May 6, Oradell Board Meeting

001We're good. I'd like to call this meeting to order. Mrs. Walker, would you lead us in the flag salute? Sunshine Law statement, all requirements of the Open Public Meetings Act have been met for this meeting of the Board of Education of the Borough of Oradell. Notice of this meeting was filed with the record with the record, northjersey.com, and all persons requesting such notice. Mr. Darian, would you read the mission statement? >> The Oradell Public School District is dedicated to the ongoing pursuit of educational excellence through comprehensive, innovative curriculum and instruction. The district is committed to providing opportunities for social, emotional, and academic discovery, to foster curiosity, courage, and character. Our goal is to prepare our students to become lifelong learners who are self-directed, resilient, productive, responsible citizens. >> Thank you. Roll call. >> On the

002roll, Mr. Del Greco. >> Here. >> Mrs. Downey. >> Here. >> Mrs. Genchi. >> Here. >> Mrs. Moran. >> Here. >> Mrs. Norian. >> Here. >> Mr. Nutley. Mrs. Walker, Mr. Darian, Mrs. Nichols. At this time we'll open to the public for agenda items only. Hi, Rosemary Cataldo, OEA president. This year during teachers appreciation week, we'd like to continue the tradition of celebrating members of our staff who are being recommended for tenure. This year we are proud to recognize four outstanding educators, Amy Brancato, Jamie Cochia, Kayleen Day-Dayziel, and Danielle Oxnard. We invited colleagues who have worked closely with each of them to share a few words about the impact they have made on our school community. I would like to begin by celebrating Amy Brancato. I have had the privilege of working closely with Amy

003and seeing first hand her heart and dedication she brings to her role as vice principal. She has a genuine commitment to ensuring that every child feels seen, supported, and successful. No matter the situation, she goes above and beyond to meet students needs, always leading with compassion, patience, and unwavering belief in their potential. One moment that truly stands out to me was when she worked with a student who was really struggling. She took the time to understand that what motivated him and recognized his love for steam, his desire to build and create. Rather than simply arranging a time for him to work with me, she went a step further. She sat with us as we worked, made it clear she believed in him, and encouraged him to think about how he could carry that same passion

004into his classroom learning. It was such a powerful example of how she connects with students, not just by providing opportunities, but by inspiring them to see their own potential. What truly sets her apart is the way she supports and values the teachers she works with. She creates an environment where staff feel respected, heard, and encouraged. Her ability to recognize individual strengths and foster collaboration helps build a strong, positive school community where both students and teachers can thrive. Working alongside her, I came to deeply appreciate her meticulous nature and extensive knowledge. She approaches every task with care and intention, never settling for anything less than what is best for her students and staff. I always knew that when we completed a project together, it would be thoughtful, thorough, and aligned with the highest standards. Beyond her

005professionalism, it is her kindness, integrity, and genuine care for others that truly sets her apart. She is not only an exceptional vice principal, principal, but also an inspiring leader and colleague. Thank >> Hi, Kate Windham, uh general education teacher here at Orda. Um good evening. Over the past 4 years, I've had the privilege of working with Jamie Cochia. The last 2 years, we've been partners in a combination of fourth and fifth grade. Jamie brings 22 years of experience to our students, and that experience she demonstrates a deep, committed to commitment to creating classroom that puts children first. Every day, I get to witness how she creates an environment for our students to feel safe, supported, and excited to learn. I get to see this through the warmth and laughter and energy in her classroom, and

006how she truly expresses her passion for teaching. Because of the location of our classrooms, we often get the unique opportunity to reconnect with our former students. It is clear with their enthusiastic reactions that she has made a lasting impact on them, and her former students are just as excited to see her as she is to see them. Beyond the classroom, Jamie builds relationships with her students, families, and colleagues. She's a valued part of our school musicals, as she's been the choreographer for the last, I may say, amazing musicals that we've had. Day after day, Jamie shows up with professionalism, kindness, and a clear commitment to helping every child succeed. She's a committed member of OPS and represents the very best of what this school stands for. I thank you for your time. >> Hi, I'm

007Katie Cohen. I'm a first grade teacher here. Um but before I taught first grade, I taught kindergarten, and that is when I became close with Kayleen Dzialo. Kayleen is one of the most wonderful people I have ever had the pleasure of working with. Um this was my first teaching job out of college, and she really took me under her wing and taught me a lot about what I know about the OPS curriculum, the community. She's one of those people that stayed with me until 5:00 at night to work on math centers, and whether she was teaching third grade or kindergarten, she put her whole heart into working with those students. And I've gotten to see her interact with her class this year and last year through our buddy reading, and she really just meets the

008children where she is at, and she takes the time to get to know them and their strengths. She knows them inside of school, outside of school, and she's just >> [laughter] >> the most wonderful person. I could go on and on about how much I love Kayleen. Um but I also wanted to mention Amy Broncado. Um Amy has been such a wonderful mentor to me in my education journey. She is always there to listen to my ideas, even if they're a little bit crazy and start with a hear me out. >> [laughter] [snorts] >> Amy also has become a big part of our classroom. My students love her, and she is always there to support them, whether they need somebody other than me to talk to, they need academic help, or someone that they want

009to celebrate their wins with. Um So, yeah, two wonderful educators who just really bring such light to OPS. Thank you. >> Melissa and Jen couldn't be here, so I'm speaking on their behalf for Danielle Oxard. Danielle is truly one of the most dedicate dedicated and hard-working teachers we have had the privilege of working alongside. Over the past 4 years, she has consistently brought so much of our team, not only through her professionalism and work ethic, but through her kindness, honesty, flexibility, and sense of humor. Most importantly, she's deeply loved by her students. Jen said, "I still remember speaking with Mrs. Holly during what felt like one of the busiest and most chaotic times about an incredible candidate for our up upcoming third-grade opening, Danielle. After just one interview, Michelle was immediately impressed. She later told

010me that even though she somehow forgot Danielle's name, she found herself pulling Danielle's resume back out because she stood out that much. That moment says everything about who Danielle is. She has a way of leaving a lasting impression on everyone she meets. Watching Danielle over these past 4 years has been such a joy. The relationships she has built with her students, colleagues, and parents are genuine, meaningful, and strong. She shows up every single day with dedication, heart, and true love for teaching. Her students feel supported, valued, and cared for not only academically aca- academically, but personally as well. She consistently goes above and beyond to create meaningful connections with both students and families, helping to foster a warm and welcoming environment. Melissa said, "Danielle is also the definition of a team player. She is always

011willing to lend a hand, share ideas, collaborate with others, and support those around her. Her positive impact on our school community is undeniable and I could not be more proud to call her both a colleague and a friend. Thank you. >> Moving forward this evening, I had asked Mr. Rapella to um print out the sample resolution um that was sent to all of Bergen County Board Presidents, probably the Superintendent BA also. Um this is coming from the governmental uh relations depart uh department at school boards. They are urging boards to pass this resolution due to the high cost of skyrocketing cost of health care and basically it boils down to on the second on the second page, second to last paragraph basically we urge the governor to engage in meaningful engagement with all affected stakeholders

012to develop and implement practical long-term reforms to the state system of delivering health care to its public employees in order to generate meaningful long-term savings. So um I just wanted this to be in everyone's packet tonight. We can discuss it tonight. We can be we can discuss it next time. We can we can add it to the agenda next time. It's what any whatever the board wants to do. We don't have to add it. >> You want to discuss it now? >> We can you can if you want to next time, whatever you want to do. >> I mean I I have a comment and I mean I this is just kind of coincidental. I was just looking at social media and you know, there's a couple of uh uh educators here in New Jersey

013who have I don't know podcasts. And uh you know, they were saying how we're going over this cost cliff and there's there's it's just an abyss. It's just crazy. Um the the rate of increase are double-digits every year. It's unsustainable. And you know, we're in a freefall. I don't know what how how more to put it. If you later on in our budget presentation we were paying in healthcare benefits $1.3 million a year in 2022. We're now over 3 million. That's double. In just a few years. I mean, this is not sustainable. Um you know, we as a district have been doing a very good job with our budget. You know, we have no layoffs. We have no shortfalls. But this is going to take out even us down. So, um you know, I I

014I don't know the specifics of this resolution and whether there's some wording in here I'm not comfortable with, but you know, just basically what I've looked through on the on the surface um you know, this is this is a crisis that needs to be addressed and I'm all for it. >> Does anyone want to take it home and read it? And then I'll have it added to the agenda next time. If anyone does not want it added, I guess email me and then we can discuss it next time. Mr. Nutley. >> You know, it just goes to show you elections have consequences. And this is a result of the Affordable Care Act, which is not affordable, which is basically, you know, um now passed more burden onto the school districts. And it's not affordable because

015it was relying on people who, you know, uh were healthy to they decided, all right, I'm I'm going to opt out and not pay. So, here we are. You know, we're in a tough spot here. And um you know, it's unfortunate. >> Mr. Del Greco. >> So, this sample resolution, you know, if I guess, you know, we approve it, I guess this is going to go to the NJ SBA. They're going to then on our behalf, like, go to the state and basically say, "Hey, deal with this." >> Well, it's separated by districts, so we are going to forward it to our reps. I think in the email it's separated by districts, so we're 38, so we send it to our reps and to NJ SBA, I'm assuming. >> Okay. >> That's what we used

016to do in the past. We from here would send to our reps and NJ SBA. >> And then from there, then they gather as many as possible, then they go to the state and saying out of X amount of districts in the state of New Jersey, we have X amount that are basically pushing forth this resolution, please help and do something. Even though this to what Mr. Nolan said, this is a wider problem, right? And same thing Mr. Darian, right? This is everything from health care consolidation from the hospitals all the way through drug costs, all the way through, right? People who were healthy opting out and then having just these districts left over that's are maybe breaking even, maybe Blue Cross or whoever is paying out more than we're paying in, right? But to

017Greg's point, like, this is a larger problem that I don't think it's going to be fixed overnight. I think this resolution is a good start, but, you know, until the hospitals, pharmaceutical companies, and everybody else gets on board, this is just going to continue for a while. >> This is Walker. Um, this isn't only a school problem, this is a business problem. Well, um, most companies are also affected by it. And also, what happens is the percentage that the teachers are going to have to put into the the the payment of this is also, you know, the percentage went up 30%, but how much more are the teachers going to have to put into it? So, it's a really serious problem, I agree. And [clears throat] and I don't know how this resolution is going

018to make much of a difference. >> I don't know. I mean, there's the most districts in the state are in Bergen County, so they really are pushing for Bergen County to, you know, put in, but I mean, if most districts do send something to the governor's office, I would think maybe they'll take a look at something. You would hope. Maybe not. But at least we can say we did our part. >> And if that continues to make New Jersey the most expensive state to live in, it'll be our it'll be it'll be the people that are down here and the people in Trenton who will sit there and they'll continue to kick the can down the road and not address it. And it's unfortunate because unfortunately, who's going to pay the price? It's going to

019be the school districts in the sense that they're going to be losing programs and teachers will have to be cut unfortunately because of the costs that are now being put upon them. >> Teachers are already being cut in many districts this year. >> Yeah, absolutely. I want to I'm supporting that. That's ridiculous. But unfortunately, what are these boards supposed to do? There's no money. >> All right, so we can add this to the admin section next um I guess under admin, right? We'll put it there. Moving to the superintendent's report. Sorry. Um Uh I'm here There's an HIV in your folder. You're just You're just accepting it. That's it. Okay, superintendent. >> I did want to begin by reviewing just a few changes on your agenda tonight. That HIV is one of them. Additionally, you

020will notice the retirement of Heidi O'Keefe effective July 1st, 2026. And Heidi O'Keefe is nearing her 40th year anniversary at Oradell Public School. 40 years of service to this community. When I started to calculate how many students she has touched over the years and impacted, it is close to 1,000. Think about that. 1,000 students have benefited from the education they received in Mrs. O'Keefe's classrooms at Oradell Public School. So, while we wish her well, um one of the things that I think about a lot when I think about teachers is Mrs. O'Keefe is our past. She's our present, but her legacy is also our future. I am pretty sure that we actually have at least one, if not two, teachers in this building right now who were actually taught by Mrs. O'Keefe. So, as she

021is moving on, I'd like to think that her memory and the impact she has made at Oradell Public School will continue to live on. Uh that's a really nice segue into recognizing that today, or this week, is Teacher Appreciation Week in all schools across the nation. And I'd like to share a little story about my niece. When my niece was in college, um she came home her freshman year and she said to her mom, who is a teacher, "You know what? I'm going to change my major. I'm going to be a teacher. I love the summers and I want to be off." Now, her mom, being a very smart and very dedicated educator, said, "You're going to substitute teach first before you make that decision." She lasted one day. Because education and teaching is hard

022work. Um many of you know that I did not go into education. I did not study education in college because I was supposed to be a doctor or an attorney or something. I'm first-generation college. That's what I was supposed to do. And I had a little chip on my shoulder because I thought, "Well, anyone can teach until I was in the classroom. And I hate not being good at anything. And I had to work really, really hard at teaching. And I think so often because all of us have sat in classrooms at one time or another, we all think we can teach. But this week isn't just about teacher appreciation. Our whole year needs to be about teacher appreciation and appreciating the hard work they do in classrooms every single day. And I often say

023that I am incredibly proud to serve as a superintendent of Oradell Public School for many reasons. And our teaching staff um is one of them. And my segues are so good today. Even how they managed to tackle a brand new standardized assessment, which just began. And this is the type of thing that happens in classrooms all the time. The new NJSLAA adaptive has not been a smooth transition. Mr. Nutland's over there shaking his head cuz he's he's lived through it. There are computers will be shutting down. There are teachers where all of a sudden they're like, wait, is the child allowed to go on, not allowed to go on? Change is hard, but our teachers face change every single day. And I am so proud of Miss Cummings and Mrs. Holly and Mr. Werner and

024Miss Brancato and our staff for how they have embraced the change. Because they too like to be really good at things and it's really hard to be good when something's brand new. So, kudos to all of you. Um I have been very lucky. I've gotten to stay a little bit hidden in the basement during this one because I trust them and I trust our teachers to handle this change um and to move forward with it. And the only final note for me is please notice that there are buildings and grounds and finance minutes in your folders this evening. Thank you. >> Thank you, Mr. Iapelli. To our presentation of the budget, we're going to move up there. We're going to go to the lectern and go from there as opposed to sitting here. >> Okay.

025So, um Mr. Iapelli and I are going to split tonight's presentation. I get to talk about all the fun stuff and what the money actually helps us accomplish at Ore Dell Public School, and he gets to talk about the numbers and the impact and what made it really hard to balance a budget this year. So, I'd like to start off and I always like to start off by celebrating what we accomplished with with this past year's budget. So, in your presentation in your packet today or on this slide, you will see some of what we accomplished in 2025-2026 because of how well we budgeted for this current school year. That includes providing students in grades um one and four with new Chromebooks, a brand new math curriculum for grades one through three, professional development to

026support that math curriculum, um additional we added additional cameras including the camera across that the street that is now active and operational. We increased staffing to reduce class size. So, we are talking about districts that are facing cuts and when we were faced with the challenge of suddenly having 126 fourth graders, we were able to add a staff member because of some really smart budgeting moves. We also increased staff to better support struggling learners and that was specifically focused on increasing our staff members who have a strong background in structured literacy. In the area of buildings and grounds, which is always the best area to highlight because everything is so visible. We renovated three additional staircases. We replaced eight air diluters. We've painted hallways. We've updated lights. We continue to work on the basketball court

027and making landscaping improvements. And the programs that sometimes have a fiscal impact and sometimes they have a very minor fiscal impact. It might just be covering the cost of a little extra um teacher in teacher student contact time. We developed a third-grade peer leadership program that is working really well and our third graders are feeling like rockstars when they help the second graders solve problems. We've revamped the WIN period to better support students this year and we've really worked to add additional family night activities because a parent academy is one thing. But if you can do a night where a parent and a student are together, we always get a lot more out of it. So now I'm going to let Mr. Iapelli talk about the budget process. There's your extra time. >> And we

028had spoken about this the last time a little bit of how we go about the process. You know, step one, assess fiscal needs with the school, talk to district leadership, try to understand what the teachers need, what's needed for the kids, and then we move on to, you know, the finance committee meets. We discuss the different budget scenarios, take into account what has been given to myself and Ms. Bozeat regarding the teachers wants, what's a want, what's a need, principals wants, principals needs. Um so all those different scenarios come into play. And then we received the state aid. And this year we received it later than usual and it came with another cut of 3%. So we were cut 3% last year and now we're cut 3% again this year. So we worked on submitting

029that budget to the county superintendent. They approve it and so now we come to this advertised final budget, but there are This is still a time where changes can be made. So, the district enrollment, we're looking at about 796 students as of now. Um probably going to be in the same range. Not much difference. That think that's what we're looking at. And this is just a quick bird's-eye view over the years. How much the tax levies have changed, how much state aid has changed. As you can see, state aid goes up. Tax levy goes up. Uh state aid, I mean, goes down, tax levies are increasing because we keep getting less and less. Uh so, the board has to try to do more with the less every year. And we still are returning $200,000 out

030of a budget to return to help offset taxing increases. That's the budgeted fund balance operating budget. But, that's an offset. That's money that comes out of 1 year's budget to help offset the taxes of the next year's budget. And the board, through their diligence and prudence, have been putting money away to the capital reserves and using those funds without going back to the taxpayers for additional monies uh to support capital improvement projects. And again, we have a maintenance reserve. It's at its maximum, and the board is able to replenish it and to also use it once again the following year to meet maintenance projects. And this year, there's an emergency reserve withdrawal, and that will be used to upgrade cameras, additional cameras. So, we look at this impact, and we see that again numbers are

031going down from the state and everything else is going up astronomically. We look at utilities from 24 to 25, 25, 26, that's almost 38% followed up by another 33 and 1/2%. We look at the employee benefits. Again, from 24, 25, 25, 26, 22%. Next year, 26%. And once again, we only receive we receive under a million dollars from the state of New Jersey. So, there's really only one other place these funds can come from. And you And the health care continues to rise as a percentage of the tax levy, it's taking up more and more of the budget. So, we're now looking at over 3 million dollars when 2021 you were looking at a million three. I mean, you just take that in for a moment and we're just talking about that you were just

032talking about that resolution. How how do you continue? That's the question. And what do we do to try to save money, reduce costs? One big thing is Region 5 and we use that in our special ed uh education programs. They help to get us transportation, if we need nursing, one-to-one aids, uh a health aid, related services, evaluations. So, there is an off there is a place to go to within the region, which is the LEA or the lead education uh associ- association is the River Edge. So, they host Region 5 and so we work with Region 5 to offset and aid us in our special education department. Bergen County Technical Schools, it's great. We get Rummy from Bergen County Tech, and we've received their financial support. I mean, not financial, the technology support. And cooperatives,

033we do most all of our summer purchases regarding teacher materials come through Ed Data. And so they are submitting their orders now. Principals are reviewing them. Then I review the orders, and we submit it, and it's all done electronically now. It's much easier, smoother. ACES is a consortium with the state of New Jersey. It's run through New Jersey School Boards. There are hundreds of districts and municipalities are also involved through another offset of the New Jersey Municipal League. So they are also included in these ACES. Uh and that's where we get our commodity of electricity and gas. We still have to pay PSE&G because they have all the lines and the transmission, but the commodity comes from a third party, and those are bid out, and we are taking advantage of trying to reduce costs

034as opposed to just paying as a consumer as one entity. Ed Service Commissions, Bergen County state contracts. We look there to see are there some cost savings? Not always going to those, but they can help with some small maintenance projects. Offset some of those costs uh with some consortium, like we did our painting through Bergen County bids. They had a great price. Better than we could find from a local person. And they're also local, so it was a win-win. All our insurance, this is an another consortium, NESBIG, Northeast School Board Insurance Group. That's over 40 districts, 41 districts, and all our insurance, except healthcare, is through this. Workers comp is self-funded. And so, we're a entire pool of buying property insurance as opposed to just being one entity. Our general appropriations, this year it just

035so happens to be that the greatest portion of the budget is general ed. Last year it was special ed. The year before that, it was special ed. So, those numbers go back and forth. But again, employee benefits, 18.61%. That number will keep getting bigger and bigger if the state or something doesn't change. Uh so, operation and maintenance, district administration, that's myself, that's Ms. Boseus, that's everything from the district standpoint and the schools, self-explanatory, school administration. Our basic skills improvement, so these are just I don't want to read them to you cuz I think you could all see the numbers. But if anyone has any questions, just we could go back and we could talk about it. But that gives our general expense. And then the capital outlay, that's self-funding through the board, that increases the

036grand total of the budget. But the current expense, that's the portion of the budget that's supported by tax levy. Different way of looking at it with a pie chart, general education, special education, and employee benefits. And if we looked at last year's pie chart, employee benefits was a little smaller, the year before a little smaller, but now we're going to see it grow and grow and grow if something's not done. >> So, when we presented this budget um as a tentative budget, which is what we sent to the county, we know that that's a bit of a draft. Um there's a lot that can happen in a school in a month, especially as we're planning for 4 months down the line. So, the budget that is being part is part of the public hearing today

037actually has an increase of $71,880 from the tentative budget that was originally presented. And that is all in staffing. So, we did have another student register that will need a one-to-one instructional aid. So, right there that's $22,191. So, we do legally need to meet that need, so that's part of it. And the other part when someone retires, we have an opportunity. Sometimes a program keeps going and it keeps going and it keeps going. And sometimes change forces us to put a new frame a new lens on and say, is this currently meeting all of our needs? And with the retirement of Miss Shawn as our TAG teacher, we started to look at that position and say, we have five staff members who work and provide intervention services for struggling students. However, we have one for

038the same school for gifted learners. So, is there an opportunity to increase this budget a small additional amount but get more bang for our buck out of our gifted program. So, this other part-time position actually will be to increase academic enrichment programming. And those are two really important terms because gifted and talented education and academic enrichment are very different. Academic enrichment is the student who on every pre-assessment is getting a 100. Sometimes the student who is gifted may have some other stuff going on or they may be gifted in one area. They may not be the one getting the 100. They're the ones that are often qualifying for gifted and talented program and the academic enrichment child is not necessarily getting as many support services. So, what increasing this position will allow is us to

039rethink and um redefine our gifted and talented program and curriculum at Oradell Public School. What else is in this 26-27 budget? We will be increasing our part-time school counselor schedule to go to four four full days a week. As I said, the part-time enrichment teacher, additional professional development in math, tiered systems of support, and technology integration with purpose. And I really wanted that word in with purpose there because we are as an administrative team talking a lot about technology and you as a board, we have a district goal about technology because it's not more technology. It's why technology. What is technology doing to help education or help learning? And I often use the example of a worksheet. If you're doing a worksheet on paper and you're doing a worksheet on the computer, it's still a

040worksheet. Why are we on the computer? Unless that computer is giving you instantaneous feedback, that's helping. So, it's always asking, why are we using the technology and what's the what's it doing to help education? I'm always whenever I do the budget presentation, um I always say that when we're able to and we have been able to maintain kindergarten aides, we are probably one of the only districts I can think of right now in the county that has kindergarten aides. And we've been incredibly lucky. We've been able to make our budgets work. It does help our students and our teachers provide more differentiated support for our youngest learners. Um continued updated curriculum purchases and as technology upgrades. I'm very excited that that only are our students getting new laptops this year, but our teachers will get

041new laptops. And part of what I believe the district does well and the finance committee has continued to support is a regular refurbishment cycle. Districts get in trouble sometimes because they don't replace something until it breaks. Or they buy everything at once. And what happens when you buy everything at once? Everything breaks around the same time. So we are on very consistent refurbishment cycles with technology at Oradell Public School. You get a laptop in first grade. That laptop stays with you. It is your name is on it for first, second, and third grade. You get a new laptop in fourth grade. That laptop stays with you for fourth, fifth, and sixth grade. Our teachers get new laptops every 5 years because that's the cycle we know is going to keep everything um working optimally for

042us. And in terms of buildings and grounds, we we're going to do some additional painting of hallways and classrooms. We're going to continue finishing the updated hallway lighting. We have one hallway in the second floor to still change the lighting. That's the third grade wing. And the updating of HVAC units. >> And so yes, I also wanted to just go back to some of that technology and that's where Bergen County and the technology expertise comes in because they can help us identify the products to buy and make us have informed decisions as opposed to myself and Ms. Bozzetti trying to figure out what should we buy? What's the best to meet the needs? Uh and then we have to go out of our lane into another lane that isn't our expertise. So but they allow

043us to make those informed decisions and they're Rami's great at going out, finding bids, finding quotes regarding the Chromebooks and what we need for those Chromebooks and putting that together. Um that's invaluable, I believe. We pay for it, but it's a great service and it's a great shared service because it it allows us to access expertise that we don't have in the building. So, the general fund tax levy, we're looking at 14 million 73,473. As you notice, there is no debt service. The board is debt free. As of last year, we were debt free, debt free this year, debt free going forward. And so, the school tax. I just want to make a point that the school tax when you receive the tax bill, Oradell Public School is 26 and 1/2% of the school tax

044bill. So, it's not when they say the schools taxes are going raising our taxes, it's we're 26 and 1/2%. The borough's portion is larger than that. River Dell Regional School District larger than that. So, we are one portion of the bill, but it's not our the reason the taxes go up, the schools are doing it. We are a portion of that and we are of three main components, we're the smallest of that portion. So, we're looking at about a 250 $215 increase. If you could see the assessed home value, again, it was a reassessment and these numbers keep rising. And where does that also hurt us in state aid? Because the state has taken into consideration now property values and incomes. So, the greater those property values increase, the more money they believe Oradell residents

045are making. They also see that as a less of a reason to supply us with additional aid. When we talk about our we only get what's called formula aid. It's just a dollar amount per student. We don't get anything regarding we do the application for state school aid. They don't apply that formula to us because they look at their formula that they created and our incomes and our home values are too great. So, it's that turn the page. Let's move to Garfield. That's where they go with the money. >> Mr. Notland. >> Mr. Ippolito, thank you for that comprehensive report. I appreciate it and I I know we do, too. What was the portion of this year's um budget? You mentioned it was like 21 or 22%? What was How does that compare to the

046year before and the year before that? >> Which portion are we talking about? >> you just spoke about it 3 minutes ago. >> It changes every year. You'd have to look at your tax bill. >> Okay. >> Yeah, so that changes every year. Right. So, this is based on if you go to the bureau's 2025 user-friendly municipal budget, you will see the components of a tax bill. >> Okay. >> What makes up the average assessed home value and you'll see the dollar amounts and they have the percentage and you'll see that. Oradell public schools is not the greatest portion of the bill and can't be poked at as that's why our taxes are going up. >> You can look at your property tax statement that comes and broken [clears throat] down there. >> Yep. >>

047Mr. Darian. >> Um I have a budget question, but I also have a another question that's not really in regards to the budget, but it's related. So, um who has the oldest building in in the surrounding area? What school district has the the oldest building? >> We do. 1928. I don't know if any building that's older than this. I'm talking about immediate River Edge, River Dell. And and with that 1928 building, do we have any You keep saying something about a zero uh debt. What does that mean exactly, a zero debt? >> There are no outstanding obligations, i.e. bonds. We are not paying anything. So, there's no interest, there's no >> So, there's no large capital projects that we owe money on that we're financing. >> Not financing through a bond referendum. Right. >> Or

048multi-budgeted like a 20-30 year >> No. >> bond. Okay. Okay, just want to highlight that because sometimes, you know, we go through this really quick and we don't realize that we don't have a debt service, which means is we we just we're not borrowing any money for capital improvements. We're just funding it internally. >> Any questions? I have a question on the health benefits. >> Sure. >> What's the difference in the number on this screen, changes that impact the budget? 26-27 it says our employee benefits are 3.066 million. But when you come down to this part, it's 3. 619. Is something in this number that's not on the other one? >> Which one are we talking this slide? >> So that says our employee benefits are 3066. >> Right. >> Then if you keep going.

049>> That's 3066. >> Yeah, keep going. >> It's 3619. >> Right there. Is there something added to that number in this? >> In this, the 36 where where we 3619, there is. There's the you know, you have also that was mostly consisting of your medical prescription dental coverage. >> So 3066. What's in this one then? >> You have then you have some workers comp. You also have tuition reimbursement for teachers. That's technically a employee benefit. >> Right. >> So you have some of those that increase it, but >> So this is not just a medical number. This is anything that the state considers an employee benefit. >> An employee benefit as defined by the state. So workers >> The other line is just health. That's what we're >> your that's your medical, prescription, dental. >>

050Can we can we just footnote you don't have the slides numbered, but the one with the bar graphs, can you footnote down here just so that in future when we review this presentation, we understand that when you look at appropriations on this slide and when you look at the impact of health care benefits on this slide, it's not the exact that's apples to oranges. It's not exact same thing. So if you had like a footnote of what what's in in there. Cuz otherwise someone may may assume it's very easy, you know, oh, is a typo between the two slides. >> I understand. >> Can you send us a breakdown in this number cuz I would just like to see what else is in employee benefits like you said tuition, workers comp like it's OAA tuition.

051>> also have yeah, PERS. >> Yeah. >> Tuition PERS pension payment. >> Yeah, so can you break that >> So absolutely. Yep. >> Thanks. Any other questions? >> And when I say PERS, I mean all the non-certificated staff the board is paying their pension costs. So, this year it was 121,000. Seems to be an anomaly. It went down. It's usually about 150, 160. It went down, so I didn't want to dig too deeply and ask too many questions because we had a large savings. Um but that's something that the board and there was a time you know, you turn the page back 10 years, that was always paid for by the state. And the state gradually first they gave they they charged the board you pay 20%, then you paid 40, 60, and they did

052it over time. So, now if you're a new board member, so this is just something. So, if you're a new board member, that PERS pension payment that used to be made by the state at one time on behalf of the board. Those are no longer made by the state. So, they again they pushed that to the boards. So, all the aides, all the custodians, anyone who's in relation to non-certificated is paid by the board of ed. So, I think that's just good little history because not all the board members were on that long ago. And there are board members that do remember when the state did pay it. So. >> Thank you, Mr. Iapelli. >> You're welcome. >> We appreciate all your work on the budget this year. >> Thank you. Thank you. >> You

053have anything else to your report? Anything about B&G or anything? No? >> No. >> Oh, we just >> Yes. >> Excuse me, but the upgrade to the auditorium sound system was completed with the new speakers uh that the board allocated out of capital reserve. So, that was added and completed today. You know, this this week. >> Thank you. We'll move to minutes review of April 22nd. Any comments or questions, please email Mr. Iapelli. We have approval of March 18th and 25th. Do I have a motion? >> I make a motion. >> Seconded by Mr. Nutland. Any questions? Call the question. >> On the roll, Mr. Del Greco. >> Abstain. >> Mrs. Downey. >> Abstain. >> Mrs. Genchi. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Moran. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Norian. >> Yes. >> Mr. Nutland. >> Yes. >>

054Mrs. Walker. >> Yes. >> Mr. Darian. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Nichols. >> Yes. Administrative items, Mr. Darian. >> Uh yes, tonight we have an addition. Uh it's administrative item A1. I'd like to introduce it's a hip report. It's just uh us accepting the report basically stating that we've received it. >> I'll second it. >> Seconded by Mrs. Norian. Any questions? Call the question. >> On the roll, Mr. Del Greco. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Downey. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Genchi. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Moran. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Norian. >> Yes. >> Mr. Nutland. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Walker. >> Yes. >> Mr. Darian. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Nichols. >> Yes. Buildings and grounds, Mr. Del Greco. >> Thank you. Um we did have a meeting on April 29th. And it's great to hear about all

055of the wonderful things through the budget presentation that we were able to fund and do right but just some other projects that we were looking at and talking about right you know we've been talking about the medicine system you know the HVAC right that's complete right Mr Ippolito just you know mentioned about the auditorium here it's great to see there's no more cable going up the side there that's wonderful. Um you know Dick we talked about the cameras you know and other security measures that we were discussing seating and landscaping right Center Street the Arborvitae on Church you know some great things over there with all the lighting that we've replaced it's been pointed out that now we need to paint and then because of paint we're looking at lockers it's the kind of the

056trickle-down effect of the projects so now we're looking at you know getting quotes and you know waiting for them for additional quotes for that. Um as mentioned during the budget presentation basketball courts we're looking at again raising those backboards to create some appropriate heights you know for everybody. Um you know we're looking at playground resurfacing right if you look at the playground right it's safe we get it inspected every year but you know there's some rusty spots there's some areas that need to that could be improved upon so you know we are looking at that as well. Um I mentioned about lighting and then the sign up front right you know it's wood it's showing some age so we're waiting for some quotes as well it's pretty exciting actually got some pretty cool renderings. Um

057but all in all right you know again as Mr Darian pointed out this is one of the oldest school districts buildings right in Bergen County in the area right and with our due diligence right and keeping up with things with money and just keeping on top of maintenance right I think you know we're doing a pretty good job as a board, right? Trying to keep this building up as upkeep as possible. Um with that, I'll also like to bring up B1 use of school facilities. >> I'll second. >> Second by Mrs. Genchi. Any questions? Call the question. >> On the roll, Mr. Del Greco. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Downey. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Genchi. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Moran. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Norian. >> Yes. >> Mr. Nutting. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Walker. >>

058Yes. >> Mr. Darian. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Nichols. >> Yes, curriculum Mrs. Norian. >> Uh yes, um we still do need to set up that that uh curriculum meeting. We let everybody go ahead with theirs and it's our turn now. Um but other than that, I have no report. >> Finance, Mr. Darian. >> Uh yes, um before I introduce one of these items on the agenda, I just want to go through briefly um my recollection of the um the last board meeting, excuse me, subcommittee meeting we had on April 29th. So, we reviewed uh we're coming into exploration season, which is um our summer program, and uh we reviewed the budget and uh what we charge for tuition and how many um classes uh or courses we'll be offering and you know, what what it

059looks like in terms of the um community's acceptance rate. Uh we also discussed this uh budget presentation um and uh what we would highlight and how we would highlight it. Uh we had some procedural discussions over our surplus. At the end of each year, we always have a small amount of money that's left over and you know, we we we shoot as a a goal for you know, what number we should have. I mean, obviously you can't spend everything and have a zero surplus because that's dangerous. Um but you know, if you have a large surplus, that's also not good planning. So, we you know, conceptually discussed where we'd like to be in terms of our surplus and then procedurally throughout the next several years how we would approach the surplus throughout the year so

060that we we know what that number is before we get to the end of the year. It's just a a finance thing. It's really not whatever. It's just a procedural thing within the subcommittee. And then finally, we talked about changes to the the the budget. We did have a change from our initial budget. It was mostly just due to staffing changes. One was forced upon us and the other we decided to do and it was a we had lengthy discussions should we um support an additional part-time person, but um you know, it seems like you know, when you're presented with an opportunity because of change, you know, do you do you want to enhance something or do you want to just kick the can down the road and not make any changes. And we decided

061we wanted to enhance something. So, we we you know, are putting money towards that goal. And that's that's about all we we discussed at the subcommittee level. So, with that, I'd like to introduce items D1 through D4. >> I'll second. >> Who was that? Mrs. Genji? Any questions for Mr. Darian? >> I have a comment. >> Mr. Darian. >> Unfortunately, my notes are on my old agenda. Um Let's see if I can wing it. Uh yes, yes, yes. Can Mr. Ippolito, can you discuss procedurally what we're doing here with D2? Um this would be the 1 2 3 4 5, the fifth be it resolved um where it states that we we should raise an additional $75,000 or 75 735 uh for general funds in the school year 2026-2027 uh for a um class three

062special law enforcement officer. Can you explain why this is on the agenda tonight? >> So since the board is going to decide to go out to a for a referendum on this in November, it needs to be stated in this budget as a possible add-on to the tax levy because this would be a permanent increase. So once this budget is complete we established our tax levy in November the voters of Oradell decide yes, we should have a uh special law enforcement officer that would then reopen the tax levy and there would be an additional $75,735 added to that levy and that would be a permanent increase. It wouldn't just be for next school year, it would be going forward. >> So when I read that, I don't necessarily understand it that way. Um so should

063we rephrase this to say something along the lines of be it resolved that you know, if we need to raise additional >> No, this is the state's >> It is? >> wording. Yeah, none of this is >> This is as if it passes. >> Yeah, this is if it passes, but this is the wording >> from the state. >> That's why I don't understand it. So >> Right. >> Um okay. I'm I'm just you know, I read this and I and I don't understand that it's conditional upon something else. I'm assuming when I read it that you know, we're just doing it. And and and just >> take credit for the syntax. >> And I just wanted it to be clear so that you know, going back over time you look at these you know,

064agendas or uh as Mr. Del Greco so What what do you use again? The um AI tool to summarize? >> Oh, uh Notebook LM. >> Yeah, he uses Notebook LM to to just digest all these agendas and summarize them and then tells us exactly >> I will add in the minutes that you asked for clarification. >> Okay. >> And I will put your clarification as part of the minutes. >> Great. I I look forward to that. So, that because yeah, I I don't want to be nitpicky. It's just it didn't seem straightforward. Thank you. >> Any other questions? Call the question. On the roll, Mr. Del Greco. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Downey. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Genchi. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Moran. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Norian. >> Yes. >> Mr. Nutlin. >> Yes. >>

065Mrs. Walker. >> Yes. >> Mr. Darian. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Nichols. >> Yes. Delegate report, Mrs. Norian. >> Um there is a meeting coming up and uh the handbook has been sent out. I haven't digested it at this point in time. >> When's your meeting? >> Huh? >> When's your meeting? >> It's the 16th or 23rd? >> I'm I don't remember. It's It's either next weekend or the weekend after. >> Well, when is it? >> the agenda. >> Because we need to go over all the resolutions if you're going to >> It's on the agenda. It's on the uh Parsippany agenda. So, it's the 16th. >> Okay, so that means you're voting for us before our next meeting. >> Yeah. >> So, then we need to go over them. >> Well, how would you like

066to do that? >> I thought that you were going to do that actually. So, um >> You're speaking about the thing that Mr. I Pelly um sent, right? Those resolutions, like four or five of them um for NJASBA. There was some questions about some of them. >> Yeah, cuz >> Thank you. >> Cuz we're going to be casting a vote as a board, so we need to agree if we want to >> No, it's wonderful. Thank you. Yeah. >> I could go and print out. >> I have some here. You want to You want to make It's up to you. We can wait. We'll wait. Let's take a break. It's up to you. Yeah, you want to put them on our screens? Is that easy? Whatever you want to do. Whatever is easier. You know

067what? We'll start with the first one while we're waiting. Um the first one is from the South Orange Wood and Maplewood Board of Ed. And let's see. They want to allow Okay, so these are ones that were approved by these school boards. So, because it's a resolution, it says it's a New Jor- New Jersey School Boards Revolu- Resolut- New Jersey School Boards Association believes school districts should be permitted to use ranked-choice voting in school board elections. >> I don't love that. >> Ranked-choice >> So, New York City does it. It means that um if there's not a clear if the if number one doesn't get I believe over 50% of the vote, then they start going and adding who got the most. So, you could get maybe 48% of the vote, someone could get 30,

068someone could get 28, and they could beat number one. So, these two boards want to allow ranked choice voting. You don't have to use it, but you could. So, that's the first one. I am Manuel. But, I don't know what everyone else is. >> Uh what was the Did they provide a reason why they want to change how voting works? Oh. >> We have it in the email. >> Did they Is is I I don't have this, so I'm I'm going to Oh, okay. Well, >> Mr. Darian, >> May 1st in your email, Delegate Assembly Handbook, there's an attachment PDF. >> Okay. >> It's down by like page 90. It's It's way in to where it starts on the the resolutions. >> And the >> Wait, turn my mic on since I'm not talking into

069the mic. Let me see. It's resolution four. 60 Is it that far up? Six? Uh no. Okay, here we go. 71. 71. >> So basically they're saying if the if the person who gets the most votes does not get over 50 they're going to go to rank choice. >> Mrs. Nichols >> Yes. >> Um My my brief little understanding of it and it's something that I have a little, you know, understanding of this but I think one of the challenges with rank choice voting is that it's not a it's not like a raw score like when you're you're tallying up something. I think what happens with the rank score it's a much more challenging way to quantify who's in first and what not. It's it's definitely more complicated than, you know, James got 130 votes,

070I got 125 so he wins. >> No, you rank the candidates. When you vote you rank number one James, number two Mrs. Walker, number three Mrs. Moran. And then if James does not get 50% then they start going to rank. How many people voted how high for Mrs. Walker? >> So we have to then educate or people would have to be educated understanding how this actually works and I kind of feel like you lose transparency in it as well. So I I know that this is going to be going to, you know, as a our delegate, um, you know, I I'm I am not in in favor of of rank choice voting. >> If you go to page 71 of the email it shows their explanations. >> So if I could summarize if if I'm

071voting for three people for Board of Ed >> You rank them. >> I have to choose which one of the three I like the most. >> No, you have to rank them. >> Yeah, yeah. You rank one, two, and three. >> so, you know, I'm going to use you know, Rita as my number one, James is number two, and Jamie, I'm sorry, you're going to be in third. I'm not going to do that. I mean, I just don't think that it's a you know, I think that doesn't make any sense. >> No, it's when there's multiple, so >> So, on the ballot, I'm just going to select the three people I >> you would rank you would rank, you know, seven ways that you you would want. I think so. >> I think that makes

072no sense. >> It complicates things. >> I'm just going to vote for the three people I think that should win, and that's it. And you just you know, I mean >> not what rank voting is. >> No, I understand that. And and that's why rank voting doesn't seem to make sense to me because now I'm going to have to spend all this mental energy waiting and ranking the candidates. It's you know, either you get my vote or you don't. I mean, I'm not going to >> Mrs. Genge, did you have something? >> It seems like it could only really work if you're voting for one position. Or it only makes sense if you're voting for one position. If we have multiple seats open and we're voting for multiple people, it would be an absolute disaster.

073>> Mrs. Walker? >> I think they're they're just doing that to supposedly secure the security with the to complicate it is what. But >> Mr. Del Greco? >> I'm one of whoever I vote for is who I want, right? I vote for Mrs. Darian, Mrs. Nichols, and Mrs. Downey. Like, if I vote for them, that's my vote, right? That's I don't want to complicate it and rank them and I just And my other question is is this going to take effect this November if this passes, or would it be >> Yeah, I mean, you if even if this passes, you still have the option not to do it, but I think this is for the very political towns. >> Got you. >> Do you still have it? I mean, is anyone in favor of this,

074Mrs. Norine? >> Um I'm not in favor of it. I think it overcomplicates things and it's unnecessary. >> in favor of it? Mrs. Norine, are you? Okay, so we're no on number one. Number two, this has to do with let's see. I know. This has to do with ICE. Um I'm not sure what a resolution is going to do since we have to follow the law anyway. >> I have a question. >> Mr. Duran. >> So, bullet point two must be free from civil immigration enforcement activities. But, if it's a federal law enforcement action, how can we interfere with it? >> Right, I would say I mean, for me this one I would just follow what the law is. I don't know if I want to get involved with the board. I was actually speaking

075to our attorney today about this and we are going into closed session to discuss it. So, we can maybe discuss that. This is a discussion we can do in closed session. >> Yeah, I would like to. >> Yep. >> This seems This seems to like try to usurp and go around Plyler versus Doe. So, I'm a no. >> I mean >> But then it also says in the next bullet while honoring valid judicial authority. So, it kind of makes the second bullet >> That's why I'm not sure. >> It just seems like a political statement to me at the end of the day. My vote personally would be no to a political statement, right? It's Whatever the law is, whatever enforcement action is, that third bullet point as Ms. Downey just recommended. At the end

076of the day, this is a meaningless resolution in my mind. Like if there is an actual law enforcement action, they're going to come work with the police, come in here and do what they need to do anyway. We and we have no say, right? It's >> Correct. I I mean, I think personally I I mean, this is a a a subject matter you know, that you know, there's people on both sides of this this issue. And you know, I understand you know, the need to take action. I'm not going to you know, express my personal beliefs, but what concerns me as a school board member is that this has nothing to do with school. I mean, as far as I know, it's it's you know, our job is to oversee the school, make sure the

077school is being run right. And things that affect the school and the kids and the kids education are of concern to me. But this seems like we're we're leveraging that responsibility and this elected position and we're using it for other purposes. And and I'm starting to feel uncomfortable getting dragged into this because you know, okay, this may have an issue that we may say, okay, maybe we should weigh in on it, but what about the next issue and then the next issue and when where does it end? And then you know, I I just you know, if you want to go out and and you know, picket on the street, go right ahead. I mean, I'll for you, I'll drive you there, you know, if that's what you need, you need help. But but don't

078ask me to to take my my responsibility as a board member and use that like and hold I don't know, what I of like my opinion is more than the average person because I'm a school board member. I just don't I don't think that's that's I don't think that's right. That's like leveraging your position in areas you shouldn't be leveraging it. I don't know if I'm stating what I want to state. I just don't think we're in that's we just got to stay in our lane. You know what I mean? >> One of the important things that they they put down below the recommendation is that NJ SBA believes that boards of educations have a responsibility to ensure that their school buildings are safe havens for all students regardless of their immigration status and are

079not to be used as venues for immigration enforcement absent judicial authority. So essentially we're saying that we're interested in the thorough and efficient education of children and that's That's already the law. Yeah, it's abs- with absent judicial authority. Nobody can come in this building without a warrant. No one's going to sign it and you're So it's already done. So this is like playing a game a little bit. Yeah, that is the law. We're going to talk about it in closed session. Let's just go to number three. This has to do with pilots and it's very um relative to our time uh now. Um actually uh some of this we're in a meeting on Friday with uh the mayor was there and he mentioned me and superintendent that he's putting together a committee to discuss, you

080know, what's going to be going on with the building and whatever. He mentioned things about pilots. So this is something that basically says if, you know, schools are not giving part of the you know, the pilot. Um or this is saying that school districts have the right to negotiate. I don't know what how this is going to help us cuz we can negotiate or not. Like the town doesn't have to go by this. So again, this I'm not sure what this is saying. >> Yeah, I do think that it brings light a very important topic, right of pilot? I know for instance, right Hackensack, they approved all these pilots and then the next group came in and said no, but it was too late. Right? PILOTs are again, you know, negotiated between the town and

081the developer where the town could say, well, we want 5%, right? Or if there's a percentages of money that goes around, they pay this money and then percentages go, right? My concern is that the borough is going to get a portion of the PILOT, right? So they can improve infrastructure, they can improve police, roads, whatever, right? But that that project is going to bring in additional students to this building and then it's going to be on our backs to figure out the delta between the PILOT and our budget. So, I think hopefully this resolution will bring to light that upon negotiation of a PILOT, right? If the borough is going to get 10% of that PILOT payment, the the board of education hopefully will say, well, we need 5% of that PILOT to put in

082escrow. So if we do need to put an addition on the building, we have that money going forward. >> The problem with this resolution is that this is basically saying that boards should have this discussion with their whatever. It doesn't mean the towns have to. This is again another It has no teeth. >> No non-binding. >> mean, obviously the Oradell board will be right there. You know, it's not even a question. But whether we don't need this for that. Like our negotiations with our own town has nothing to do with this. >> lately because of these affordable housing mandates and how they lately because of these affordable housing mandates and how they have a lot of leverage over the municipalities and so developers insist on a PILOT and if and it's all part of negotiations

083which we are not part of. Negotiations, whether it's done with the state and um the Fair Share Housing Council or any applicant that's interested in participating, we're not at the table. And if someone doesn't like what they the municipality is doing, they're going to sue the municipality directly. We're not at the table. So, I I don't understand how we're going to get involved in this pilot. But, what bothers me as as a school board member, and it also bothers me as a a resident of New Jersey, is is we talk about these pilots as if they're de facto fine, and we just want to participate in all these pilot programs that are going to be happening across the state. When our answer should be, we don't want any pilots. Zero. So, it's not like oh,

084we're going to we're going to join in on these conversations, and we want to ensure a seat at the table, and we want to make sure that we get some of that money or whatever. It's like no, our answer our our position should be no. We we're not going to give away taxpayer dollars to a a a a large corporation or multinational who's got hundreds of millions of dollars that they're investing. And and they're going to come into the community, and they're going to ask for 10 years of no taxes. And and and and what they're going to do is they're going to give us, you know, a tip, you know, to help improve the school districts. You know, I I don't I don't you know, I just did just the whole thing is like

085no. There should be no to pilots. >> I agree. Like I agree with you wholeheartedly. There should be no to pilots because the developers get off easy, right? They get off with a smaller share versus if they paid the taxes over the long haul. And municipalities and places get attracted to that because it's an infusion of cash immediately, where they might just use it to plug something or get a pet project done, and then everybody else will be dealing with the ramifications of it down the road. Right? But, to your point, you know, you know, I think it's out of our control. I don't know how we gain control to say like no to pilot, and make these developers pay their fair share in taxes like I do and you do and everybody else does.

086>> Well, also, you know, why why are all these developers pushing for PILOT cuz in the long run, they're going to be the ones that benefit from it while the school district is the one that's going to end up having to, you know, levy the you know, the assessments to put on that addition. Yeah, they're going to give us a little bit, but, you know, in the end they know that, you know, they end up benefiting. >> I mean, let's be real. We're going to have a development in town where if we pass a PILOT, people are going to be moving in, they're going to buy a piece of property for a couple of million dollars. They're going to have a lot more money than the residents the average resident here in town. And and

087they're going to pay less tax. What? You know, now granted, they're going to have a small percentage of those units will be affordable, but but the rest of them will not going to be affordable. They're going to be very expensive. And people are going to have a tax-free status for 10 years and they're going to send their kids to school and not contribute to our budget like everyone else. Makes no sense. >> And on top of what you said, them paying less, you know, being worth much more than paying less, and on top of it they'll be making a profit on their property, which we are not. >> And and and and and then just to add icing to the to the crab cake, our school funding formula, the tax average assessment is going to

088go up in town, and so the state is going to withhold more money, right, Mr. Arpelle? So, not only are we going to get I mean, it's just it's just it's it's a never-ending spiral, you know, into the the taxpayer's wallet. >> The taxpayer eventually will pay for this also. >> Yeah. >> And and the developers come in, they get these PILOTs, and then they're gone. They're not in they're not part of the community. >> I I have a Mrs. Genji. >> If if we, let's say, can't stop this from happening, isn't it better to have some say and get at least a little piece of the pie as opposed to none? >> Yes, but this doesn't do it. This is basically saying if we don't get part of the pilot money, we should and

089the municipality should meet in whatever, which we're going to do anyway. I mean, I'm not opposed to this one. Like if if towns need it, like it doesn't do anything for us. It doesn't hurt us. So, if people want to pass this one, like I'm fine with it. Like me, personally. >> like what Mr. Del Greco was saying, asking for a certain amount of money in escrow, that can only really help us if this is going to happen. >> help us. This is basically saying if we don't get any pilot money, >> Mhm. >> then the municipality and the school district should consider negotiating community benefits agreements. It's not basically telling us that we're going to get it. So, that that This is just basically saying if you don't get it, then you should go

090talk to the town. So, it's not doing anything for us. >> if you don't get it, that's when this would kick in, which is >> It's saying you should go talk to the town. We're going to do that anyway. Yeah. >> It's only offering a suggestion. >> I'm fine with it. Okay. So, is everyone Is anyone Is anyone opposed to this one? >> I'm opposed. I'm opposed. I'll give you an example where we break >> is opposed. Wait, anyone else before? >> I'm opposed. >> Chris. Go ahead. Why are you opposed? >> So, as an example, the ShopRite in the Milford, you know, that property used to be an idle water property and then a developer bought it and he was threatening to put in two or three large apartment buildings, big square buildings that

091were going to look like garbage in a couple years. And the the municipality sued and they were going back and forth forever on this issue. And it wasn't until the um the Milford Board of Ed went to a mayor council meeting and they talked about that property and they reached an agreement with the developer, the Board of Ed. And and that um forced the municipality to agree to the ShopRite along with the bank. And and and and what the developer went and agreed with the the school board was the the baseball diamond. This what you see to the left of the thing. And and so we already have that power. So and if if we feel that uh as a board that um you know, we're in the final stages of a development and we're

092not getting anything. Uh all we have to do is go to a mayor council meeting and express our opinions, you know. >> How does voting yes stop that? How does voting yes on this hurt anything? >> I'm voting yes to the >> You said you're voting no. >> I'm I How does it stop that? I >> Why Why are you voting no and like what Why would you voting yes harm anything? >> I'm voting no is because I'm piling on and I'm assuming that a pilot program is now the de facto standard. >> So your no is just fundamentally against pilots in general. So you're making a statement no because I don't believe in pilots, so I don't want to vote in something that supports or talks about pilot. >> Yeah. >> Okay. Thank you.

093>> Mr. Notland. >> Yeah, I I I agree with Mr. Darian that it is kind of like the standard now and you know, I don't want that to be the standard. I want to have equal, [clears throat] you know, standing at the table and be able to really hash things out. I don't know if this is the pilot, you know, especially with the developers in today's world um are going to give any more than they have to. So uh so that's why I said no. >> Trying to read it in the email. >> Why can't Why can't they have easy ones that they're going to vote on? >> we could just abstain from it, too. It's not doing anything for us. I'll come back to this one. >> Yeah. I also think I have to

094ask a few more questions about >> the purpose. >> Yeah, it's not doing anything for us. Um this one I'm not really sure what it means. Number four is from West Milford. >> I agree. [clears throat] >> This one I was not sure about. I was trying to read part of it. It's Obviously things are happening up by them with certain lands. >> From what I understand, Ms. Nichols, this is because they are part of the Highlands Act, so they aren't able to build on certain areas up there. So, their tax levy is very limited in how many properties that they have. So, while the state is reducing and or maintaining their state aid, their gripe is that other municipalities like Newark is getting a ton of money, right? And they're able to build and

095increase their tax levy as well, where they're very limited. So, not only are they having to cut programming because they're not getting the appropriate state aid, but they can't even build on the open land to increase the levy and increase development in your town to offset. I believe that's what this is. >> Right, because everybody's saying the district experiences inequitable funding pressures compared to districts with similar student populations. But other districts have greater opportunities for ratable growth. Based on the above, it's the district's position does not adequately account for reduced fiscal capacity and structural tax limitations. >> I mean, the only good news about this it kind of hopefully will open up the door of how they're distributing funds, right? From a state perspective. I mean, we are the last 2 years have noted in

096the presentation on the opposite end of it keep losing losing. Right? So, maybe they're going to use this as a mechanism to rebalance how they're distributing aid. >> Yes, but if they use this, we're going to get less because it's going to go all the it's going to go to all the towns that have these environmental sites that they can't build on. >> True, they're not going to take it from inner cities. >> Right, and we're and we don't have any so they're going to redistribute from everyone else. >> You think it can help us with the Blauvelt? >> [laughter] [snorts] >> Does anyone have an opinion on this one? >> I'm impartial. >> All right, me too. >> I don't care either. Okay. Glen Rock. Do you know anything about this one, Mr. Iapelli?

097It has to do with co-op purchasing. >> [clears throat] >> No, there were there was one co-op um in the western part of the state, the western uh districts used it. And they were going out for contracts that they were really trying to subvert. They believed the state told them they can't use these contracts for contract for construction. So, they believed they were kind of subverting the bidding process and using the prevailing wages. So, there were districts that were taking advantage of that, but now they've been told you can't use those vendors, those contracts are null and void, and now you have to figure it out. So, I think that's what this would come from because um that's all I could think of. >> I almost think this is meaningless as well because, you know,

098Mr. Ippolito goes out, uses the cooperatives, right? It's you know, the last sentence, "When purchasing such materials, district should employ strategies that promote the efficient use of taxpayers' resources when it's practical to." >> Yeah. >> Which is basically what we're doing already, in my opinion. >> That's the purpose of using a co-op. >> Right. So, I just don't know why resolution five is any different. >> I think they're kind of saying that we have shared services, we have other things, but for curricular materials, we really don't have like a co-op base. And I think this is more for curricular that the state should go out and be like if all of you want to buy like a math program, we always get killed like >> Right. So, we go into a co-op. I think this

099is more for curricular. >> So, we go directly to like, you know, whether it's Who's Amplify? Vendor? Does most is the vendor. Okay. So, we have to deal directly with them where other things are somebody else that in the consortium gets a price. And this would be the price if you were going to get third grade math through the consortium. Versus taking the chance that you are a enormous district and does most make give you a better price because they're going to get they're going to sell more than being a smaller district. So, it would put like I think some regulations on stabilizing something. >> think this is specifically for instructional curriculum. However, Mr. Iapelli, in the past I think some of the control some of the consortium prices are higher than if you went

100out on your own because the state just wants to be done. So like some of this stuff if we went out on our own we would do better with. >> There is that. Right, it's just about ease of use. I think that's what it's more you just be I think they think this would be more streamlined. Uh but not necessarily the best price, but maybe the easiest way to go about procurement. >> If they did this would we have to buy through it? >> I don't know. Plus this is New Jersey School Boards going to put this in there recommending for their policy. I don't know how much any of this has I think there's no legislation in the state. >> All right. So to your point Mr. Iapelli, this policy would not be checked

101as mandated, it would be checked as optional. >> Well, it's like when we buy school materials, right? Like Mr. Iapelli spoke about like that we use certain consortium. So when we buy all our school like the teachers buy the products for their classroom, they get X amount of money in EdData. >> Okay. >> EdData isn't one company. It's 20 different companies in that platform. So I think not every district uses EdData. We use EdData. So there may be multiple consortiums or there might might be other ways to kind of go about depending on how much you were going to spend because when we're in the consortium we don't worry about um our limits as much, right? >> There's also something here that says it creates a statewide textbook bank from which districts may utilize textbooks

102that are no longer needed by other districts. The executive county superintendent study ways to promote co-op purchasing of textbooks. >> But if we're getting rid of textbooks, doesn't that mean the material is out of date or out of curriculum? So another district would take older material that is out of date or not compliant with curriculum and use it? And then who would store the stuff? That's weird. >> know. >> So I outside of this, right, we're talking about educational material. What stops it from like do we have a consortium for technology? Like what stops all the school districts from saying, "Well, we all want Google. Like let's all band together and go to Google and they give us a better price for Google workstation?" Or Chromebooks or anything else? >> Trying to think about what

103else we order through consortiums. Um Because isn't there >> Well, we did do some of our cameras through the New Jersey School Boards program. They have a technology component, also. Uh so some of the cameras pricing and install was based on their consortium pricing at Ed data uh Datacom. Is in They're in that consortium. Eastern Datacom, excuse me, is in that consortium. They're part of that. >> Okay. >> So School Boards does have But again, if you go to it sometimes, it's a clunky, difficult to use website. >> Got you. >> So even trying to find sometimes cuz you think about the Dell, how many right you got the standard and then there's all these different components you would to it. >> Mhm. >> And Dell gives a price sheet. >> Yeah, yeah. I'm familiar.

104>> It's a It's a It's a It's a Google spreadsheet I mean a spreadsheet that is thousands of lines and you're trying to find the one that matches yours. >> Yeah. >> I mean so they exist but they're not always easy to use. >> So in the spirit of this resolution it's really material to us, right? We can say yes or no or abstain and you know instead of sitting here for >> Yeah. >> rocking our brains over this. >> Yeah. I mean I'm all right with it. Like if they want to create it I'm I'm okay. Is anyone opposed to this one? Okay, so this one's already yes. The next one is has to do with the vocational county school boards and I think um I think Caucus put this forward that they say

105there should be some representation from sending districts on these boards and they should be more transparent with their tuition and their programs cuz basically the vocational schools can pretty much do what they want. That's This is how I'm reading it. So I'm okay with this one. >> Yeah. Yeah. >> I don't know if anyone else is reading it differently. >> I uh ran it through Gemini and they basically agree with you. >> Okay. Is anyone opposed to this one? Okay, so that's the sixth one. So where do we stand? So on the first one you said no. We're a no on ranked choice voting. Ice we're going to hold that for now. Um third one is the pilot in lieu. I'm not opposed to this one just because it doesn't do anything either way. So

106why do people want to vote? Do we How many people are a no? >> I'm going to say no in solidarity with Mr. Darian. >> On number three, that's the pilot. >> Oh yeah, I'm >> I'm a no. >> Who's a no? >> I agree Mr. Darian that wholeheartedly I disagree with pilot altogether. So. >> So, by saying no >> I mean >> Is that sending the message [clears throat] that you want? >> pilot. >> We're saying no to pilot. >> But we're not saying no to pilot by this vote. That's the problem >> You're basically saying >> Okay. >> You're basically saying on this that if there's a pilot in your town and you're not getting any money of it, you're saying no >> that we shouldn't there shouldn't be no discussion between us

107and the town. >> Okay. Then I change to yes then. >> Like I'm totally against the pilots, too, 100%. >> Yeah. >> But I don't know about We could just abstain from it, too. >> I I think it is a good idea. >> Want to abstain? >> So, so according to the summary, it says approve a policy which encourages municipalities and school districts to negotiate agreements that help the schools cover the cost of new developments. >> That's not a bad thing. But it has no teeth. >> Yeah. >> It means nothing. Which >> essentially what >> The town does This has no say over the town right whatsoever. They don't have to listen to us if they don't want to. >> Yeah. I'll be a yes then to your point. >> Did you Did Rita

108hit you under the table? >> [laughter] >> Okay. What do you say? We can abstain, too. I mean, it doesn't matter. >> I'm still a no. I don't I don't think, you know, the this whole pilot thing should not be you know, a de facto standard. >> I know, but that's not the question. >> I I I understand, but but but what we're saying is when the when the pilot when we're >> pilot that we don't agree with >> Yeah. >> is effective >> Yes. >> then yes, should we go after it or should we not? That's really what it kind of is saying to us. >> What it's saying is we should rely on the policy um as justification to go into the municipality. And and there's we don't need a policy. >> We

109don't even have to adopt a policy. >> You know, we we we we we're going to sit down with We had a representative tonight from the mayor council here here with tonight. Um, you know, we're not that kind of a town. So, I I I you know, I don't know. >> To me it's just going to be sitting in a manual. >> Sorry. What's your vote, Catherine? >> I I will vote what you want. I mean, I >> I would I would vote that yes to me it doesn't matter. I don't like PILOTs at all. Um, I would be against them. However, if a PILOT was put in place, I think that we definitely should go after whatever we can get for the school district. >> Which we're going to do whether we have this

110or not. >> exactly. >> So, where are we? >> There is one other potential negative. So, I'm just I'm just you know, thinking about the the the town's people and we represent the entire, you know, community, the parent community. And and this issue is going to be there's going to be two sides and they're going to be very strong against it. And if we have a policy that says, well, we're going to participate in that PILOT program and when that developer gives out 200,000, we're going to get a piece of that pie. We're going to alienate half the people in town. They're going to be like, you you're just contributing to the problem. You know what I mean? I don't know if we should I don't know. >> This is saying This is saying when

111you don't get PILOT money. This is assuming you're getting zero PILOT money. >> that we're not saying by this policy that we agree with PILOT programs at all. I know you keep wanting to put that in there, but >> fact that we're agreeing to a policy >> that happens after >> Yes. >> the fact. >> Yeah, we're acknowledging the fact >> I understand but but we're not the ones who are putting We're saying that if in fact that exists, we should do something about it. Are you saying that no, we should not do something about it? If that actually happens? >> But it's not even saying it's why do we even need I don't know. It's >> It's a waste of a policy. Okay. >> Yeah. Fine with me. He's convincing me He's convincing me

112to say no. >> Okay. >> All right. >> Why don't we just abstain since nobody feels strongly? Except the no's. You know what I mean? Like the yes's are kind of like whatever if we if it happens then this isn't really doing anything. >> Is everyone good there? >> If it's something we can do whether there's policy or not, it doesn't really make a difference. >> All right, we're abstaining on this. >> Abstaining? Okay. >> Thank you. >> Um on West Milford we said we didn't care. So you were okay with it. Yes. This is the the uh >> The land use >> The land one we don't know either way. Of course it's been heard by us but >> We don't care. >> Sure. >> We don't care. Number five we're a yes for

113the curriculum. Number six we're a yes. >> All right. >> Got it. Thank you. >> Okay. >> so just to be clear for number two, what are we doing with that? >> closed session. >> Okay. >> Um personnel Mrs. Walker. Right. Like I have to approve. No, I don't. I don't have to approve anything. >> Bring me >> What did he say? >> [laughter] >> Anyway, I'm sorry. Um We had a meeting this evening [clears throat] prior to our general meeting and we discussed a number of things. Um The um non-affiliate staff, the group that works in the board office, we discussed their performances which was very positive. Um we also discussed the some new hires that were um proposed and I give such credit to Mr. Iapelli and Ms. Bozios and the whole finance

114committee for being able to not only keep as much constraints on the budget but also to have another part-time teacher hired where most districts or many districts are letting adminis- not only administrators but teachers go. Um and with that I'd like to propose Oh, and also you had in your packet the update on all of the staff and faculty and their um salaries and times time in the district. And with that I'd like to propose uh >> Second. >> F1. >> Seconded by Mr. Nutley. Any questions? Call the question. Oh, Mrs. Norian, do you have a question? >> No. >> Call the question. >> On the roll, Mr. Del Greco. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Downey. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Genchi. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Moran. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Norian. >> I vote yes except

115for under school activities. I don't vote for myself. For the reimbursement for delegate assembly. >> Mr. Nutley. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Walker. >> Yes. >> Mr. Darian. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Nichols. >> Yes. >> Policy, Mr. Nutley. >> We had some conflicts uh for this uh for this week. So, I'm going to put out a invitation for this coming week for a policy meeting. >> Public relations, Ms. Moran? >> Um there's no update. >> Special education, Mrs. Downey? >> No update. >> Open to the public? I'll say anything again, Ms. Cataldo. >> Thank you for the delicious breakfast. >> You're welcome. Um at this time, any old or new business? >> I have old. Um I just wanted to say thank you to Ms. Bozius and the the administrative staff for helping our second graders

116in Ms. Hook's class successfully throw her a surprise party. They were really thrilled to do that. So, thank you. >> Any other Mrs. Walker? >> Um this I guess it'd be a new update. Um the other night the other day a week ago, Saturday, um the Riverdale performed a uh I guess it was their their dramatic club or drama club or whatever uh put on a wonderful performance of um the chorus line. And I was happy to go and lo and behold, who do I see there but uh Ms. Bozius. And I I thought, isn't that great that here she is on a Saturday afternoon um coming to the the senior high school to see the show. So, um I think we all can be proud that she extends herself not only to what goes

117on here, but also what happens with her student graduates, too. So, thank you. >> You'll be happier and prouder that I didn't start singing, which is what I threatened Dr. Albro would happen. It is my favorite musical. Any other old or new business? >> I make a motion to go into closed session. >> Yeah, I make a motion that we go into closed session. Second. >> Roll call. >> On the roll, Mr. Del Greco. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Downing. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Genchi. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Moran. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Norian. >> Yes. >> Mr. Notlin. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Walker. >> Yes. >> Mr. Darian. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Nichols. >> Yes. No action will be taken.