drainage problems in this building when it rained. uh the bottom floor would would you know flood and when I say flood uh I guess
051flood like something that was built in the you know 1800s or you know all right um so we passed this referendum we passed it with flying colors and it was because everyone was behind it uh but because of that we now we borrowed the money we have to pay it back that's debt okay so we got excuse me we have 20-year bonds we took out they'll be paid paid off in 2040. For 20, excuse me, for 2526, our payment on the bonds is 1.234 million. Now, because these projects were the state viewed them as uh important, they qualified for the state to pay for a certain percentage. And because we passed the referendum, they uh said we'll pay, you know, approximately uh 30, you know, in the neighborhood of 30% for for these projects. And
052how they do that is they give us what's called debt service aid. So, sorry. So, they're going to give us for they're going to pay 405,000 out of that 1.2 million. We're also going to transfer money in from fund 30. I'll talk about that in the next slide. We're going to we're going to transfer in 250,000 from fund 30, which means our debt service payment for the year is going to cost taxpayers 578,000. Most of the times when you go out to bid uh and you have these giant projects, you find out uh they come in over what you expected or whatever you went out to bid. Everything about this just went right. Uh not everything. We did have some hiccups, but uh this project came when everything was said and done in in 2022.
053We ended with uh $1.5 million uh remaining. Now, that money needs to go back to taxpayers. So, uh, decision was made to, uh, give it back over a six-year period in the in the form of helping pay the loan off $250,000 a year. So, that's that fun 30 transfer. Where is it 250,000 coming from? It's coming from uh our our leftover balance from uh the projects we did didn't cost as much as expected. So, uh, as of the audit conducted in June, last June, we had a million dollars left. So, there's about this, um, excuse me, there is the budget that we're in now, and then there'll be three more budgets where we'll be able to make a this contribution. The you you need to understand tax rates to understand how it impacts your your
054your tax bill. Um, and what what this slide here, what I want you to see is the school tax rate uh has been decreasing each year and decreasing uh substantially uh so we're projecting you know 1.0228 for uh this upcoming budget. Please bear with me one second. Many papers. Okay. So what does this rat what what these numbers mean? It's showing that the ratio of the school taxes that compared to the ratables or the property values and commercial values um is decreasing every year which leads me into the next slide. You need to understand uh assessments or have some sort of understanding how the taxes and assessments tie in together. So, and I know that uh some people question, well, where are you coming up with this average home value of 460 thou th,000 or
055463? You know, my home's worth more than that or or you know, perhaps the opposite way. These numbers come strictly from uh I get these numbers from the tax assessor of Keyport uh which for the last few years has been uh Mike Del Rey. And so he has what's called a table of aggregates. And in 2425, the value of all homes was $833 million. And there were $1,995 homes in keep. So to get the average, you simply take the value, divide it by the number of homes, and you get an average value of 418,000. included in that table of aggregates are commercial property. So when you take it and that's good. You want you want to have a number of commercial properties contributing uh to the tax or have businesses in town contributing to the
056to the taxes. Um and so the total number in the table of aggregates 1.127 billion uh in 2425 when I ask him for it this year for 2526 he gives me a new table of aggregates and the residential value at that time is 925 million and this time the number of homes uh is 1,998. So to get the you can see the new value average value of a home it's $463,61 and also the commercial property uh when that you include that and the table of aggregates says we have a total value of 1.2 billion in ratables. Why am I telling this? Because we're get to the last slide you care about the most which is taxes. And I want to explain how you figure out or h how your tax bill is determined. And when
057I say tax bill, I'm only talking about um the amount that we ask for the amount the bureau pays the district for schools, which uh you know, historically has been the largest amount I'm sure of of your tax bill. I I do believe uh that that percentage has been decreasing. Uh but um I want to explain it 11.3 million was the current budget was a tax levy ratables if you the previous slide told you it was 1.127 billion. So you got you you calculate the rate by taking this tax number we're asking for divide it by the ratables and it comes up with this decimal of 0.0183. 1083. They then take that number, multiply it by what your house was assessed at, and this time I'm using the average 418033. And you find out, okay,
058school tax is $4,215 in at a 7 and a half% increase in the taxes. Ratables though over the last year has gone up 8.97%. So you see this new rate coming in of 0.09947. So the rate has actually decreased. So in theory you would think I'm going to be paying less taxes if the tax rate has decreased. But however we just said the value of the home has gone up over the last year also. So this home average home is now at 463. So the new rate times the new value gives you the new number. So all I can do is demonstrate averages uh apples to to apples for so the average was $4,215 on the general fund and and we're projecting 4606. So an increase of $391. Also have to take into consideration there's
059a debt service portion also which is that that bond that loan and you're paying an additional $215 in our current budget. So 4215 and 4430 but in 2526 instead of 215 the new numbers that becomes 218 or $3 more. So, the total tax bill for the schools projected in this budget is for for an average home is [Music] 4,824 or an increase of $394 from last year. I know I throw a lot at at you this evening. Um, there was this slide, Dr. Seavoya, Mr. Bull, could you do me a favor and go back to slide eight for a moment? Sure. because I neglected to uh highlight the fact that the original budget that was presented at the 2.87 was $16 a month per the average household. And if you could comment on that, thank
060you. Not a problem. So up there, I was supposed to have shown you in the beginning the tentative budget that was approved on the 19th was inclusive of that $16 increase. Based on the average that Mr. Rap just spoke of the average household it would become the $33. So I just want to make sure we highlighted that. Um and then in addition uh we have as I said previously we have a lot of information up here for you to take with you and Mr. Rapole and I will post the presentations from this evening on the website tomorrow morning. Yeah. And um Dr. You have a there's a slide here about scanning something if that's all the stuff that I pointed to up there. It's all sorry. the app. Everybody, you can take your phone out
061right now. You can scan it if you'd like. We'd love for to for you to be able to get the information and always on a journey to improve communication. Um, and so next week, uh, we have a public hearing. Uh, to be fair, uh, it's going to it's going to look almost identical to to what what was presented. Thank you, Mr. Rapola. Um, it is now my job again, Perry Ladder, a board attorney um to present uh section 3.3, the public hearing on the superintendent contract. Uh, so what's happening tonight is your chief school administrator uh Dr. Seavoya works under a contract that uh started in 2021 and was slated to end in 2026. Tonight's proposed contract will replace and void that contract and will run uh for a term beginning July 1, 2025 and
062end in uh June 30th, 2028. Um procedural steps that had to be followed in uh getting to this point. Uh initially we uh negotiated the board members uh through my office negotiated terms of a contract with Dr. Seavoya and title 18A required notice to be sent to your newspapers of record 30 days ago. That happened. Um and uh tonight's uh public hearing is a second part of the process that has to uh happen. Um another part of the procedural requirements under 18A, the proposed contract has been approved by the New Jersey Department of Education Executive County Superintendent, Dr. Les Richens. What does that mean? That means it has all the appropriate clauses that it's required to have and it contains no improper provisions that are barred by title 18A or uh 6A uh the education
063regulations. Um article four of the contract outlines the initial salary of $200,000 for the 2526 school year. um followed by 3% increases and to that amount in the 2627 school year and a 3% increase in the 2728 school year, the final year of the contract. Um in terms of this evening, the board uh will look forward to hearing your comments on the proposed three-year contract for Dr. Seavoya and as a final step, we'll consider uh and uh vote on the proposed contract. So, thank you very much. Okay. All right. And again, as a reminder at the we'll shortly have public comment and you're able to um comment on both the uh budget information as well as the contract information in the five minutes allotted for each speaker. Thank you. We did president's remarks already. So,
064next Dr. Seavoya communication. We did receive a letter of retirement for Miss McCully who has been with the district for many years. Uh we did also receive a um resignation for Mr. Valaro. Miss Gonzalez will also be retiring. Miss Lee has resigned and Miss Waldrin has resigned. I'm going to highlight from this point forward, Madame President, on the items that are bolded because those would be the ones that were added after the workshop agenda. Thank you. Uh at this time we will have public participation on agenda items. Anybody can come up and speak. John Merilla, 34 Broad Street, Keyport. Good evening. Um since we're going to just give comment tonight, my comments will be direct and if I can get answers before the next meeting, I would appreciate that. Um, one of the items I'd
065like to discuss or make a comment is the state formula. Obviously, we all know this the state formula is outdated for many years now. And doing my research in the past month, um, this new formula that's been presented to the board and other districts, um, isn't law. It's part of the state budget which budgets are voted on every year by the end of June because if July 1st they'd have to shut the state government down. I'm just hoping that Keeport is not the poster child for the state of New Jersey taking this gamble by doing what we're doing and being part of the new formula. I feel that the state is is got this mechanism designed right now to hurt all districts. Um, this this new formula I don't believe is going to help our
066district. I really think it's going to hurt our district and uh time will only tell. My research tells me because of the fact that the state has really put us put yourselves in a very bad position and I don't envy the position they put you in at the 11th hour to dump this on your lap was pretty critical and crucial to the to the board and the uh the residents. And when I see bills that are being presented in committee in the state right now, there's several bills um for new u state formulas uh S2 and a couple assembly bills and you read them. They're designed to help a district court and that's I am doing some research and talking with our senators. Uh both senators Vince Kapow and um Declan Ocan have said that
067they have received numerous um emails and discussions from the board which I appreciate on behalf of the However um our fight isn't with each other. Our fight should be with the state of New Jersey. The state of New Jersey is putting us in this position to divide and conquer. And that's exactly what's happening. Some are taking it personal. Some are trying to make it political. It's not. It's not. Neither one of them. What it is is it's designed for uproar and they're doing a good job. So if we work together and take on the state and say we need our fair share and we don't want to gamble with a child's education being in the forefront, but let's get it all on the table. No disrespect, Governor Murphy. He's done next year. The impact still
068is going to affect us and our children and most importantly the taxpayers. So I say join together, answer all the questions before the state budget's adopted. Do a presentation. Bring it to the state of New Jersey. Tell them this is where we stand. We stand united. Yes, we're 1.4 square miles, but we represent a million beautiful faces of children now and in the future. Thank you. Thank you. Christina Greenberg, 144 Terresa Avenue, Keyport. I would like to start by saying that as a mom of two students in the district, I could not be prouder of the teachers in both of our buildings. Many of you have seen my children through their worst and best moments in the last 11 years. My opposition to a tax increase above the 2.87% has nothing to do with mine
069or any other parent I know feeling about the staff inside of those buildings. Last meeting, you all spoke about clarity and transparency. To me, clarity and transparency would have been a recap of the original budget you passed, which I will give you that every parent that is here tonight should have been at the original meeting to see that and we all should have been there over the last several years. Then it should have been a presentation of what we were able to keep or get rid of at 20%, 15% and now the 7.5%. Even tonight watching your presentation, it's very vague. You had clubs, you had aids, you had athletics. We have no idea what clubs, what athletics, how many aids we're getting rid of. To me, if you wanted the public to feel like
070we knew what was going on, this should have been outlined extremely clearly for us. It would be irresponsible, in my opinion, to cut a single sport or club that is available to all of our students without changing the way we run Rising Stars. Rising Stars was not outlined in your presentation at all what it cost to taxpayers of Kaport. When Rising Stars was brought to the district, and I'm well aware that it was brought by spearheaded by Anmarie Panzerelli, it was funded by a grant that is no longer doing that. It should not be the taxpayers's burden to pay for those students. I have two children myself to put through college. I don't expect anybody else in this room to foot that bill. And I think putting that on taxpayers that don't even have children
071is not okay. On the conservative side, 15 students in junior and senior years at $2,000 per kid would be $60,000 per year we are asking from taxpayers to pay for that program. As your presentation tonight showed, that would be all of the clubs and athletics you're cutting from every other student for roughly 30 students in that program. When Keenburg put out a survey to their residents when they were in a similar situation, the overwhelming majority of their residents supported rising stars, they did not support the taxpayers paying for it. Currently, Keenburg students, if they want to enroll in the program, have to pay their way. If students in Keeberg can still participate, then I think heport students can also. A board member said on Facebook that the cost of rising stars is small. Maybe when
072we're talking of millions of dollars, 60,000 is, but I think that's a whole student that's a whole teacher salary for some of our teachers. As a board, you were willing to raise the residents taxes by 28 by 20% to generate an extra $98,000. If Rising Stars is costing conservatively $60,000, that was the majority of the extra money you were looking to receive. And as of tonight's presentation, that surpasses the $42,000 you'll get from the 5%. There is a reason other boards around us and throughout the county have voted this levy program down. There are no guarantees to the taxpayers that the state will not turn around next year and say your residents were able to afford this. Do it to them again. As listed on the New Jersey School Board's website, your responsibility is to
073represent the concerns of citizens, taxpayers, parents, school administration, and then to the needs of the students. I again appreciate all of our staff in both buildings. I appreciate every one of you that sit at this table and the time you take away from your families. I don't think this was easy, but in my humble opinion, there is still work to be done. Thank you. Does anyone else wish to make public comment? Elmer J. Graham Jr. 22 St. Peters Place. Good evening, Dr. Sabo Savoa. Good evening. A wee board of education members, I agree with everything John Merilla said. The state funding formula needs to be fixed and that that should not this it should be with the next governor and the next legislature and we need to work together to persuade the state of New
074Jersey to fix this fix this school funding formula once and for all and stuff like that. I still believe a tax increase can be avoided. I think all you just have to do is take a look at this budget and take a look at past budgets and see what programs can be cut in there that are no longer needed and stuff like that. The programs that are absolutely a waste to the bureau of Keepport that you no longer need and everything like that. And there's no offense on any of you and stuff like that. you all are doing a terrific job and state of New Jersey dropped this on us at the last minute and everything like that. So again, that's that's my opinion. Thank you. Thank you. Any other public comment on agenda items?
075forward. Um, in the presentation and in the budget explanation, I see that we got it down to 7 whatever percent. I guess some of my concern is is does that include the supers's new raise for the next few years or is that going to be added on as well to our percentage that you've presented to us. You were just I think a lot of people shocked especially because the budget hasn't been voted. Suddenly the super is now going to be getting a raise and um we just want to know is that going to be included in the increase that you're going to charge us or is that just going to be uh an addition to whatever you're doing. Thank you. Any other public comment and Main Street been here for 49 years and right now
076the way this budget is proposed and the tax increase I don't think I'll be here much longer. But I think your main problem is you've lost student students from Union Beach. That's that's your really main problem. That tuition is not coming. And I think that uh Dr. Seavoy uh I think the 200,000 is a little bit steep especially in these times. Hopefully I'll still be around here because I do love living in Keyport, but it's getting very difficult to do that. All right. Thank you. [Applause] Thank you. Becky Fish, 5 East Third Street. Again, I just have a question. I don't know if it can be answered tonight or at a later time. Um, it was mentioned in regards to the superintendent's um, contract that it doesn't end until June 2026, I believe, but it's
077being rewritten now. Is there a why or an explanation for that that can be talked about? We will answer that. Okay. Thank you. You're welcome. Thank you, Jennifer Williams, 67 Church Street. Um, I don't deny that Dr. Seavoya, you do a very difficult job. However, I find that when we have had a cap for so many years of what we can increase, for you to get a 3% increase every year for the next three years when we're in such a financial need, I know it's $6,000, which is very small comparison, but a 3% raise when I don't think many people are getting 3% raises every year for the next three years. Um, again, I work in a very small district and I could not speak up at my board of ed meeting in fear of
078retaliation, but I am completely overwhelmed by a a superintendent of two small schools um making over $200,000 a year. I I agree that you can ask for a raise. I think everyone's entitled to ask for it, but whether or not we grant that, I know that we are competitive with other schools and everything else, but um it just seems absurd that we're capped at two or when you negotiate salaries for staff, it's 3% over the entire um budget. So, it's 3% for raises of um salaries. It's raises of stipens. It's raises of all of those things. And it's a 3%. Maybe they get a 3% raise, maybe a 3.8%, but 3% raise for one person is you getting 3% every single year. Thank you. Thank you. Any other public comments? I like to face you
079guys. My name is Sel White. I'm at 90 Fulton Street, Keyport. I am a a social worker here in this building. I service the whole district. I'm the only social worker in this whole entire district. Okay, Dr. Seavoya, I understand you guys are not liking her increase, but when I this woman is here 247, this woman, I've watched her where parents aren't doing what they're supposed to do and she steps in as a parent taking kids to therapy sessions. You guys don't realize how much she does for your kids. For your kids. I understand that. I'm sorry. This uh please uh please be respectful of the speaker's time. Um and this is not a back and forth with the audience. So, respectfully uh please uh be polite and respectful when the speakers are speaking. Again,
080I have two kids that went through here. I have no kids in this district right now. I have to pay the taxes just like you. I understand that budgets need to go up. Taxes need to be raised sometimes because we got to get what we need for our children. I think it's just important for you guys, as someone else mentioned, as to come to these meetings. Come to the meetings because usually no one is here at these meetings. And usually people are here when they want to talk about sports or now we're talking about the taxes, but no one's here when we're actually talking about the budget any other time. No one's here when we're talking about the curriculum and what we could do to make that even better. No one is ever here. There's
081a lot of times I sit in this audience and I'm the only one here. Only one here. I just want you guys to actually try to take some time and consideration to really see what goes on and I don't think we do that. And that's all I have to say. Thank you. Any other public participation? Evening Nicole Hen Carney Street, New Jersey. I speak tonight as a mom in district a rising star student two national junior honor society student my kids with success story as a staff are in this room most of them taught my children. So, I'm grateful for that. I'm not excited about a tax increase. No one is. But what surprises me, we are part of an annual reassessment in this county of our taxes. Haven't seen anyone come to council meetings
082to talk about it, to ask what we're doing as a town, as a county to stop that. Was a pilot program that was enacted in 2013. It was only supposed to last for 5 years. It's 2025 and Mammoth County is the only county in the state that participates in this. If those assessments, reassessments are going to keep infecting how the numbers are calculated combination with what the state is doing with this tax cap, it's just not working. So, I invite the community also to ask our elected officials at the county level, the state level, find out how we stop these annual reassessments which are really affecting our numbers. couple years they go down. But in addition to that, the 2% had we been able to raise the numbers that were adequately um affecting our our
083you know insurance increases and salary increases for for the district, we would be over 12.5%, we would probably be around 22%. So I just want to put that on the table. It's not easy. I know it's a thankless job and we are thankful for what you do for our community and for our children. I also am sympathetic to um residents that don't have children. It's tough, but if you engage in a public education throughout your life, someone paid for you to go to school as well. So, thank [Applause] you. Thank you. Any other public participation? So we are going to close the public participation portion of the meeting on agenda items. Um Dr. Seavoya, Mr. Roola, is there anything you would like to respond to that we are able to this evening or Mr. Okay.
084Yeah. So I can respond to one question. The um question was was this was the CSA contract part of the 2025 26 budget presentation. The answer to that is yes. that information and cost of that contract is included in what uh uh Mr. Rapola presented uh to you. I think the other question was um why are we doing this this evening? Because so as of June 1st, we have to give the superintendent either renew her contract or we have to tell her that we are not renewing her. So this is why the process needs to be done in a timely manner because if we are not going to renew her contract then we would be telling her that her contract was not going to be renewed additionally. Okay. Uh so Dr. Seavoya uh oh no
085sorry superintendent report. Superintendent report as part of our count community outreach and partnership strategic planning goal. As I said throughout the presentation, there we're always uh looking to increase communication options and we are taking information from residents who do not have students in the school so that they can be communicated with as well. Um in addition, the directions to downloading our app, you can set that up to get notifications for all of the things that happen in the district. I urge you to sign up for such. On June 7th, we will present our state of the district to the board of education and the keeper community. I invite each and every one of you to attend this important event. The presentation will offer a closer look at our current proficiency rates and student growth based
086on assessments administered throughout the school year. To say that the administration is incredibly proud of our staff and students for their hard work and commitment to continuous learning is an understatement. There's much to celebrate as we close out the school year. I also encourage everyone to review the school performance report published by the New Jersey Department of Education which provides the most recent and accurate data on proficiency and growth as well as a slideshow that was created for Keyport Public School that can be located on our website. In addition, uh the NJSLA NJSLA is the New Jersey student learning assessment testing begins next week with science assessment at both central school and the high school. The parent letter is going to be linked is linked to this report and will be um in the minutes.
087Um also I would like to take a moment to recognize one of our students, James Russ. His Muppet drawings are showcased in the hallway KS and you have to see them. He could not have been more proud. Um I think I got snailed today. Um that's a fishbump something where he was very excited to share. But um really if you can take a walk through and see it that would be spectacular and it will be on social media. Uh last evening we had family paint and plant. Miss Tammy Manganelli, Miss Amanda Mchia, Miss Danielle Fleming led a highly successful family paint and plant last evening. Over 50 people were there. Families were treated to a presentation about plants native to Keeport and then they painted a terracotta pot and planted native spec species to take
088home. It was a wonderful full event and all connected to the climate grant. Uh this evening we recognized our students of the men, but I do want to make sure that we also uh recognize Mr. Mrs. Borgan, Mr. Wesley um at the high school and we also had um staff at the central school that we recognized at the last meeting. Since the last meeting we met, there were no new incidences of HIV at Central and there was one new incident at KHS. Um that investigation is uh still concurring occurring as we speak. Um as I said uh in the beginning I think with Madame President did Miss Muhammad is our student rep and she is manager of the volleyball game. She she's not there this evening. Um in addition there are several nonprofit organizations that
089utilize our facilities. We um do have the ability to charge for such as per policy 7510 and the board will take a look that will be an agenda item I'm hoping on our finance meeting uh agenda as well as our policy to discuss that because as uh finances are becoming increasingly tighter as we spoke to uh throughout this evening we need to consider all revenue sources. Um, in addition, policy 1640 164 is on the agenda for a second reading as well as our revised calendar. I do want to make note again that May 22nd and 23rd, the district would be closed for students. Um, but on the 22nd, staff would be here for um professional development. A variety of upcoming events are occurring um including our Kousas craft fair this week, teacher appreciation week. There
090is a wide variety of um things occurring um that again will be in the minutes and will be um are on the school calendar on our website and um our fundraiser for our in-house talent show and our craft fair again this weekend. Um please come out and support our students in the KF. Thank you. Mr. Okola, board secretary, building and grounds and finance. Uh yes, there are no new motions on the agenda uh that weren't at the workshop meeting uh last week. We did review the motions uh last week. Um so I don't have anything else to add. I would just be looking to vote on uh I believe it's 8 1 to 10 11. Um, may I have a motion to approve 8.1 to 10.11? I'll make that motion. Second. I'll second. Questions. Roll
091call. Miss Cunningham? Yes. Mr. Patopoulos? Yes. M. Kowski? Yes. Mr. Houseman? Yes. Miss Cahain? Yes. Mr. Stall? Abstain on 10.5. Yes to the vest. Mr. Staley. Yes. Mrs. Teas abstain on 8.1. Mrs. Van Hound. I abstain from anything for preschool, elementary, or middle school. But anything? Yes. For high school. Thank you. Motions passed. Thank you. Dr. Seavoya, curriculum, personnel, and policy. Okay. I will highlight some of the bolded items. Uh we have a uh unpaid leave request. We had resignation that I spoke to in communication. The three collective bargaining unit uh units have all settled their their contracts and you'll be taking action on that. In addition, Mr. Rupola and my contracts which have been been both approved by the county superintendent. Uh in addition, there are u some staff all of the staff. I'm
092so sorry. 12.18 is all of the staff members that will be coming back for the academic the 2526 school year including aids um and custodians, administrators, teachers, etc. Uh there's also the athletic director stipen for the academic school year and that's the policy that we're taking second uh action on second reading on. Um, I need a motion for 11.1 to 13.1. I'll make a motion. Second questions. No questions. Roll call. Miss Cunningham, yes. Mr. Fopoulos, yes. Mowski, yes. Mr. Houseman, yes. Miss Cahane, yes. Mr. Stall, yes. Mr. Staley, yes. Mrs. Teas, yes. Miss Vanhound. Um, yes to anything related to the high school abstaining from preschool, elementary, and middle school content. Thank you. Motions pass. Thank you. Old business, new business, uh, public participation on both agenda and non-aggenda items. Dan Rubano, 272 Main Street
093here in Keeport. I have no kids in school in the district. My kids are all grown up with respect to Dr. Seavoya and her salary. Uh she's been in place now four years from what I understand. And I guess uh has the district in relation to the rest of the state. Has the school district um scores and achievements gone up since she's been the superintendent? Or have they gone down? If they've gone up, then we should probably consider her contract. If they've gone down, perhaps she's not the right person for the job. No disrespect, but that's the way I see it as a businessman. Thank you. Thank you. Can you talk J Graham Jr. 22 St. Peters Place, Kport, New Jersey. Uh with regard what the last gentleman just said, if the if the in
094regard to Dr. Seavoya, if uh the school if the scores went up for the students, that's fine. She deserves the raise and stuff like that. But if they've gone down, no. No way. I mean, two what? Something like $200,000 a $200,000 raise or whatever. I the average worker get that and everything like that. So this is a small district of our beautiful burrow of keyboard. Thank you John Mela 34 Broad Street. I I just reserve the questions for now because of the comments I made before. I didn't know if I'd exceed the five minutes. I have 10 questions that I'd like to ask. just regarding the budget. So, I'm going to put them in an email form. And who should that go to? It's all related to the budget. I would send it to Mr.
095Rapola. Okay. Mr. Rapola, I would only ask one thing if I could have those answers before the next meeting if if possible. Okay. And the one thing I saved me a lot of time. There's one um staff position I totally just don't know. Could you give me a definition of a dean of students if you can? I I don't I think there'd be better people answer that question than me. I don't think that's a budget question. Include it in your inquiry to him and I will make sure that it's addressed. Thank you. Uh, can you please CC myself and Dr. Seavoya on your email just so that I can be aware of the questions? Thank you. Thank you. Any other public participation? We are going to adjourn the meeting. We do not have close session
096this evening. Can I have a motion to adjourn the meeting? Motion. Second. All in favor? All right. [Music]