001All right. Do you notice this meeting has been posted under the legal ad section of the district website and been advertised budget on May 1st, 2026. Please do the pledge of allegiance. Pledge of allegiance >> to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. >> All right, roll call. Mr. Callas? >> Here. >> Mr. Pope? >> Here. >> Ms. Desi? >> Here. >> Mr. Kendall? >> Here. >> Mr. Lopez is absent. Mr. Richie is absent. Ms. Sauder? >> Here. >> Ms. Williams? >> Here. Ms. Hankins? >> Here. >> All right, moving right into section two, motion to open the public hearing. Can I get a motion to open our public >> I move to open the
002public hearing. >> Second. >> All in favor? >> Aye. >> All right, and I will move us into section three, presentation. I'll turn it over to you, Dr. Carberry. >> Thank you. All right, thank you for coming tonight. I was not expecting any members of the public here tonight. Nevertheless, I'll try to project my voice, so if anyone's watching on YouTube, that they'll be able to follow along. So, as I present this budget, you know, I I expect you have been pondering, you know, if this was a movie, would it be Groundhog Day, The Matrix, or some type of choose your own adventure? You know, I will say that this is the most complex budget that I've worked on in the decade in the role of superintendent. And I don't remember ever working harder or
003with a greater sense of togetherness with the business administrator, the assistant superintendent, and the entire administrative team. We do have very strong consensus on on this budget, and it's an honor to present to you. Although it's complex compared to what we've seen in past years because there's more levers in play. Um I think we're in a solid way through this tough situation that we're in right now. So we're going to do this in two parts. I'm going to present where we are and how we got here. Then I'm going to give you the opportunity to ask questions. And then I'm going to answer the questions and take your comments. And then I'm going to continue with the second part of this. So a little bit of a district snapshot. We are in a great area
004where it's you don't have to look long and hard to find some really great academic gains pretty much across the board. Our visual and performing arts, our athletics continue to support the whole child that we're so proud of. We couldn't have better family engagement and external support. Groups like the Zone PTA, our PTAs, Haddam Killingworth Board of Education Foundation, our mayor and commissioners, we really couldn't ask for more support. Our school climate and culture is really solid. I'll show you some data that reflects that. You're going to see some student voices tonight what they have to say. You're not going to see any photos of our facilities upgrades and the transformational spaces that we now have and will soon be completed over the summer, but I think you've seen enough photos and you've seen enough
005with your own eyes including the room that we're in of what's coming together from a learning environment standpoint. And then you're going to see strong evidence of rising enrollment, which is always the good a good sign uh for a school district like Haddam Killingworth. We're going to start with the middle school. It was a point of emphasis a few years ago that we just look at the area of language arts, we are up from 41% of students meeting or exceeding expectations on the NJSL test all the way to 76.9% so knocking on the door of 80%. Uh now this test is going to change so this is this is the last year that we'll have that type of longitudinal data, but this is really remarkable. It's far exceeded expectations over the years. We're all We're
006also seeing consistent academic growth in math. Students are outperforming themselves each and every year as they travel from 6th to 7th to 8th grade, the data has improved in 3 consecutive years in each grade level. We're still not performing as well in math as we are in language arts, but it's been remarkable growth and progress. And then finally uh in our social emotional supporting initiatives have led to significant reductions in disciplinary referrals. Here's the number of total number of referrals by years. So 572 referrals in '23-'24, 453 total referrals in '24-'25, and 288 in '25-'26. Now the key part of this chart calls us for celebration, but the key part of this chart says through May. All right, now let's see what happens here in the last 2 months of the school year. Those can
007oftentimes be busier months when it comes to disciplinary referrals, but this is excellent data. The learning outcomes are improving, the disciplinary occurrences are decreasing. I don't know what else we can ask for in the middle school. I applaud our leadership and our teaching staff uh and all of our staff for helping with these results. And now to high school. We had some questions in the past years about how many students that are in the AP classes are actually taking the test. We've noticed an advancement in that area. Well, over 80% of the students are taking AP exams that are in the courses. 92% of those students are getting three or higher on those exams, and 66 and 1/2% are scoring four or higher. College career readiness readiness remains exceptionally strong. 89% of our class are
008reporting that they will attend college next year. These include Ivy League, service academy selection, and a substantial amount of academic scholarship money has already been awarded. We're also continuing a strong path for career and technical education and the visual performing arts. Many districts are cutting and reducing these programs, and despite our budget challenges, we're continuing to forge ahead in these important areas. The elementary schools we're seeing consistent measurable gains across all five schools without any one school underperforming. They seem to be moving together in a positive way, and we're noticing strong progress with our targeted interventions, and much of our internal data suggests that the students most behind grade level are making the strongest gains. I have to credit Mrs. Shorter and the teachers that are providing these interventions and the students. Um but this
009is an area of that we have our focus in the past few years, and we've noticed some excellent academic movement across grades K through five, and we can attribute this to improved district-wide school systems. This is no longer a a in the bunch of independent schools that operate independently. You know, our five elementary schools are part of connected aligned system. And again, credit goes to the administration, the principals, and Mr. Shorter, and our teacher level leaders in this area who really has done a great job connecting this curriculum over the last several years, and we're seeing the fruits of that. We also have, for the second year, have received a Best Communities in Music for Education by the NAMM Foundation. This is the second year where we uh receive this award. You don't have to
010look long and long and hard to see the energy, the performances, the excitement around the visual performing arts. We were just in here last meeting on the heels of the pops concert and the musical the exciting things that are happening in in in in the world of of the arts. Our athletics, our boys and girls soccer team, once again, won sectional championships. Boys basketball won the Patriot Division championship for the second time in school history. And we've had many record-setting individual performances. I know that you're aware of our individual accolades in the sport of swimming. We also have a wrestler that scored his 100th match win this year. But above and beyond, if you watch any of our teams play, and I was at a lacrosse game yesterday, you watch any of our teams play,
011they play with spirit, they play with character, and they play with sportsmanship across across the board, and what's in any other sport. Uh we're proud of our athletic department, and I'm proud of the way that our kids uh prepare and perform with great great sportsmanship and character. The next slide might be the most impressive slide, at least the administrative team. We reviewed this as a group and we're very pleased with the student surveys. This was an initiative that we did uh came to the board maybe a year or so ago with the importance on the student climate survey. We administered it and at the high school, one of the best things that we gleaned that was overwhelmingly positive uh overwhelmingly positive was that students are reporting that the adults in the school care about my
012life. And that's an excellent place to start on a high-level question and then probably the most important place. Students in the high school are seeing learning as relevant to helping them uh in life. And they're also voicing to us that they have a connection or an involvement outside of the school day, which they're saying is so important to them as having a community. The area of need at the high school is pretty obvious. Students indicated that they need help with time management and stress management. All this means is that they're on a great path to adulthood, right? Cuz we all can use that that same assistance. At the middle school, students are reporting a strong sense of belonging and safety. A sense of rigor and being challenged. We want to make sure that the middle
013school had enough rigor. As a whole, they are saying that they're being challenged to solve problems. And the area of need is the students are reporting that they could sometimes use help on a bad day, meaning the adults know they're saying that they might be having a bad day. At the elementary schools, students are also reporting feeling safe and supported in the in the classroom. And most importantly, that they're feeling they can or safe in the classroom to make mistakes and they understand that's part of the learning process, which is exactly what you want in early childhood classrooms. The one area of need that we have here is students indicated that we have some work to do with peer-to-peer relationships, especially in the areas of kindness, inclusion, and equity. Our enrollment has grown 142 students
014in just 5 years. And we've increased 40 students in just 1 year. We are now sitting at 2,124 students. Back in 2021, we were only at 1,977 students. Families are continuing to want to move to Hanover Township. This is a sign that they're valuing Hanover Township as a place that they want to have their children educated and most importantly that they trust the educational system in Hanover Township. Okay. It's 2026. In 10 years, it's going to be 2036. And 10 years ago, it was only 2016. We are in the center of a seismic amount of boom and change. Think about where you were in 2016 and reflect back to if anyone would have told you that these things would occur. The first one, college athletes who used to play a sport for a full scholarship
015are now getting millions of dollars. What? Millions of dollars in the NCAA. Seismic shift that has affected financially virtually all of our academic institutions. Second, we had an artificial intelligence explosion. We seem to skip right over electric cars. We went right from gas-powered cars to self-driving cars. And now, of course, we're going to have cars that drive themselves. Our team made computer, telephone, and email is all on one device. We have dominance of smartphones and social media across virtually every culture. A worldwide pandemic leads to a massive shift in remote work. Somebody told me in 2016 that they worked remotely, I would have no idea what they were talking to me about. We have a mental health crisis, especially among youth. The cost of family health benefits will overtake a starting teacher's salary. So, it's
016very critical very close now. If you have to hire a brand new teacher with family health benefits, that the cost of those benefits is very close to the to the starting salary. There's a great amount of confusion and mistrust of the phony news. And there's this huge uncertainty on what the pathway is for home ownership. Well, here for young people, but what is the pathway to home ownership for anyone that doesn't own a home? When we look to this budget, when we look towards the future, we have to look back and look forward. And we just don't know what the world will be like in 2036. But I'm sure of two things. Number one, students that are in kindergarten will still be having outstanding students. And number two, the world will look a lot different.
017The decisions that we make today are not only resting on the years of tradition and legacy that previous board members, and previous superintendents, and administrators have provided to us, but they will also have a ripple effect into the future years. A timeline recap of how we got to where we are right Post pandemic, there was a surge of increasing costs across the board. You may recall our fund balance started to decrease, which led to some conversations about changing our elementary schools, and reconfiguring our schools, and we were worried about being in line on fund balance, from putting holes in our budget. In 2024-25, we received a significant decrease in state aid, followed by another significant decrease in state aid in 2025-26, followed by a small decrease in state aid this year, but a huge increase
018in health benefits costs. That three-year gap, if you total the subtractions of the state aid with the addition of the extra costs and health benefits, totals to a gap of three years of $2,161,000 and $621. We've had some major reductions in force. Not going to read you the list, but you can see the left-hand column, the two columns, the column on the left and the column in the center are all professionally certified staff, full-time, except for the PE teacher, who was part-time, along with the support staff in the right-hand column. All positions that were eliminated. And other reductions along the way in the budget report. That's where we are. That's how we got here. As brief as I possibly could tell the story. I'm looking around. Most of the board, I think, was here when
019this all began still. Questions, comments? Mostly for the public, but since there's no public here, we'll we'll do it anyway. >> I just think it's important to know on the the slide with the state aid reductions and that 3-year gap of 2.1 million, that doesn't account for all of the other increased costs that came over time. Like we had other things that had to be cut and adjusted for because other costs, not just health care, other costs have been rising year over year and beyond what we have the ability to bring in revenue for our town. >> So, this increase in cost >> 2.1 is really really conservative. >> Correct. And those increasing costs in the top left-hand corner, they didn't stop before 2025. They continued. They should probably be an arrow going down. Good
020point. >> And just to know, as Post put it, you can hear the air, so just be as loud as you can when you're making any or asking questions, to make sure I'm not missing anything. >> Questions, comments about how we arrived where we arrived before I move on. So, so far so good everyone? Okay. So, now the fun part. What are we going to do? Well, we're going to do what we've always done. And we're going to try to get us a a development of what our goals should be, and our goals are going to be the beginning part of driving this budget. The first goal, tentative that we put before you tonight, is to build and protect high-quality educational opportunities for students. This is going to be about more protecting, but we are
021going to continue to build on the programs that we have, and minimize those reductions. The second one, we are going to respond to global change with purpose. We saw all the changes that are currently happening. We can't stay the same. We have to change. Change is inevitable. We're going to do it with purpose, and we're going to do it together. And we have a responsibility to our taxpayers to keep this tax increase as low and as manageable as we can. Those are the three goals that the administrative team and I worked towards when we put this budget budget proposal forward for adoption. Here's the current reality of this specific moment. And that is that our state aid decreased by $48,000, and our cost of health benefits increased by $1,033,922. There's the gap just short of
0221.1 million dollars. This slide represents the most important slide when it comes to making tonight's decision. We're going to go through it very slowly here. The ceiling for a tax increase is 6%. That would provide us with actually a surplus of $226,000. The additional cost is $31 a month. We had an opportunity to do this a few about a month ago when we submitted the budget to the county, and at the time there was some uncertainty around the health benefits increase cost that were projected to be as high as 45%. They came in at 18%. And so, there was no interest to go in this direction at 6% since the budget that was submitted to the county was 4.5% which we were hedging that those health benefits would come in lower, and they did. If
023we went with a 4.5% increase, the additional cost per month on the average assessed home would be $24, and the additional cost per year would be $287. And finally, the budget that I'm actually going to propose is a 4.25% increase, which is resulting in a deficit of $304,000, $23 a month, $274 a year. You'll notice that the difference between 4.25% and 4.5% is only $1 a month. There may be some reasons to go to 4.5%. Including the information in the lower right-hand corner, which says, and this is the first time you're hearing this because first time you received it officially, when our county business administrator provided this information um to this is done. Our fund balance has dropped below 2% of our total operating budget, which now represents a little bit of an operational risk.
024We're $143,000 short of the $820,000 target. So, it's a $40 million budget. The state's going to want to see for safekeeping 2% of the total operating budget in fund balance. We slipped below that because in the past year or so, we've had less money to roll into the fund balance again in each year. One of the things that we may want to consider over the next few years is trying to find a way, I know it's impossible right now, to get more money into that fund balance, but you should be aware of it. That may be a reason to go to the 4.5. Unfortunately for our taxpayer, despite all of the advocacy work that we have been involved with, specifically President Hankel, who's been fearless and now is leading this charge not only for Hamilton
025Township, but for I think most of South Jersey, is that according to the state, we remain $3.9 million below adequacy level. That means that according to the state's formula, which we're contesting, is that our taxpayers are not paying their local fair share to the amount 3.9 million. We disagree with it, we contest it, we're fighting it, but the public and the board still needs to know, till this formula is changed, the state's not coming to help us and save us. Here's our tax impact and recommendation. Local tax levy goes to $31 million. 4.25% which will provide a balanced budget. Here's how we're going to get there. On the left-hand side, we have retirement high school math. My recommendation is not to replace that position. We're going to absorb district registrar responsibilities, also Mrs. Short's assistant.
026We'll spread those responsibilities out in the main office as much as we can. We won't be able to totally absorb it, but we'll do our best. One elementary teacher reduction. To reduce daily substitute teachers by 100,000. How we got to that number is we took the whole number of about 230, 240,000 which we traditionally spent on daily subs. And we think that we can reduce that by about 35, 40% by only replacing every third or fourth teacher that's out only getting a sub for the third or fourth teacher, combining classes, trying to push students into larger spaces such as theater, our lecture room, the new areas that we're building, um to put students together in large spaces that can supervise a large group study hall, so to speak. Similarly Similarly to some surrounding high schools
027that have had some success with this. In three one-to-one aides, we have two uh high school students that have one-to-one aides that are graduating. We know that those positions can be absorbed. Not those individuals, those aides who are retiring, but those positions can be reduced, and one additional aide position we're very confident can be reduced. We're also recommending us to change our elementary music consultant to a 0.5 teacher. That will be at at a cost of $300,000, uh excuse me, $30,000. To provide $30,000 for shared service and some clerical support for our board office to replace our district registrar's responsibilities. And we need about $30,000 for ESL services. The service our students that need support by law uh for English as a second language. That reduces the budget by 304,000, which aligns to the 4.5%
028increase in taxes. Local tax levy. Now, before I get into the next slide, the enemy right now, financially, is the cost of health benefits. We've been in this room, or we've been in that room a lot different than this, in this space, for 2 years complaining about state aid. That's not the enemy that's before us. It's the cost of health benefits. We cannot hire any more new positions outside of this in the grid that have benefits attached to them. We have to be as creative as ever partnering with excellent organizations, securing positions perhaps that aren't full-time to avoid the cost of benefits, especially in support roles. To achieve total opera- And I know that we've had some conversations the last meeting about the elementary teacher. But through our dotted lines, solid lines, school placement, you
029know, how students are put in all elementary schools, to achieve total operational efficiency, we would have seven sections across the district. And they would look exactly how they look in kindergarten. And if you look at that kindergarten across the board there, that's beautiful. That's exactly what we want. It's balanced. There's seven sections, two at Van Sciver, two at Strawbridge, one at Story, one at Jennings, and one and one at Edison. As long as we have five neighborhood elementary schools, this reaches total organizational and optimal efficiency. There's two sections there at Van Sciver that are the outlines. We're very confident that we can absorb one of those sections. We worked on this as late double triple checked this multiple times, talked to the principal today, talked to the supervisor of special studies, supervisor of special services
030today. We can absolutely reduce one of those sections for next year. And if we get in a spot where we need more support at the elementary level, my position would be to bring in multiple part-time support teachers. Not benefited classroom teachers. That would be the strategy that I'm recommending as a path forward because whenever possible, we have to avoid the health benefits piece on the cost of a teacher. There's some other future considerations that the board needs that the board should think about. Moving into the future, we have to do these things like avoid new positions with health benefits to preserve student programs as much as possible. That has to be at the top of all of our lists as we move forward into this budget and beyond. Working towards shared services. Moving towards safeguards
031and finding more ways to leverage artificial intelligence. Delivering programs that are aligned to the referendum. We have some beautiful new spaces such as the emerging technology lab, the automotive lift that's still there. We have to be creative, innovative, and perhaps use some community partnerships to maximize those spaces, deliver on the promises that we made as part of that referendum. We haven't had professional development now in three or four years for our teaching staff. This is not, you know, you can get away with it for a year or so, but pretty soon the water is going to go through the pipes. Our veteran teachers, our expert teachers are retiring, and in the future, maybe it's It's right now as part of this budget, but this is not a budget line that we can tolerate as a
032limited, you know, for the long time. We may want to think about reevaluating our one-to-one devices in the lower grades. The one-to-one devices were important when many of our families didn't have access to screens at home, whether it was phone, computer, tablet. From the information that we have, a lot of our devices that go home, they're not even they're not always being used, and a lot of times at home, they're on their own personal screens, so we may be at a tipping point when it comes to these one-to-one devices. Maybe something to think about, not now, maybe in the future. School safety, SRO will always kind of be there. Uh, Chief has come to us on numerous occasions. We don't have any funds for the SRO uh right now, but in the future, you know,
033we have a tremendous partnership with the town council, police department. Not recommending that SRO is part of this budget, but again, it's just something that we should consider in the future, at least discussing. Um We do get incredible service from the HTPD. And relocation of the board office staff. Um I think that as our staff at the board office is shrinking in number, we're now down two individuals from a few years ago, we may be able to integrate into various schools that have these spaces because of the number of staff and offices that we have eliminated. Um and a a sale of the board office could be a an influx of one-time cash into the district. We you relocate, and maybe it help us offset costs somewhere else. Something to consider. Budget process simplified. January
034meetings, Jed had meetings with every preliminary meetings with every district administrator. We did a lot together as an administrative team. We all had our heads and needles about state aid. We survived the state aid. We felt okay. We did not see the health benefits increase coming until about the same time period. We reviewed the budget. We submitted to the county a 4.5% increase with the opportunity to go up or down. And tonight, you saw a proposal for a 4.25% increase. We have the opportunity, if you'd like to, we'll go back to that one this slide. We have the opportunity to move anything from the left-hand column into the right-hand column and still be at 4.5%, but the caveat is that the that is you have to find something $75,750 or less. $75,750, or less, and
035slide it to the additions column when we then submit the budget at 4.5% instead of 4.25%. That's all I have for you tonight. Questions? Comments? Mary? >> Um I just want you to clarify that the substitute teachers is only for the high school level. >> High school and middle school. As of now, high school and middle school. If our strategy doesn't work, and we can't We're saying we're not getting there in one of those classes that they had Skyline was was going to have three sections. I would do something there where one of them was out, combine those classes for the day. Um Okay. the priority to be high school, then middle school. It becomes a safety issue. >> I just wanted to ask a question. >> Of course. I just >> Also, there's just
036little things. There were a couple of asterisks in the beginning. I don't think there's anything following that. There were a couple of charts in the beginning. That wasn't meant to If you go back, there was like I think there was only two. The increase with an asterisk, and then the elimination of cost per pupil. I don't think that was meant to refer to anywhere else. >> There's an asterisk there >> For instance, increase in that column, and then there's one in the slide above it. I don't think there's anything following that. I think this one is subject to >> Oh, the increase >> Oh, subject subject to the topic Does that go with something that I just said? >> No, the increase is just that you change the name. That increase could change the name.
037>> And then was it the one we learned about? >> Oh, that's that is on average assessed home. I'm sorry. That's not an exact number. That's on the average assessed home. >> Um for the purpose of the presentation >> Sure. >> Can you just give a brief analysis of the fund balance and what what that means basically? Because it's it's like savings >> Sure. Sure. I'm actually willing to do it, or I could the board might be able to >> So, every every year when there's money kind of when we don't spend the entire budget and about it goes into the fund balance, and there's restricted fund balance, unrestricted fund balance. You can take it out of there for a rainy day emergency. We've done it the last 2 years. We've had to take money
038out of our fund balance because we we spent to the budget and then beyond. Um it's our transportation and our special education costs. So, the last 2 years we've had to do that, so we draw down on that fund balance And so, that doesn't correlate with the budget. >> Correct. >> Right. >> Correct. >> Yes, we absolutely could take another 75,750 put it in the the fund balance and go to 4.5. You can make that choice tonight. >> Kristen >> For the substitute, I'm not sure what the rules are on that, but is it possible that the staff like not like just basically supervising the class and then take the student work like that assigned by the teacher? >> It's a tricky question. To supervise a student independently in the classroom in a school, you
039need to be certified as a substitute teacher and working as a substitute teacher. That That's where it gets a little bit uh gray. Some of our aides are sort of also certified as subs. They have sub certs, but they're not working as subs. So, legally, we've done that in a pinch, but to do that as a consistent plan, we're in a problem because paying as the the pay structure serving as a substitute teacher is much different than serving as an aide. An aide gets paid by hour and a substitute gets paid for the day. So, when an individual has when those those duties permeate, it's kind of like, "Okay, how do we pay them?" And if something happens when they're working as an aide or they're working as a substitute, uh not all of our
040aides have the substitute cert either, so it could be a little difficult. It's It's a very creative idea, uh one that we could, you know, probably use in in emergency situations, but I think as a long-term solution, it could be difficult to get a lot of people to stay on board. >> That makes sense. >> Yeah. Jim. >> Um, sorry, I have just a few minutes of meetings and I apologize, but um and you're talking about the retrospect, so I can't go there, but I got it, but um if you have the retrospect of the last say 30 to 60 days, all these districts have the same problem, right? >> We're all We're all sinking ship, so two things that give me a little bit of alarm with the heart burn is >> continuation of
041Haddon Township going forward, right? But we're all coming to that same spot, right? So we have to think this is only going to go on for so long, right? I mean, at the end of the day, we can't continue to keep doing what we're doing, right? I mean, schools are closing and colleges would have to increase our mileage increase, so the thought here, again, not to make it go negative, but to think more outside the box is if one of the concerns is to not not reduce debt, that's not the right term, but better efficiently use that and not take out new contracts assuming all things being equal, what if, and again, not this year, not next year, but as things decrease, right? If there is other things that come in, what about sharing services
042in other things in the districts? I mean, like for example, I'm just going to use this as an example, is Haddon Township has a very nice office in their building, right? The board of this building, right? There is no reason for us to go build a building if there's space available in in in other districts, right? It makes sense, but no one cares if you go to Haddon Township or you go to the Haddon Township board of this building or something else. I just think it's just at some point in time we become so parochial that we're still worried about what we have. We're all We're all sinking in the same There's not enough water room around, right? So, at some point in time we have to stop with the sort of the small changes
043and go to the bigger changes, right? And someone has to kind of lead that. And I yeah, I'm not I'm not smart at all. But at some point in time you can't all just cut and just say cut, but we're all going to stay the same, right? So, I I just make question like if there isn't like pushing that boundary, then if it's not us, then who else is going to do it? Someone's going to do it. So, I just I I think we we're we're at a spot where how do we mean and not We all know what's going on, right? This is It's only a matter of time. >> Listen, I I just thought about that saying I think you're absolutely right. We have to We have to go to shared services. We
044have to. Um I think that the and we had um meeting in here a few months ago and you know, we discussed you know, things like shared services and things like consolidation and so forth. The issue is that the budget crisis that you're mentioning in South Jersey isn't just affecting small districts. You know, we have a large one of the one of the largest districts in in the state that borders us that has the order of tax increase than we have and more of a deficit than we The county in Gloucester County which I live I have a school district on the border from where I live that's the largest district in Gloucester County also with similar challenges. So, this is not a small district problem. Some of the larger districts have the same issues,
045but some of these shared services it's all on the side. It's an area that I don't think anyone on the administrative team or has any great ideas. Like there aren't any great ideas right now. >> No, I And again, not not to go negative. Is that the that was insulting, right? But And when there's challenges there's opportunities. So, what what are we not thinking, Let's Let's not pre-pre provoke it. Let's not just think out of the box. But, what are we not thinking? Again, I don't live in this space, but at the same point in time it is we know that this is going to continue going forward, right? So, it's only a matter of time. There's no other direction for the state. Right? So, what what do we do going forward? And it can't
046just be continuation of cuts and selling the world. I'm not Again, not that they're not good ideas, but there's got to be bigger things. There has to be like I don't know. There's no bad idea, right? And like you just have to I just We've been doing this too long. I just feel like we constantly kind of do the same thing. We cut, we add, we subtract. We haven't really stopped the the cycle that we are getting into, right? >> Well, the frustrating part of the answer to that is according to the state, right? Until Kelly gets into the chain of command, they would they would say it's working. They would say that we're because we are under what they think is our fair share, if you ask the State Department of Education what we're
047supposed to do, they'd say, "We want you to raise your taxes until close that gap, the 2.8, whatever gap it was." Uh that would be what they would say. They would say that the people in town trip are so privatized and fun up. The average income is fun up. So, the solution is And then I'm not saying anyone here agrees with that. We all think that's crazy and they're ignoring the people who have been here and and you know, the fact that your property value going up doesn't mean that you have more disposable income to spend on taxes or anything like that. But, I you know, from their perspective, from you know, if you were to go with their formula news, they would say it's working as designed. This is what's supposed to be happening.
048Um but you know, we all think it's crazy, but I'm just saying this isn't coming out of nowhere. This is kind of the policy being working as intended from you know, the experts or whatever the hell wrote that formula's perspective. >> I I think there's no question that there's we need some kind of transformative change. I mean, as as Jim said, I think we all knew this was long overdue. Um yeah, I I think there's This doesn't end well. Right? I mean, there's Increase costs and caps and Even if they remove the 2% tax levy, I mean, we would just tax everyone out of town. And then we wouldn't have a school district at all, so So, something transformative needs to happen. I was going to bring up the the county budget. >> Yes, that's
049what I was going to bring up as well. Um so we've been working with a group of like 13 districts like how do we solve this and what are like incremental changes for versus what are the big long-term changes and where are there potential revenue drivers for the state even if they're not revenue drivers for districts to take advantage of. And one of the things that came up in our conversation on Friday when we talked to one of our local legislators' teams was uh county-level bussing because transportation costs are astronomical especially for out-of-district placements. And if we had a shared service at the county level that controlled the cost of transportation, that would actually make a very significant financial uh difference for every single district within every single county at this point. And so we
050talked about that as a potential option. There were some other things we talked about at the county level that wouldn't have like the same kind of direct financial impact. The The thing we have to be mindful of shared services, yes, we want more. We want to make sure that they are cost-effective. We also want to make sure that they're to our standards of quality, right? Just because something is cheaper doesn't mean it's a good shared service for us if the quality goes down or our kids are not getting what they need out of that. And so we do have to like make sure there's true effectiveness and efficiency at the same time, but I do think, Jim, to your point, like we have to make bigger. We cannot just do like individual like we'll probably
051do a shared service for our ELL supports with another district and that is just such a It's great and it is so small. It can't make really like transformational or large impact if we're going that kind of single item route. >> And by moving to that, this not a criticism. It's it This is just This is just a South I mean I shouldn't say Jersey. From my local perspective, this feels like a South Jersey problem. But I mean to say is that my friends above 195 pay way more taxes than we do and they I mean and and so that they're trying to spread that out and as I mentioned is that try to level the playing field, right? So, I get it. I mean at the same point in time is that I think
052we know the parochial part works. 100 years ago this is not going to have an impact. Not like Not like 1 10 times in New Jersey. It's just It feels like it's one of those things that eventually yes, it's a nice to have, but when do you have How long do you keep it, right? And I don't know again, how much would have to go out of pocket. All of these same guys are all They're all having the same problem, right? So, they're all kind of doing the same thing we're doing, right? But it's just So, again, >> Yeah, we start We have to be more creative with our problem solving. We can't just tackle the challenges we're facing in the same way we've always tackled them because there's not a lot of wiggle room
053left. So, if we're not doing something that is larger in scale, like we're just not going to see any like truly tangible effects from that. >> Yeah, to Kelly's point, I think, you know, the transportation issue is a good one. You know, I used to work at a lot in Gloucester County and they are kind of one of the regional leaders in doing stuff on the county level, you know, you know, they're And some stuff that we have we just don't do it to the same extent as they do it down there. You know, like the special services division in Gloucester County was like much more utilized and it's much more robust and it seems partially because, you know, like the administration really prioritized it at the time. And he's coming up with the dollar
054for special services. They really put a lot of effort into that. Um same thing with their technical schools. Things like that. Like we have those here in Camden. We have the special services districts. I'm sure, you know, they do something similar too. So, you know, it's a good program. It's not as kind of widely utilized by the towns in the same way to the same extent you kind of invested in it the same way. So, you know, stuff like bussing stuff I know it's sure I mentioned the service service but I know it's also incredibly expensive to to service that population. Um but yeah, we're not going to we do have to have those conversations and figure it out. But as to this budget, I'm not going to, you know, beat the four dead horse.
055I've had one-on-one conversations with a couple of you and I've uh talked about it in length in the last work session but I I still don't feel comfortable cutting the elementary position especially in light of the increasing enrollment. I think it's just, you know, I think it's just short-sighted and I kind of been agnostic as to how we need to you know, how we get around that if it's, you know, find other savings to stay at 34 a month or or 33 a month or if it's to go up to dollar. Um I'd be fine by that but given, you know, that enrollment term we saw and given that, you know, it's going to be tight with the lines anyway, I just, you know, I know we don't technically need it and we can skate
056by with it but, you know, again, being in in personnel and labor planning, I just don't think it's good practice to to get rid of it. And and again, I'm I won't believe in the point but I will be, you know, unsupportive of the current proposal as designed but >> And I would have voted to keep the elementary assistant position but that's the direction that the board wants to go or or this this budget because I I was it's possible to get as a team I didn't feel that so this budget is it's supposed to be a team effort here and they created a team. Of course, you know, another resource of that resource I said in the last work session, um you know, the board said we could you know, there's probably some other
057creative things we can do about kids. But it's you know, the board approved the budget for the county at 1.45% which is a huge change. If that if that elementary teacher is in the budget at 4.5, then we will be taught that we would have to be as a as a as a best case scenario because at some point in that meeting you're at six. You know, so we could absolutely do that. I I just think before we actually hire that position because there is a resolution a resolution on the agenda for tonight for elementary school teachers. So, before we actually hire that position, we should have a probably have another conversation in in May and June or sometime before we actually hire that to look at that moving over the summer and to look
058at the fund balance and maybe some other type of meeting kind of emerges instead of just quickly posting and hiring that position. We can use time as a tool there. That would be the only suggestion, but if the board wanted to go directly and leave that actual position in the budget, I would take it. >> So, but is what you're saying okay, if we do leave that position, it's going to be 4.5. >> 4.5 teachers. >> Okay. >> I mean, correct me if I'm wrong, but administration at the elementary school level is potentially aware that this would happen and I don't think anybody would sign off on having insufficient staff in the building. So, if there's a potential in administration and regarding staffing etc., and it just came out of that that it's potentially going
059to be one less teacher, I would be here to sign off on putting people in the building. >> Yeah, we meet the I mean, I I mean, I'm conceding that we would meet the state requirements. We meet our our goals for keeping it for this year with it. You know, but it's not like a I mean, if we couldn't, you wouldn't be recommending it. >> I'm not talking about for the purpose of the budget. I'm just talking about from an administrative purpose of providing quality to elementary schools have weighed in and have become one less That's what I'm asking for tonight. >> We're not potentially aware of it, but clearly aware of it, supposedly aware of it. Multiple meetings, multiple weeks, and you know, we doubled it to the chance that we could deliver with
060one less teacher in the elementary in grade for next year. So, this is real talk what it's one year at a time. That's what the district did. The charter school tried to cut it, minimize the increase as much as possible. That's what we came up with. We want to put that teacher back in the third through the needs of the position, but the choice that we had and the choice that we made was yes. >> From this point though, like this is my personal thought is we were able to find 4.5 as opposed to 4.25 because I think that that would be a Okay. >> This is my personal view. I think that the staffing is, you know, acceptable. I would feel better having a little bit more of a cushion, so that we can
061look to in the future. >> We really need to decide that tonight. You can't talk to the increase. >> Right, but if you go to 4.5, it's sort of speaking to what Isaac is saying, it's sort of speaking to what Isaiah is saying. You're preserving the option. >> Yes. >> That we're preserving the option, and I would go for that for the agreement of the board, and and looking to the future for what's better for the district. >> I was the last to say something similar to what Isaac said, that I feel like that 4.5 that helped the fund balance because I did make me a little nervous about it just getting really low, and end up with a problem. >> And the last thing I think part of this hardest debate start was doing
062the 0.75 use of teacher, and I'm going to play like you need that 0.75 user teacher if it wasn't either or I had to use a teacher and for sure because of the really huge guy that we didn't even stop that was that's why it was like last year. Hopefully I laid it out for you when you >> Okay, so I propose a motion to to pass this budget as described. >> We're not quite there yet. Thank you, John. >> Okay, well >> Can I >> Can we >> Yeah, you can say So I I kind of feel like this is interesting and I think I think 4.5 gives us a cushion of your fund balance or if that suddenly grows and we need the teacher back in the contract position either way. But I
063I do believe the basis is that the administration of the elementary level is saying that they can provide the education to the kids with one less position. And I I think that I think they're really experts in their focus and they're the ones who are on the human trenches every day knowing what's needed for their kids. Any other comments or questions, discussion on the budget before we close out public hearing and then we vote. >> If the if the process is the board would like to go with 4.5 and that process is put in place today, what is the process to determine how that $75,000 is utilized in >> I think I think administration >> Mhm. Right. Uh Let's go back down a little bit though. Can you folks fill things out down there? >>
064Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But I I think like as we get closer to If we make that choice, we go to 4.5. Then, as we get closer to the start of the school year, understanding what the needs are with the enrollment and all of the things that we're seeing, that would be up to the administrative team to decide how to best utilize those dollars. >> What would be the process for putting that fund balance >> Um I would budget it budget somewhere around capital reserves. >> And when would you need that decision? >> Okay, pretty soon. Okay. >> Well, things could things have to move around for that. >> Things cannot move significantly. Yeah, yeah, yeah, but I have to submit it to the to the county. Things cannot move around. If I put it
065in a in a line, we can put it in a line and put it in a in a in a reserve, put it somewhere where we we can move it. >> How quickly is that? >> If yes. Yes. >> So, we would put it in the fund balance and then move it from there. >> Yeah, but what you put in the capital facility you target it at the particular >> So, it's easier to keep it somewhere else. >> Keep it somewhere else. >> Capital reserve, and then it's there. >> Yes. >> Okay. >> The only problem would be if you're okay with the idea I just said because you may say I do think that it's one of those things. But, if we're going down the path of eliminating that decision now, I don't want
066to my personal opinion, I don't want to go through this again next year, right? That's the budget cycle because Have you done this way too many times. I don't like the idea of the one year every year you're at the mercy of something, right? I think it's if there's someone that's in the year that were were they're being removed, I don't like the idea of them toying with that saying, "Oh, no, come back." And then next year we're going to we're going to we're going to do one year at a time. >> Yeah. >> That's kind of why I wanted to put it in the fund balance or something to put down for one year. From whatever the need is. My My vision for the future of those plans to rise above the reality right?
067But it's seven sections across this district elementary school are pretty much balanced. We have funds available in elementary instruction. You have the seven sections in Palace class sizes. The class sizes would be high but we we could quickly have you know the problem coming as we increase the policy things that just don't last. I'm going to be seeking support teachers in these classrooms. My recommendation is going to be to hire part-time with our family liaisons. They're going to be doing this down the road for us. So they're 75 but instead of a teacher and teacher aide I I need some time to explain >> Yeah, you could get three support teachers to help with the reading or math or whatever. >> 475 part-time teachers. We haven't used them all yet. >> I think they're going
068to ask you about class sizes with teachers. >> Uh we'd probably be at cap 28 28 in third grade. Yeah, could could could if if we had if we had that class of this we may collapse second but there's still some courtesy placements in Vance School that but the kids that don't go to Vance School particularly in the area that the school is in this season. So you know we could guess that they go to the home school. But we would be at cap and probably coming to be asking for these guys. And the good thing about Vance School especially the upper grades the class sizes are the biggest class sizes in the district. I think they're the one of the biggest in the state of New Jersey. So they're probably going to be spread
069out. We would rather stay up there, especially in the upper grade levels, and I think that we can handle that. But, you know, we may end up we may end up having you know, collapsing that next year second grade because that's a small group there, and there's some mechanics there and there's some kids going to back to the home school. They would be sky with the some services. Yeah, they're getting those services anymore. They're going to go back to the home school, so we could likely wind up with, you know, three teachers and then kill the second. We have to let plenty of summer work days. It's going to be a little bit stressful for you. >> So, like >> We're confident that we should reduce by one. >> So, like say the like two
070or three 25 or whatever you want me to do next year. >> K, K to two, I would like to stay at 25. That's the cap. You know, I think we should go 26, but but you may be really struggling you're pushing it on me. And it all comes out to the size of the classrooms. It's hard to have a board policy on class size when you have the actual physical size of the actual physical space in the school district. Uh but I mean it's not so much the size of the class as it is the number of the adults in the class. I mean, you have, you know, you have a You have 25 in a kindergarten class, right? It sounds super high, and it's high. It's not the number that we want, but
071there's also an aid in the classroom. I don't know if our special ed teacher needs an aid, but okay. Right? So, it makes it three adults. So, we just can't look at class size. You have to look at the actual physical area of the classroom and the adults. physical space >> But Jim, to your point, if we leave this teaching position in the budget I mean, it can't be a lifetime contract, right? I just think if we're going to we're going to go down the path anyway. I just think it's having done this before where we had to go and we we kept them some of the folks on life support and had them here to keep going. >> Yeah. >> Not that I mean, if if if if prices is the point is that
072the world is there the magic decision is that we're okay with it? >> Yeah. >> I mean, again, not that I just I just >> But if it goes the other way, you want to keep it in. You can't say we're going to keep them on life either. >> No, understood. >> Understood. >> Yeah. Okay. >> Uh before we close out and move to a vote. So, right now, if you look at your agenda, you will see 4.25. 4.25. So, we need to make a decision on what we're voting on before we get to vote. To do that. So, I just want to know where folks are at. We can just go around and let's we'll start with you, Laura. >> Um I'm good. >> 4.25. >> I don't know if it's 4.25, but I
073think it's it's 4.25. >> I hate saying that out loud cuz it's going to be >> Yeah. >> I'm 4.25. >> Uh I would prefer also 4.25, but >> 4.25. >> Uh I'm in the same place. I prefer 4.25, but can get behind 4.25 and will go with the majority. Okay. So, with that, uh I will officially open it up for public comment. There are no members of the public comment Yeah. >> WAIT A MINUTE. >> IT'S A BIT CONFUSING TO FIND >> I DON'T KNOW WHERE YOU'RE GOING. >> You don't know where you're going. You don't know where you're going. So, at the next meeting it would should be a plan and If you came into high school, you have to Do you know There's no way you figure this out unless you've been
074in this building. >> Yeah, that's right. >> Took me a couple of times. >> Yeah. >> You have to get up and walk around. >> I know. Thank you. >> Mr. Patrick figured it out for us. >> All righty. Okay. Uh can I get a motion to close the public hearing on the budget? All in favor. All right, we'll move to item five, finance and facilities. Do you have any other >> Yeah, there is one other one and that is the changing of the prescription plan from Benecard to AmeriHealth. There's no change in There's a change in the carrier. >> So, you're saying the carrier no change in coverage. >> But it's changed the coverage. >> But that is what is saving us money. >> So, if you wouldn't mind doing the budget >> as
075a separate I would appreciate it. Okay. >> All right, can I get a motion to approve item 5.1, which is the final 2026-2027 budget at 4.5% tax levy increase? Mr. Roark. Um Mr. Gallus. >> Yes. >> Mr. Cobb. >> Yes. >> Mr. Desi. >> Yes. >> Mr. Kendall. >> Yes. >> Mr. Slater? >> Yes. >> Mr. Williams? >> Yes. >> Mr. Stangle? >> Yes. >> Sorry about that. Yes. You said yes. Thank you. All right. Can I get a motion to approve item 5.12? >> I move to approve. >> Second. >> Roll call. Mr. Cabez? >> Yes. >> Mr. Cook? >> Yes. >> Ms. Daisy? >> Yes. >> Mr. Cano? >> Yes. >> Mr. Relax? >> Yes. >> Mr. Slater? >> Yes. >> Mr. Williams? >> Yes. >> Mr. Stangle? >> Yes. >> Moving into
076section 6, instruction and program. Can I get a motion to approve item 6.1? >> And before you approve this one, if I could just say this is the grant from last year, this is a continuation that we were able to apply for with um less of funds, but we did apply for it. Hopefully we will have the grant. Hopefully we'll get it again. It's for the mandated universal screening um for K through three. I did budget for that program for the universal screening because it's a mandate. I did budget for it for this next school year. Hopefully we get this. Um it won't cover the entire cost, but it will significantly help us with that. Thank you. >> Can I get a motion to approve? >> I move to approve. >> Second. >> Roll call.
077Mr. Cabez? >> Yes. >> Mr. Cook? >> Yes. >> Ms. Daisy? >> Yes. >> Mr. Cano? >> Yes. >> Mr. Relax? >> Yes. >> Mr. Slater? >> Yes. >> Mr. Williams? >> Yes. >> Mr. Stangle? >> Yes. >> All right. Moving into section 7, personnel. Uh we have a number of items, resignations and new re-employment of our staff. So you see a number of items here. Can I get a motion to approve items 7.1 through 7.13? >> So moved. >> Second. Roll call. Mr. Calvillo? >> Yes. >> Mr. Clark? >> Yes. >> Ms. Daisy? >> Yes. >> Mr. Kendall? >> Yes. >> Mr. Rubac? >> Yes. >> Ms. Sattler? >> Yes. >> Ms. Williams? Mr. Simple? >> Yes. >> All right, moving into section 8. This is our final public comment section of the evening.
078As there are no members of the public here to make comments, I will open it up to the board and administrative team if there's any additional comments or any >> I want to say that. I'm sorry. Just I I'm sorry. Can I just I want to just do something real fast. This is the presentation that's going to be sent out public tomorrow, Monday. Why don't we just make an issue and change this to 4.5 instead of 5.5 >> Yeah. Guys, I just want to say thank you to all the administrators and everybody for striking this budget, for the board for talking all this over, and I think under the circumstances, we're we're doing a good job. >> And I just make a comment about the budget. This thing >> Yeah. >> And that's a mandated
079program in the state. They're expecting us to pay for it. So, that again is where the unfunded our budget our part >> Right. >> We have to do certain things that they're not helping us with. >> State mandated programs. >> Right. We have many unfunded or partially funded areas in our budget. >> No, I just I know the time is getting late. >> tirelessly on that subject budget in a way that's that digestible for us and the public get us to talk about things Thank you. >> I would like to >> I I want to say that, too. Having lots of chances and different things looking at it so that we can see all the different variables in a lot of different ways and enabling us to talk it through as a and I think
080we are all present to work through this so that we all come to a consensus that it's valid or >> It's great that you all got to a consensus. Um the administration and also values of the board of education and what goes through your thoughts and everything together. But, we all came here today to talk about the second part of this presentation. The first part of this presentation is a testament to the resilience of this great community that's heading on staff, students, parents, mayors, all of this foundation, you know, virtually across the board. You know, your mission is to help students to strive. And hopefully the information that I demonstrated in the first part of this presentation gives you a glimpse of what's happening pre-K all the way through high school and hopefully they thrive
081and they have nothing but success and you know, thank you for the acknowledgement this central office administration but it has to do with down every single employee of this district, every position matters, every one of the employees and everything, you know, we're very proud of you. >> The presentation is very good. >> I love that it's very interactive, yeah. >> I don't know how I feel about a social on the big screen. >> Talk about your new technology director, Mr. Mike Day. Uh and Jimmy works in that shop, too, and uh you know, thank you for everything. >> All right. Can I get a motion to adjourn? >> Motion to adjourn. >> Second. All in favor? >> Aye. >> Thank you all. >> Thank you, everybody.