Board of Education Meeting - Public Session - 5/4/26

001Wood Board of Education. Superintendent Bing, could you please take the roll call? >> Thank you, President Meyer. Uh, board member Jeff Bennett. >> Board member Dedra Brown >> here. >> Board member Elizabeth Callahan >> here. >> Board member Meredith Higgins >> here. >> Board member Bimmel Kapadia. Board President Will Meyer here. >> Board member Melennia Nyard. Board member Shaina Sacket Gable >> here. >> Board member Paul Stefan >> here. And the reps are very good. So we have a quorum. Uh please stand if you're able for the pledge of allegiance. Pledge allegiance to the flag of United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God with liberty and justice for >> indivisible. >> Please take notice. Adequate notice of this meeting was sent on April 29 of 2026

002in the office of the secretary of the board to the Maplewood and South Orange Township clerks and the editors of the news record star ledger tap into Soma and the village green. I will now entertain a motion to enter executive session as permitted under the open public meetings act to discuss personnel legal and miscellaneous confidential matters. No formal action to be taken. Do I have a motion? Board member Sack Gable. Do I have a second? Board member Callahan. All in favor, show of hands is unanimous. Uh the board will now enter executive session at 6:32 p.m. and will be returning to public session. Any action resulting from our discussions will be taken in public session. We'll see you back shortly. Good evening. I would like to call this meeting back to order at 7:04 p.m.

003The board is now back in public session and I thank you for joining us tonight. Uh this is of course our uh final budget adoption meeting. Uh we have been in the in the middle of the budget process since uh we had our preliminary budget meeting toward the end of March. Uh the administration has been uh hard at work in uh trying to work down the numbers from that preliminary budget to uh maximize uh the efficiency of our spend. I think it would be accurate to say and um we have a presentation that is going to go into tremendous detail uh about it. Uh there are copies for folks who are here uh of some of the slides that have smaller numbers uh available in the back for you to take a look at. And

004if you're playing along at home, I know the uh whole budget presentation is going to be posted online shortly if it isn't already for your review. Uh, and with that, I'm going to throw it to Superintendent Bing uh to begin the budget presentation. >> Hey guys, is Frank on? >> Yes, >> it's muted. >> Frank, let me just I'm going to read something real quick and then uh I'll pass it over to you. >> Sure. Uh for the second consecutive year, our district has engaged in an exhaustive lineby-line review of our financial landscape. We have scrutinized every contract, audit, and operational expense, reducing costs wherever possible. However, we have reached a critical junction, having exhausted non-instructional efficiencies. We were forced to shift our focus toward personnel and benefits, the largest drivers of our budget. All

005along we have grounded this work in the student experience in the classroom. Uh at this point we can no longer afford to do things the way we have done in the past. However, as we move forward with some of these difficult decisions, uh our intent is to do them with care and compassion. As we look forward to the next several years, uh we must be transparent about our reality. Future adjustments will inevitably impact student facing areas including staffing levels and educational programming. Um I do want to say we are not navigating these waters alone. Over the past several months we have sought insight and partnership from every corner of our community including our action committees, local partnerships like the municipal partnership, our ex our Essex County organizations, superintendents, principles, BAS, our public forums, town halls,

006board committee meetings and regular board meetings. These conversations have underscored a singular truth. Turning the ship to avoid a fiscal iceberg requires a collective and sustained effort. We cannot solve systemic financial challenges in isolation. It requires the trust and cooperation of the entire community uh to ensure everyone remains informed and engaged. We are leveraging our digital platforms to provide unprecedented access to district data on our website. You will be finding in the next few months financial and academic dashboards uh with real-time snapshots of uh our spending and student outcomes and also strategic planning tracking in addition to uh our academic tracking with a partnership with handover research. Uh we're excited to share that with the community. We'll be bringing those to the committee level over the next couple months and then making those available to

007our public. Uh we remain committed to protecting the integrity of our students education, but the path ahead is difficult. By working together, we can ensure that our fiscal decisions, no matter how tough, are made with the best interests of our children at the center, Frank. I'm going to pass it on to you. >> Okay. Once again, I I apologize. I I actually took the trip uh down to uh show up in person and uh I came down with a nasty cold or something. It feels like it's a little bit more than a cold because uh so Jason and I spoke earlier and we kind of thought it was in the best interest for me to just kind of stay in my little uh remote office down here and give the presentation remotely. So I I

008apologize once again for not meeting you in person, but uh again, you know, this situation is is not ideal for anybody. uh you know, somebody really needs to be present in the district and you know, we're I know the district is making strides toward accommodating that. So, uh, I apologize for not being there in person and I'll do the best that I can, uh, remotely to, uh, explain everything that we need to explain and and go through the PowerPoint and and probably, you know, talk a lot outside the PowerPoint, uh, for to explain some of the stuff that that we put together and some of the stuff that that that I'm seeing because I'm really, as much as I've been involved, I I can give you an an unbiased outsider uh, uh, look into kind

009of what I see in the district and I I I do see a lot of good things and I I see some areas that we need to continue to focus on and that shouldn't be a shock to anybody that that's sitting here. Um so, uh I guess I can't control the slide, right? So, I have to give a clue for the next slide. Is that where we're doing this? >> Correct. >> Okay, next slide, please. Uh this is a repeat for anybody that has uh that sat through the the tenant of budget and some of the slides we put up together because some people didn't sit as part of this uh initial budget presentation and you know an archive will be will be typically put together of of the final budget presentation. So this was

010a good slide that that was put together and it it talks about you know uh the resources that we do have and trying to use those resources wisely and we spent quite a bit of time trying to figure out the best way to spend the limited resources because as we know that 2% or those caps uh really kind of limit what we can do. We have a number you know we have we have a growing fluctuating enrollment. We have a lot of infrastructure needs. We have a lot of facility needs. Uh we have rising costs in a number of areas. Uh you know, we have special education here, but health insurance has been just a a monster for every single district across the state to deal with. And um you know, luckily we we were

011able to make an adjustment to our budget for specifically for health insurance. we we can get into. But, you know, that comes at a cost and it's a real cost that we have to pass on to taxpayers and it's something that that is it is breaking budgets everywhere and it needs to be addressed on a on a higher level because we can't continue down this road. Um, we have continued technology infrastructure updates. We're trying to we're constantly trying to stay ahead of the curve with technology. Uh we're trying to to implement systems that is going to make things easier. We're trying to protect ourselves. Um I you know I I I got hacked today personally South Orange. So we spent quite a bit of time trying to deal through that and and make sure that

012nothing uh nothing I I didn't get hacked. There was just an attempt to get into my credentials. It was unauthorized. uh but we have multiffactor authorization and I I wouldn't let them I wouldn't authenticate but I kept getting the request to authenticate and so technology your tech department uh actually was spot on and got involved and we changed everything before anybody could get in. So uh technology is a continual evolving uh uh um area of the budget that we need to address and of course we have mental uh health and security initiatives. Um so these are all the the challenges that we're facing and we have limited taxing capacity. uh we have bank cap that we have to deal with and we have fixed state aid limits and in our case we also have uh

013the fact that we're not being fully funded and we're being we're being held down from our entitlements which is something I'll get into a little bit later but it's you know it's affecting the community it's affecting our tax base. Uh next slide please. Um, we we uh I didn't create this slide, but it's a it's a profound slide that we talk about. You know, we we've all talked about and the state has battled with our current our current funding model and, you know, property taxes being the basis for for deciding how much people can pay and how much can they they can afford. Um, as long as I've been in this business, we've talked about uh moving away from a property taxbased model and uh there's really no progress that's ever been made because nobody

014really wants to touch this. Nobody wants to touch the funding formula. We all know that the funding formula is flawed. Uh there have been attempts to try and fix it. There have been attempts to fund it and all of those attempts have fallen flat. Um, but we talk about the growing list of New Jersey districts. Uh, extremely challenging 26 27. Every time you open up the paper or you read an article, it's about another district that's been forced to sell a school that's been forced to to to implement massive layoffs to balance the budget. Uh, and it all relates to, you know, just about every district we can find talks to health insurance and that that increase. Uh, we have rising energy, we have rising health care costs. uh we we never know what's happening

015on the federal level with our funding uh that we have to account for. Uh our district has aging facilities. Um and every district around us has has challenges with transportation which we believe we've done a we've done a decent job at trying to to reap back or claw back some funds that that were being spent on transportation uh by providing that transportation more efficiently. Um, next slide. Uh, this is a repeat from the first the first slide. It's a talk about the fiscal efficiencies that we've had to find to balance the budget. Um, we've done a lot of contract analysis. Uh, and hopefully we will reap the benefits of that contract analysis. There's a lot of things on the table right now. We're currently out to bid for our existing power professional contract uh which

016we spent almost $7 million on last year. Uh we are out to bid for our custodial services which were worth about $6 million. We're currently putting together a sec uh we're finalizing the draft of the the bid specs for security. We're finalizing the bid specs for our TNM vendors. Uh we're negotiating with a lot of our professionals for related services to try and keep the same level of services and clawbacks some prices. Um we've had an audit done of our buildings uh to really come up with an independent evaluation of the true square footage that should be um that needs to be addressed and the efficiency standards of how much each cleaning staff member should be able to clean. So, we're do we're looking at an overall reduction of I think uh eight full-time equivalent

017cleaning staff members and two part-time cleaning staff members. Uh again, it's it's not a riff per se, but because it's a contracted service, but we're looking to do uh the same amount of work with less contracted staff for next year. Um we're looking to do the same the same amount with our paras. We're looking we're asking for um more efficiencies in that contract. So those contracts are out to bid right now. We actually have a bid opening in two days and we're hoping that we will have some beneficial results. We've had a lot of interest. We've had pretty big walkthroughs and question and answer sessions. Um so uh our hope is that the competition will breed some decent prices and we'll be able to come back at the end of the month and make recommendations

018that will uh um that will reap those those rewards. Um we talked about transportation. We talked about uh you know changing the bell schedules to really uh let us run those routes more effectively and efficiently. Uh not only providing a cost savings but also providing you know having less buses on the road. Uh having the bus routes be shorter in duration and just overall improve the efficiency and hopefully improve that operation from an efficiency standpoint. And also uh you know we'll be able to to reduce some routes. Uh we're talking about reducing upwards of 15 roots. So again it's not it's not our employees because we subcontracted those but but next year there will be 13 to 15 less roots and less drivers on the roads uh for our district. So that that uh is

019a savings that we can hope to uh reap the benefit from. Uh we're about to do a procurement for um energy monitoring uh which will hopefully uh uh reap benefits over the next three to five years. Uh we've implemented a 25 uh current year budget freeze which will free up funds and we've built in about $3.8 million in funding in savings from the current year that we're unfortunately have to use to balance next year's budget. And uh last but not least, we've as of January 1st, we went to a self-funded model uh for our insurance. Um our expected claims is that we're expected to save money over the state uh health benefits plan and to help uh defay another, you know, double-digit increase in health benefits. You'll see later in the presentation that that line

020is still going up because we do have to protect ourselves. But again, we will only pay for any claims that have been incurred. we're able to dial into those claims, not necessarily the employees that are using it, but see the types of claims that are being incurred and we'll be able to proactively monitor those claims uh and and hope that we'll achieve savings um above and beyond what our our premium would be just in a self- insurance and a regular fully insured plan through the self-insured plan. >> Frank, just real quick around the uh energies because we had some questions around that. So right now in this year's budget uh we have uh the how, where and when. So we're looking to partner with a company that would come on and really work around our

021culture around energy. The how, when, and where. Um EIP, which we have to bring in an audit, which we plan on doing. They have to audit what we currently do. Usually takes anywhere from two to three months. Uh and they present their findings. Uh that's the what right the changing of the lights uh the solar things of that nature. So in this year's budget we we we have the how the what I'm sorry the how the when the where we use energy uh as we move into 2627 and start going down the EIP route. Uh we'll get that self audit uh from a third third party audit and self audit uh get those results and then move forward to the what what needs to be replaced. >> Yeah. and Jason that that that ball is

022in the work because I I've sat in and I' I've seen some emails. I know we we have our energy accounts all uploaded. Uh so we're in the process of of creating that account so that we can have the audit conducted and then the results of that audit to your point will kind of we'll show where we can save some some money and potentially do some energy savings improvement programs. Um, and we all know just from sitting around that that our biggest, you know, the the biggest consumption is the lights that are in the schools. And that's usually a lowhanging fruit in the EIP world that, you know, we we rebalanced and we reamp and we we we put more efficient lighting. And if you think of how many how many classrooms we have and

023how many fixtures we have, that's a huge energy savings that that we can then take that savings and use it to help put some more energy efficient uh measures in place. So, you know, EIEPS have been effective in in other places. So, so again, down the road as you start to look to that, it it can definitely um you know, I don't know that you you will reap the savings, but you'll be able to take that energy savings and you'll be able to to make some improvements to your facilities to help make them more energy efficient, and the savings will help to pay for those those improvements. Um, next slide. These are some of the things we talked about. Again, this is a carryover. Uh we you know we the electronic PO system can't be

024overlooked of how how big of a deal that was to to implement in this district because purchase orders uh the purchase orders the creation and that's the source of everything that that that gets entered into the system and that creates an incumbrance against your line items and those requisitions and the timely input of requisitions and managing those requisitions are key for us to really get a handle on our expenditures and really get up-to-date financials and up to date. And as we start to to migrate this and we we talked about Jason talked earlier about turnkeying this into a system that would automatically, you know, we'd be able to to export something out of our financial system and then they would have an interface and then it would automatically pull data up into a dashboard on

025our website. Um, but you know, it's only accurate as we have accurate information coming in there. And the electronic PO system was a huge step toward us really really coming up to date and and getting more up-to-date accurate information. Um, that goes handinhand with how we pay our vendors and we establish our incumbrances. Um, the electronic PO system is also dovetailed into electronic budget development system. I think this year was the first year we really fully implemented the budget development system. And again, as we go as we go through this system and and we we spend more time managing this budget development and looking at these reports and looking at how all the accounts are built online from a kind of a zerobased and all the information is built into every single line and then

026we compare that to what's been expended the previous few years and what's been being charged there currently. um that system, you know, takes a little bit of time to develop, but once you develop that system and continue to tweak it, you'll again, you'll have more efficient and you'll have more effective data and you'll be able to make better decisions based on the reports you're looking at because they'll all line up from from this this system. Um you would implement an electronic paycheck system. Um you we we can dubtail into positive pay. Uh our district twice in the last two years has been a subject of of checkashing and we've had theft. You know right now all the theft that's occurring if we go back to technology theft occurs uh electronically now. We were fortunate enough

027uh and I I say fortunate, we were actually proactive um to be able to recoup all those funds uh and not really have a true loss to the district uh which is better than what has happened in in some other of our our surrounding districts. And it really the the second one u before on top and because we're reconciling we're taking care of things in the back end u they noticed a check that hadn't that was cashed uh really quickly and were able to alert the authorities and the authorities were able to jump on that and catch the perpetrators before uh they were able to totally totally wash those funds out of the bank accounts. So, uh, that was a lot of thanks to do with, uh, the business office staff and being proactive and

028vigilant and reconciling on a timely basis to be able to notice that and see that. Um, but we've since put additional, uh, steps in place uh, called a pay positive payment. So that now we upload files when we when we do write checks and it not only has the check number and the check amount, but it also has the payee. So whenever we write a check, we have to separately upload a file to the bank and if a c a check goes to get cashed, they independently verify all three items and won't release a check unless all three match and it's just another enhanced control for us to to prevent fraud. Um, budget forecast and analysis, it's something we've relied heavily on. Uh it's actually something that that I had been working in the back

029end for the district about you know uh you know we say this tonight I know there was a question that came up in another venue you know the minute we approve this budget it's out of date so u the next piece is taking this budget and looking at what we presented on each one of these lines and then analyzing what's happening in the district and aligning it to the budget and matching everything together That is the key for us to be able to identify if we have shortfalls, identify surpluses that could be used in other places and to make sure that we remain solvent. We remain v v uh vigilant and if we do see changes between what was Listen, the budget's going to change. The budget we approved tonight, I'm telling you right now,

030is going to change a lot between uh the start of the school year, throughout next school year, and to next June. And we're allowed to, you know, we the state knows that we're changing our budget constantly. We have constant pressures that we need to manage. What we can't change is the state aid that we're given and the the amount that we can raise by taxes. Those things are locked. So we need to balance everything proactively and identify, analyze and forecast these budgets. That is the hugest thing we need to do moving forward. Um I think I already touched about the RFPs, but the RFPs that are that have already hit the street and the RFPs the next wave that will hit the street in the next week or two. Um, we've really we're really taking

031some time to understand what those RFPs are to write them a little bit more efficiently. And it's also been a good process for the stakeholders who were involved in the RFP development because um, almost to a tea, none of the managers that were involved the last time the RFPs were put out in the street are involved now. So, it's really good for them to see the nuts and bolts and the and all the language that's involved and to have input on on what we want to hold our vendors accountable for, what we want to be able to consider as acceptable work and unacceptable work. Um, so it's been really it's been a really good exercise, I believe, for the people that are on the back end, the managers looking at these specs to get them

032to understand and now have a hand in what's being put out on the street for the RFPs. Um, that's uh that was that slide. I think I think I I beat that one up pretty good. So, next slide. We talked a little bit about this the transition to the the self- insurance plan. Uh, our our health insurance is worth about $30 million to this district. It is a it is a big number. It's bigger than a lot of other districts uh entire operating budget. and we need to track this. Uh we moved away to our own self- insurance plan. So we pay for claims that are incurred by all of our employees. Uh we have reinsurance above and beyond so that uh if an employee unfortunately has a a massively large event, uh there's another

033insurance policy that kicks in that doesn't get so it doesn't get credited against our ongoing claims. uh we matched uh the existing policy and we did have you know and listen anytime you transition a plan with you know 800 employee and you know 700 700 people who have insurance uh we do have some kinks but having sat on the outside and really come in in in March when we were three months into the implementation I have to say on the outside it's been a very successful implementation because I've heard very little um very little has reached my desk and if there were significant problems um it would have reached my desk uh with the the actual conversion of the plan. So I think it was a successful conversion um and the piece that we're really

034monitoring now is we're really just starting because there's a lag. We're really starting to get claims data now and we believe it's going to be about a six-month lag before we can really start seeing meaningful data and being able to understand how that's going to impact uh our our plan. And unfortunately um you know we needed to establish a health insurance budget for next year before we had 100% reliable data. So um we made some estimates with the help of our broker and the help of our trends and you know we put a figure in that we feel comfortable for next year that will cover us um for you know for what we expect our claims to be for next year. Um that's pretty much uh what what I wanted to say about the health

035insurance plan. So, next slide. Jason, I know you threw this one together and if you wanted to hit this one presentation, >> we just we wanted to uh pull out the fact that we are taking advantage of of the tax levy waiver this time around. uh it is a one-time uh waiver, so it will not be available for upcoming years. Um in our case, and Frank, correct me if I'm wrong, about $5 million. >> Yeah. >> Um that really helped closing close our gap. Um this in all uh transparency goes on the shoulders of our taxpayers. So, I thank them for taking this on. Again, is it a one-time event? So if I am looking forward 2728 we are already in a $5 million gap because this will not be available during then. So again

036I do want to thank our taxpayers for taking this extra burden on uh but it did tremendously help us close our gap this year. and and and if we didn't if we did not get this if we did not get this waiver and we did not >> we did not agree to pass this cost on it would have been another $5 million in reductions >> and and it would have been a lot more impactful to the program. So this is that this is the balance that we try and strike. And unfortunately um you know we're we're taking things into our own hands and we've moved away from that self-insured we've moved away from the fully insured plan to a self-insured plan so that we can control and we can really control and be responsible for

037our own claims but without being able to do this. Um, and we can only do this with the state's allowance for the adjustment because they see that this is a problem and they've allowed everybody to adjust their budgets uh and pass an increase tax on to their constituents. Um, but without being able to do this, we would have looking to cut another $5 million out of >> and just to clarify, it's not a 29.9% increase. It was that's uh what the state ended up the state health plan ended up increasing. uh as we've been discussing for months, we were getting the uh data that it would be anywhere from 25 to 37%. It landed on 29.20 29.9%. >> Yeah. And Jason, that was probably a timely timely to discuss that, but when we apply for

038that adjustment, um we were actually able to uh use another $450,000 in taxing authority, more than what we used, and we chose not to. So when they when the state gives you that card or the they allow you to pass on up to a certain amount, uh we only use 5.176 of it and the additional $450,000 goes away forever. We're not we're not we're not able to bank that and use that in future years. But we felt, you know, it's a it's a it's that's the challenge between how much you raise and how much you use to balance your budget and how much you pass on to the taxpayers. So, we are foregoing about $450,000 worth of taxing authority specifically for healthcare in next year's budget. Um, next slide. So, it's really interesting because from

039an from an from an outside what I see on my screen, I can't even see the board table anymore. So, I can't even see if anybody's sleeping or, you know, making comments or rolling their eyes at all the stuff I'm saying. I don't know if that's good or bad, but it's I feel like I'm talking to uh nobody right now. Um >> we're really engaged, Frank. We're really loving this. Keep going. >> No, I think this is I think this is Jason's. Uh well, I know he >> we've been talking about this for a while. So, one of our bigger items we looked at for the 2627 budget obviously was transportation. This has been a yearslong conversation as Frank noted. Uh some of these changes came along with a time and start and stop times.

040Uh we've been working with folks around that. I think we've landed in a good position. We'll continue to do some work for that before finalizing. Um we also did a strategic shift to a three- tiered busing system that allows 35 minutes in between each tier. um which should eliminate uh the excessive tardiness we've been experiencing uh over the last five plus years. Um we're also going towards one vendor. So we are working with only one vendor instead of the three to five that we have worked with over the last five plus years. So this should allow for uh a much stronger partnership moving forward and a lot more accountability uh from the company. We are pairing that with uh new GPS technology uh for real time real-time access uh to every trip for our transportation

041department uh as well as real time access for parents for their children's bus routes um without having a company be 50% in in control of that technology which that has really been the issue for the past year. Um, on our end, uh, it may be working, uh, technology-wise, but on their end, it may be a piece of equipment that needs to be repaired that may take anywhere from a month to 3 months. Um, so, and on on their end, there really isn't a sense of urgency to to repair. It's just a cost. So, uh, for us, we're going with a more portable system which relies, uh, on a, um, iPad system, um, that all bus drivers will be given as they go onto their bus. It also provides our bus drivers with turn, uh, turn

042navigation. Um, so if we do have a substitute driver, they'll be able to rely on the tablet right off the bat. Uh, we did bring uh, in-house routing in when we hired Sandra, so we're excited about that. We've paired that uh and put we'll put those routes uh that she's been working on with Belair which is our single provider now for our main routes. Um those should be done within the next week week or two. They will go to our board committee. Uh then go through our uh transportation committee. Uh then we'll uh look to get some eyes from the public on those and hopefully have those ready to go a month to a month and a half before we normally do um moving forward. Sandra's already started dry runs. She uh was on buses

043last week twice. This upcoming week she'll be going on three times. Um and as noted previously um we're going to a single provider really for our main routes which should make life a lot easier for us. So we're excited and again the um words are wonderful. It's actually the action that's going to count. Uh so we are trying to dot our eyes and cross all the tees so we will be prepared for September when we launch busing. >> Yep. And and uh just just two things. You know I I know that it's not perfect if we have to adjust starting and stop times and and there's going to be changes and changes are sometimes difficult to implement. But if we can save a million and a half dollars and run our buses more efficiently and

044save money and also have the the routes be more precise and have the routes be shorter and eliminate a lot of the other non-fiscal problems, it's really a no-brainer to to take that route and help us to to preserve the amount of money that we need to reduce out of the budget and run a more efficient practical operation which should eliminate A lot of the a lot of the problems that we've experienced over the last few years. Um, you know, us us buying our own GPS technology is not in the grand scheme of things, it's not overly expensive. I think it's about $30,000 and we own it. So this way if we have an issue, we can fix it. Um and if we were not locked into using only vendors that you know the other

045the other system was was it it it involved a lot of input on the vendors part. Um, so if we do find ourselves in a situation where we have to quote other routes, we have to quote routes or we have an issue with a vendor and we need to go out to bid, um, that takes that off the table because we don't have to use a vendor that has this specific GPS technology. They just have to agree to allow us to put our technology in their buses and we maintain the technology. We maintain the data. We m we maintain we take ownership over whether it's working or not. So, for a for a small I want to say it's a 30 or $35,000 investment, it's well worth the money for us to do it. And

046we're in the process of getting those quotes now for the hardware. We've already received the quote for the software. Uh so we should be really good to go by the time uh you know we need to use this. Uh next slide. So, I need to explain this and and I I probably should have prefaced the beginning of the conversation with um we have to present the budget that was submitted to the county that was approved and that was approved for advertising. Um because that is the budget that was approved by the county and the county the county is basically the arm of the state saying we've reviewed your budget and we allow you to use this budget and present it and you have to present this budget at the public hearing. So this is the

047pre this is the budget that was adopted. This is the tenative budget. This was the revenue screen of the tenative budget that we have to present. um we have some changes that that have actually were beneficial. So I don't really want to spend any time on the budget that we did present uh other than to say that it it was represented a it broke the $200 million barrier. I'll put it at that. Um it had our tax impact of 5.63% and it had a total general funded increase of 2.27%. Um, next slide. So that was the revenue side. This was the expenditure side. And again, the revenues need to match the expenditures. You can see that our general fund is up 2.27%. Our total budget's up 2.96%. These are the categories that the state has

048its report. Um, and you can see the increases and decreases from one budget to the next. But this is the pre-budget. Uh so I just want to kind of go to the next slide um and give you a little bit of good news that is is hard to find these days. Um so for those of you who are on the board know that we have been battling the state with the preschool funding. Uh preschool is funded in a couple of different areas. The state contributes a certain dollar amount and then the state makes the district contribute a certain dollar amount. And for the last several years, the state the our local contribution has been increasing. Um you know and again we have we have all new people. So so a lot of this is new

049people not really understanding how this whole thing worked. And it's compounded by the fact that the state's own budget document when it gets to the calculation for this the local contribution the cells for the calculation are hidden. So when we first started looking at this, I went to go back and I went to try and tie the cells out and it was referencing columns that I couldn't see. So we had to unlock this whole thing and and to get an understanding for how this whole piece worked. Um so during this whole appeal process when they when they originally denied the appeal, it went back to the state and they said, you know, you guys caused this problem because you don't even show how the calculations are formed because you hide all that data from everybody.

050So, you know, if you want to blame anybody, you can blame yourself partially because you don't fully show how the calculations are being made. So, um, in in March, we filed an official request to the state to say, um, we basically have to buy seats in the preschool program for our own students with special needs. Uh, it took a while to to boil it down to that that simplistic of a term. So as as we have been pulling these numbers in um it calculates your contribution. So if those seats never get filled by special education students um you basically once that number is locked in the board has to basically take that whole dollar amount and transfer it over and if the kids never show up you pay for the seats anyway. I you know

051that whole the fundamental basis of that process makes no sense but that's the way the preschool program works. That's the way the funding model works. So when we found out in March that that's how it worked. And we we did an analysis of the actual students that we would have to pay for, we noticed that there was a a delta of about 25 students at a cost of almost $19,000 a kid that we were paying for that we never used. So, we filed an appeal, a very wellthoughtout appeal that was put together by your your preschool director, and uh the state reviewed it and sent us an acknowledgement back saying that they heard us, but that they wouldn't let us change our own numbers. And uh we we we fought tooth and nail to the

052state and we finally on April 9th, we were notified that our appeal was successful. And as a result, it freed up an additional $457,000 that we had to allocate toward our contribution toward the preschool program and that it lowered that line item for the contribution. Um the net result of that is that we uh the SLT met again and looked at all the budget reductions that we made across the board and made a recommendation to reinstate about $328,000 of those reductions. Uh the other 19 $139,000 went directly back toward tax relief. So it was a balance of not just taking everything and reinstating everything. Um there was also some sensitivity that that uh we should pass some of that savings back on to the taxpayers. So that was the net result and the next slide.

053Um is it Jason? I don't know if you want to uh look at this guy, but >> yeah know we we spoke about this briefly at the preliminary. This is pretty fluid. retirements or resignations is a fluid process. Uh so this is a time stamp. Right now we're at uh 21 total positions being eliminated. For 14 of those are through natural attrition as I noted, retirements, resignations, and transfers. Uh and seven of those are reduction in force, meaning positions not being filled. That is our current snapshot right now. >> Yep. And and I know that, you know, there was a comment made that other districts are, you know, riffing more staff and that we seem to be not in as bad of a position because we're quote unquote only riffing 21 positions, you know, but

054understand that, you know, we have we have a bid going out for 10 less custodial staff members. We have 15 less bus drivers next year. Um, we're we we're going to have less security aid. So when you start adding that in, there's probably another 30 or 40 subcontracted positions. There's two less therapists. There's probably 30 or 40 more positions that that aren't our employees that are being reduced. So this number is 21 of our staff, but understand that that there are there will be they're working for a contractor or they're working that number is is greater than 21. There's probably another easily another 30 to 35 uh contracted staff members that won't be here next year either that are part of those other reductions. Um, next slide. So, this was one of the slides that

055might be a little bit blurry. I don't I don't know how it looks on your screen. Um, so as I look at this, this is a snapshot. Again, I like to look at the revenues because the revenues are where we're capped. Um, this is the this is the post recommendation. So if you look at the resolution, the resolution, we had to write the way we wrote it. It basically outlines and says, here's our original budget and then we had a successful appeal. It freed up $457,000 and these are all the adjustments we're making. The net result of that is this picture on the revenue side that you see. You can see that the tax increase was lowered. It's now down. It's still 5.53%. Um the health insurance adjustment is now 5.176 million and 3.65%. Uh

056the other one of the other positives about not reinstating all those reductions is that um if we re reinstated some of those some of those came to the tune of health insurance and those health insurance are under the health benefits adjustment and not under our regular 2% cap. So you can see now that our base budget our our base uh tax increase is now only at 1.85% 85% as opposed to the 2%. Um we're $27,000 under cap and that cap can be banked. It's set up to be banked for use in future years. So that frees us up with spending authority that we're not again we're not using it this year. So we're not raising the taxes this year and we're capping we're banking that for use in the next three budget years. So that's

057a huge you know you could say it's only $200,000 but it's $200,000 that can be used and that's a huge win for us. Um, again, our state aid, our categorical state aid went up 6%. Uh, that number uh is still uh 1 point it's almost $1.4 million lower than it should be. And the state sends you the printouts and says, "Here's your entitlement. Here's the six." So, uh, one of the default mechanisms under the state aid formula is that no district can receive either an increase or in a decrease of more or less than 6%. And it was put in place to protect the districts that are losing aid that aren't entitled to the aid and said, "We'll we'll maximize your losses at 6% so you don't get beat up too badly." uh they put

058the opposite in and they hurt every district that's entitled to more state aid and said, "Well, we're going to put this sale this fail safe in at 6% both ways. So, if you're entitled to more money, we're just simply not going to give it to you. We're going to cut you off at 6%." And that's what they did. So, that unfortunately is coming at at the expense of taxpayers to the tune of almost it's 1,377584. I think it's outrageous that the state can do that, but they did it. Um, so it's it's hurting the taxpayers of this community. Um, debt service, we also received debt service state aid. Um, our debt service this year was capped at 85%. So we lost another $498,000 in funding that we're entitled to based on our allocations and the

059calculation that they give us. So we lost another half million. So, we're almost $2 million underfunded uh from state aid in this next year's budget, unfortunately. Um the middle section, you can see that uh you know, last year uh we budgeted almost 15 14.73 million in in reserves and fund balance to to offset last year's budget. Those funds simply aren't there this year. Um, so we are budgeting uh just about $10 million, 10.3 million this year. So we've cut that reliance on fund balance down by a third or uh almost $5 million. So that is one of the reasons why uh taxes are going up because this other pool of money is not here. Um so it was another challenge that we knew last year we were going to face and that's what we had

060to grapple with. So when we're reducing and we're increasing taxes, one of the main reasons is because last year we put so much money in reserves and fund balance to balance the budget. We still have ideally more than than I would personally like to see it, but you can't come you can't go from almost $15 million down to 5 million. You just you can't physically you just it's so hard to do. But hopefully next year as we put next year's budget together um this number gets reduced more and this number gets cut in half and you'll see later we did some projections I don't think you can really lower it that much more than that but um but an idea for next year would be to really you know cut this reliance down because you're

061it's going to be a natural byproduct because you're not going to generate the money so you're going to have less to appropriate it so this problem will help to resolve itself But it will mean that we'll have another set of reductions next year to meet that 2% gap. Um, our total operating budget, and I'll get into this in a little bit, our total our total operating budgets only of 2.18%. Um, which I think is, you know, again, your total costs are reflective in what happened. And and our our tax impact is going up. Um, and when we get to the next slide, I'll explain a little bit more, but our total expenditures, and this is the way we control costs, is we limit how much we can spend. And I think we've done a yman's

062job uh doing that this year. And again, that was a that was a group effort. It was not easy. It was hours and hours and hours of work. It was relentless analysis of all these line items to try and recapture these numbers and recapture these costs. And the net result is that we're surviving on a 2% increase in our expenditures. Um, next slide. So this one again, these are all the states categories. And if you look at our chart of accounts, our chart of accounts breaks into each one of these lines. We have about 1,600 budgetary lines that all roll up into these different areas. And you can see what was proposed in 2425, what was proposed in 2526, and what was proposed in 2627. You can see here um our general fund is up

0632.18. Our current expense, which is uh everything but equipment and and capital, is up 2.28%. It's up $3.8 million. So, if you look at the the change, you can see the pluses and minuses. You'll see the big plus is employee benefits. So, even though we self-funded, our employee benefits line is up almost 29%. Um, again, we hope that we're not going to spend everything we budgeted in health insurance, but we need to protect ourselves. But you can see that to in order to get to cover that $6.4 4 million increase. Um we've had to reduce all of these lines to get there. You can see big reductions in the maintenance of plant. Um nobody wanted to do that. Um but but we had to come up with this money somewhere. So we made a lot

064of reductions. You can see a net reduction in transportation. You can see reductions in instructional staff training. You can see reductions in in general administration. and you'll see reductions across the board um to cover those big increases. So, we have the details on on all these different lines of what the pluses and minuses are, but when we show it on an advertised level, this is what gets advertised and what's get gets presented. Um, interestingly enough, as you start to look at 2 years, so you can see now from 24 to 25, 24-25 to 2526, regular programs instruction went up 4.8 million. Special ed went down 2 million. Well, this year we re we've almost reversed it. And this is, you know, when I presented that the initial budget, I didn't realize it from looking at

065this, but we've almost reversed the increases and decreases that were made in 2526 over 2425. So, you can see that regular programs went up 4.8 million, now it's going down 3.3. Special ed 2 million, now it's going up 1.5. These line for line almost is almost the reverse. uh facilities. An infusion was made into facilities last year. It went from 15.9 million to 20.4. It went up $4.5 million. We need to lower that back down by $2.5 million. Employee benefits went down $300,000 and now it's going up. So, it's a it's it's the exact seessaw opposite. Our total general fund budget went up last year almost $10 million. And if you looked at the tax side, um, do me a favor. Can you go back a slide before? So, if you look at our general

066fund, our general fund went from our taxes went from 138 to 141. So, it went up I think 2%. I I'm not sure because I don't have the percentage here, but I think it went up 2%. But our whole budget went up, you know, almost 10%. Now, our taxes are going up, but our budget's going down because we're trying to write a line and we're trying to correct um this moving forward. So, go back to the next slide for a second. So, you can see all these general categories. Again these categories when we met in committee and we we shared this information with the board members uh these are almost all the different cost centers attended social work health services speech OT PT guidance improvement of instruction but these are the state defined categories that

067we track and the reason why we were going to the state supplied categories is that when we start to move and we start to migrate and we look to put that agent in that reports this we need to report it in a format that that can be output by the program without us having to manipulate all the data. So this format and these programs and that the budget projection reports that have been shared are all in that format that can just be simply created and and output um in this format. So we can see and we can kind of compare and contrast. And as we start to talk about some comparative spending and and and look at those areas, it's all based on these metrics and these these cost analyses. Um, next slide. So the

068next slide looks just like the first slide except it's a fiveyear look ahead. It's a f well it's a fiveyear look back. So what I did is I took all those categories and I pulled out your advertised budget from 2122 and I said, "Okay, where were we five years ago versus where are we now?" So you can see regular instruction was at 42 million. We're at 47 million. It's hard to really look at these numbers. What I like to do is say, okay, what percentage of your budget was it in in 2122? So in 2122, we were at 29.87% 87% of the budget. 26 27 were at 27% of the budget. So, we've lost a few percentage um regular instruction has taken less um has it's it's it's a smaller proportion of our budget than

069it was 5 years ago. Um and that's not necessarily a good thing, but again, we have to make up we have to make up for the outliers. Um I've tried to group these things together. You can look down personal services employee benefits. It was $18 million 5 years ago. It's $28 million um in 2627. It was 13% of your budget now. It's 16.5% of your budget now. So, it's creeped up. It's crept up three and a half%. It's it's it's that much larger a piece. And it's come at the expense of all these other areas. Um special education. We've talked a lot about special education. I personally thought this was interesting. So everything that's shaded blue is special education. It's your direct instructional costs of special education. It's your tuition of out of district. There

070are some regular out of district placements uh that we we send to vocational technical schools, but it's it's such a small dollar amount that it's it's not really uh wouldn't really have an impact on this. Um extraordinary services weren't being tracked in the district. Uh they're being tracked now. So it went from zero to 2.5 million. And that's basically um a lot of your onetoone uh addition your onetoone Paris uh child study team was at 2.7. It's now at 4.1. But when you add up all of the blue, so child study team was 1.95% of the budget. Now it's 2.41%. Direct special ed was 11.5. It's 11.03. at a district tuition which is this was a huge number for me to see. I mean five years ago you spent you had budgeted 13.2 million it

071was 9% of your budget at a district tuition is 13 million almost to the penny it's now only 7.77%. If I were to compare you to probably any other district I've seen I've seen the exact reversing trend. So whatever you're doing here um again if you reduce if you reduce your need on out of district your other areas increase right because you need to handle these kids you need to either provide supplement supplemental instruction direct instruction um but your overall expenditures on special education it's almost eerily the same dollar same percent of your budget you're at 22.82% of your budget and you're at 22.66% 66% of your budget. I I mean that is uh in the world that we live in, the world that I've seen over the last few years. I just wanted to

072point that out because that is a that is a huge win for this district because most districts their overall special education costs over the last couple years have have skyrocketed and spiraled especially postcoid. Um so whatever has happened here is a positive thing for the district. Again, I don't know the details. I'm just looking at the aggregate numbers um bunching in those areas. Improvement of instruction, you were 2.4 million. You're at 2.467. You're right where you need to be. Uh educational media services, uh you were you were at 0.94, you're 1.38. Um your instructional staff training, uh has increased. You know, how much we spend to run our schools. Um it's in these four categories. It's in general administration, which is a superintendent's office, but it's also other things that the state consider administration like

073legal and and and interest on some of our lease purchase agreements. Uh some of the things that they lump in to be included as administrative costs. I don't truly believe that they're administrative in nature, but but every district has to report it that way. So, we lump them into these areas. When you look at the aggregate costs, uh we're at seventh. We were at 7.4% of the budget um in 2122. We're now at 6.63% of the budget. And you know, on a larger basis, for those people that are familiar with numbers, um we're we're spending less than 7% on administration in this in this district, which is I think it's a huge deal. Um, one of the other things that we have to do is we we're limited for administrative costs and it's a it's

074a it's a calculation that the state put in when they put all the spending in and all the accountability regs is they limited how much you could spend on administration and there's a calculation buried in the district. It says you're not allowed to spend um more than your prior years per pupil cost or the administrative limit. In my previous district, uh we were very heavy administration because we were a high school district only and you know your high school districts are more administrative he administratively heavy than your districts that have elementary schools and middle schools. So we always struggle with administrative costs, but uh the state gives you a calculation and they give you a limit each year for how much you can spend. Um that limit is for next year is $2,978 per pupil.

075Um this district came in at $2,97 per pupil. It's $881 per pupil and we have an estimated enrollment of 6,700 kids. So our district is $5.93 million almost $6 million less in aggregate spending than when we're allowed to spend under the administrative cost limits. That's a huge number. So, I just wanted you to kind of get that number in your in your head to to see that not only have our administrative costs been decreasing in the aggregate that but they're less than 7% of your overall operating budget and they're also almost $6 million less than what the limit is for administrative costs. So, I think that was a that was a positive number. Um, you can see this again. Uh, our employee benefits were at 13% of the budget. We're now at 16 and a

076half% of the budget. This is what is hurting everybody. It really something has to change. Um so that's kind of the five-year look back and I I just think it kind of gives you some useful information to see again this is budget to budget where we were five years ago in terms of our budget and where we are now for next year's presented budget. Um next slide. So this is the tax impact and we have a very very unique uh you're one of a handful of districts that uh is not is not a regional it's not a sending receive but it's a one budget shared by two communities. So each community uh it's a it's a portion there's a tax aortionment and the we use the equalized values to tell you how much gets charged

077to each each school or each town and I think it's 5743. Uh I had to refer to another document because I don't uh yes so for 2026 57.56% uh gets charged to Maplewood and 42.44% gets charged to South Orange. Uh Mr. Bennett isn't here, but uh he actually had that pinned down before we did the calculation because he's been tracking it year after year and says that's pretty much in line with what's happened um in previous years. So the only thing that we can this calculates now again we have our budget our budget is on a school year basis. So our budget runs from July 1st to June 30th. Uh the municipalities run on a calendar year basis. So in order to get to the 2026 calendar year, it takes half of the budget from

0782526 and half of the budget from 2627. Um this is our general fund, the amount that we need from the general fund. What's increased from 2025 calendar year to 2026 calendar year. How much we need from debt service. It it gives us our total amount. So you can see for South Orange our the total amount that we need is 65,66993. Um the total amount that we need um from Maplewood is 89676179. the totals total our total calendar year tax. Um our average assessed property values um our average assessed property values went up and we take our calculation. We basically take the amount that we need for taxes. We come up with our tax rate. We we divide it by multiply it by average assessed value and we come up with a new tax the tax

079needs. So unfortunately uh we have an increase of $549 in South Orange and an increase of $720. This is for the theoretical person uh assessed at you know $880 493 uh in South Orange and 810 282 um in Maplewood and there's a disparity and we're always going to see that disparity. We can't control how the breakout between the two communities. Uh, and then we can't control we can't control ratables. We can't control the average assessed value. We can only control how much we need to raise in taxes, but we need to report it. So when we report it, we're reporting it and we're we're giving that breakout into the average homeowner for the calendar year. But again, the only thing that we can control on a school year is how much we need to raise

080our taxes. And that number for us is is that oh look back at this guy. That number for us is the 5.53% um tax increase. This is how it breaks out to the two communities and for the average home owners. And all that stuff is beyond, you know, our district's control, but we we do need to report that. Um next slide. Okay. The next slide I heard was blurry. We tried doing some, you know, technology is great, AI is great, all this stuff is great, except when you try and put a PDF into a PowerPoint presentation. You know, nobody's figured that out yet. I guess nobody likes nobody likes PDFs. And uh we we've tried all different iterations to try and make this uh more clear and and we we blow it up. So when

081we go into uh the PowerPoint presentation, they don't recognize PDFs. So we have to save it as an image and then we have to blow it up as an image and then when we try and enhance it to make it more clear, it changes the numbers because it doesn't seem as numbers. So um we this is about the maximum we can do to make it clear without um changing numbers and and skewing things. So if this is if this is still not clear enough, let me know and I have another screen that I can pull up on mine and I can show you some of these numbers. Uh it's just an analysis of the state does a taxpayer guide to educational spending. They put it out every year. Um they usually put it out in

082the spring and I went in as late as today to take a look for it. The 2425 taxpayer guide to educational spending even though we're sitting here and it's May is not posted yet. So it's not completed yet. So when when we talk about actual spending, the latest year that we have and the latest that's posted is the 23 24 year. Um but when we look at this, I kind of put some of this information together several months ago and I thought that some of the information was was interesting because this is not our comparison. This is the state. The state put the taxpayer guide, the educational spending together so that they could put a metrics that districts could kind of use this as a tool to kind of compare themselves against other districts in

083their in their uh constituency. So in our particular uh group uh and again in my previous district we used to take this and we used to mirror this against quote unquote our peer districts and you know the people that we compared ourselves with because you know there were in our group there were 47 but we didn't really compare ourselves to all 47. We took like eight or 10 of them and then we would track this and we would trend it and we would look at it. Again it's just another tool. It's not data that you put together. Um, so you can't be accused of being biased and it's just another way to look at things to look from an outside perspective and see where where we where we compare favorably and where we compare unfavorably.

084So I did kind of a version of that, but your our district is grouped in with uh 95 other districts. So there's 96 people in this group. One of the things that I look to look at is here's the budgetary peral cost. Um again we were at 52 um in our 2223 and in 232 24 we were at 49. So and then our budget was at 41. So the nice thing about this is that it's trending downwards. But I use this as kind of the baseline when I'm looking and I'm saying, "Okay, well, if our if our if our budgetary cost of everything is at 52 and 49 and 41, then as long as we're in that area for our other because the other the other indicators are like their supplemental calculations based on this

085budgetary per pupil cost. So you can see here we were ranked 52nd for our per pupil cost our budgetary indicator one total classroom instruction we were at 73. So we were we were 21 spots higher as compared to our 96 in our 96 uh district cohort. We were we were our classroom instruction was 21 spots higher than our overall prop pupil. I guess you can say that if you want your your class your money going somewhere, you want to go into the classroom. So I think this is a good indicator because you were higher. Now you can see that it was it it had decreased. If we go further and I would suggest that, you know, this is another piece of data that's looked at whether it's your budget advisory committee or another committee, you

086kind of just plot this number and you just track it and you look at it and you look for trends. But I saw this as a positive thing because we were we're higher than our we're higher than uh our overall cost in our peer group. Salaries and benefits were lower. And I I think that you'll also see here that our classroom purchase services were almost pegged at the top. We're 94th and 95th respectively. That's because we subcontract out almost everything. So by that nature, um salaries and benefits are going to be lower than our peer group and they're going to be higher here, but we're right at the top. So um you know, this this made sense to me as I start and I think it'll start making sense to the the board in the

087community when you're looking at this, but our overall combined the combined cost of our salaries and benefits and our purchase professional services, we're still at the upper third of the range as compared to our overall Um, our support services are a little bit under, not alarmingly under. Um, salaries and benefits, I get again, they're less than that. There's not a separate indicator for support services, purchase services, but we probably spend more in purchase services and less in salaries and benefits. Um, our total administration, we were right on par. We were at 50 here, our actual versus 52. And we were at 34 actual. We actually went down a few spots as compared to our peer group because our peer group our total classroom spending went down to 49. They only lost three but our total

088administration we dropped 16 spots. So that means there was a there was a there was a pivot that year in our administration versus all of our peer districts. Uh our legal uh we're higher. Uh you can see that this is where these metrics pop out. You know we've talked about our legal expenses being higher. Again, my previous district, we battle this uh you know, the legal expenses aren't always they're not always in our control. It's more of a result of um of sometimes uh actions that are taken against us. So, you can see that our legal expenses were high, but you can also see that these are trending down nicely. They went from 85 to 77th and budgeted to 65th. So, that's a positive trend. Uh again, it's still higher, but you know, none of

089these things change overnight. And I think as long as we're wary of it and we track it and we look at it and um we can make sense of this, our total operations and maintenance of plant. Um I thought this was interesting because we're right on spot. We're we're right, you know, we're we were 48th versus 52nd. We're 51 versus 49. Uh we're 48 versus 41 operation and maintenance of plant salaries and benefits. I mean we're right at the bottom of the pile because we don't really have any staff members. They're all contracted out. So this is indicative again if we had operation and maintenance of plant if we had an indicator for purchase services we'd probably be right at the top because we're right at the bottom for maintenance and plant for our salaries

090and benefits. Um, I thought your co-curricular costs, um, you know, I thought they were low. You know, you're trending in at 19th and 15th and are your overall costs are 52nd and 49th. So, I think these are low and probably um, you know, you may know in the community that that it doesn't appear that we spend a lot of money in our co-curricular and that's athletics and co-curricular versus our peer groups and versus our comparative spending for other places. um our total equipment cost per pupil. Again, we are at the bottom of the barrel. We're not spending, we're not putting any money into new equipment. Um we're leasing a lot, but we're not outright purchasing a lot of equipment. And this is uh carried over indicators. You know, the rest of these are a lot

091of ratios and and I really um you know, that kind of goes beyond me. You know, the first the first 15 are really they're really numbers and quantifiers and and and spending per pupil. But I just thought that this was kind of good information for the board to see and the public to see just, you know, from an outside perspective. And again, these are calculations in these ratios the state comes up with and they track because they believe that it's it's helpful. So I I would encourage you to go if you want to know what's included in each one of these areas. The taxpayer guide to educational spending is widely publicized. It goes into details about what's included in these and and how the calculations are made. can find you can find these calculations for

092any district in the state. Um, next slide. So, uh, one of the things that one of the requests that were made were to do kind of a three-year look ahead and, uh, I actually used, uh, chat to put this together and I was pleasantly surprised that it was very accurate and the numbers came back. Uh, I mean, I'm amazed. Uh, you know, I I'm using it a bit more and more and I'm amazed at how how frequently you put stuff into chat and it comes out with inaccurate data. Uh, it just it boggles my mind. But, uh, we put this in. So, here are some of the key assumptions. Uh, 2627 we had a balanced budget. Our gem fund tax levy growth is going to be 2% annually. State aid is going to be flat.

093Again, that may change, but for this comparison, this is what we used. Fund balance. I talked about this earlier. that we reduce it from 9.4 million to about four and a half million and then keep it flat in subsequent years. And the reason I say that is, you know, we we have a rather large operating budget. Our operating budget is about $175 million. And if we know about the 2% cap is anything that you don't spend automatically has to go back towards tax relief, you know, $4.5 million and $177 million budget is, you know, just a little bit over 2%. So I don't think you're ever going to get to the point where you don't put anything in fund balance back. So for this scenario, I used about $4.5 million. And I would think that

094if you saw that number around the $4.5 million mark and you put your budget and went up incrementally that that wouldn't be a an alarming number to use to offset your budget because you're going to have some unexpended funds left over. Of course, you can put those money toward different reserves and do different things in those areas. But for comparison, and I think even for budgeting purposes, I don't think that's a bad number to see. So you can see down here that this shows um this shows the base year tax levy and I showed a 4% growth in appropriations which is you know will be difficult to maintain because we know health insurance is going up. We know that salaries are increasing about 4%. Uh but I put that as a factor. So you can

095see our base year we're balanced. The next year if our state state aid our tax levy can only go up 2% because we don't get we don't get uh an SGLA for health insurance. Our state aid remains flat. Our fund balance is reduced down to about $4.5 million. This is our total projected revenue. Appropriations go up 4%. There's your $ 8.8 million. Uh this is this is probably not unlike what you saw last year. The next year again it carries forward. that goes to 13 million. Again, it could never get to 13 million because next year we're going to have to make changes and balance that budget and close that gap. But this is the three-year look ahead of what it looks like um if if we use these scenarios. And I don't think we're

096too far off in these scenarios. Again, the state funds us more. We recognize some of our state aid. Um, and we have to work hard to really to to curb our spending and and to curb to keep this as close to 4% as possible. And then we're going to have to make reductions in what we spend. Um, it's the only way we're we're going to work our way out of this. And, you know, Jason and I have said this is not a one-year approach. You know, we're going to be in this situation again for the next, you know, year or two until we can find this unless there's a a fundamental change. Um, next slide. Okay, next steps. Uh, we adopt the budget tonight. Uh, we have to submit all these revisions to the county.

097The county opens the budget up. We have to put all these line item reductions. We have to work all the edits out. Uh, resubmit it back to the county for approval. Uh, that needs to happen rather quickly. And then once they give us the approval that the budget has been reapproved, uh the final tax certifications gets sent out to the count to the municipalities, we all sign off on our on our tax certifications with this A4F form. Uh it has to be certified that has to get to the county before May 15th. And then the nice thing about doing budget projection and using the software to do all this is that it makes it really easy for us to open up the budget next year for the ensuing year. So it's basically the flip of

098a switch. We roll our budget, we open up our budget, and we can we can begin entering incumbrances as soon as this board adopts this budget. the budget becomes finalized and we can start getting our stuff into the system and proactively start entering all of our orders for next year. So that's kind of our timeline that we look that we look for. So hopefully by miday we open our up our budget and then we're working in two budget years to to start to start um um to start ordering things for next year. So, is there another slide? That's it. Frank, >> that's it. Okay, >> you made it. >> I made it. All right. Are there any questions? >> Yes, >> there aren't no questions. >> All right. Board member Higgins, are you ready? >>

099No. Okay. Board member Nyer. Okay. So, hey Frank. Um, I have a couple of questions. I thought it was Hi. Um, sorry you're not feeling well. Um, okay. Few questions. I don't I don't think these slides are numbered. So, the slide that shows the um appropriations from 2425 226 and then 2627. you pointed out something really interesting in that we we had certain increases and decreases from 2425 to 2526 and we made those decisions based on what our district goals are and you know the way we needed to balance the budget but then in this upcoming year we kind of flipped it. So, um, we're spending more in special education. We reduced plant maintenance by 2.4 million, whereas the year before we increased it by four. I guess my big question is that seems like

100a odd switch. Is there like >> I do Yeah, I I I don't disagree, but and you know, Melanie, I wasn't here last year. All I can say is in and I think I've said this in the beginning, we went through every single line item to validate um you know, if if I looked at the funds available, the $3.8 million, a lot of that money is going to come from some of these accounts where we budgeted, we infused money that we may or may not be spending. So, I can't explain last year's budget, but I can I can explain this year's budget. And I'm, you know, I'm in a I'm in a weird position because I wasn't here last year and I wasn't a part of putting that budget together. And I never would always

101have to have an answer for that because because of continuity >> and I don't have the answer. I just I thought it was when I saw these and I saw the reversals. But I'm but everything that we have in 26 27 we've reviewed we've analyzed we've trended we've explained the reasons for the increases and decreases and we feel really comfortable that these numbers are what we need to get through next year. Um, >> I don't have a better answer than that unfortunately for you. >> Yeah, you could uh I could speak I'll just give an example like uh CNI, right? So CNI may may appropriate a lot of money one year appropriate a lot of money in one year for a new science curriculum. Uh and then the next year not appropriate anything because they

102don't they're not in the cycle anymore. So depending on what cycle they are and what subject, that's really what depends on appropriation. Like for this year, one of the reductions we did make is we pushed back the science uh for another year. Um but that would have been a pretty large impact on the budget if it stayed in. >> Thank you. Uh just a another followup, the operations and maintenance of plant services, we've reduced it by 2.4. Um can you just explain the rationale for that? Cuz we do know that there's a lot of maintenance issues that need to be you know covered in our buildings. So how did we how did we make that decision? >> We we you know Melanie we're almost forced into it. If you remember, one of the biggest areas

103of maintenance is that at 261 that required maintenance and in the current year's budget, we took $2 million maintenance reserve. We almost fully depleted. I think there's like 760 or $90,000 available. So that money that money was used as a revenue source that can only be used to fund required maintenance. We don't have that revenue source anymore. So we we we that significantly it doesn't mean don't have needs. It means that we don't have a reserve to pay for it. So a big piece of what you're seeing here is because we don't have 5 million to um to supplement that out of maintenance. >> Yeah. Okay. Um, >> listen, the facility challenge. We we, you know, we have a new facilities director. We've been meeting regularly. There are a lot of facilities needs. There are

104a lot more facilities needs than we can fund in this budget. There are more facilities needs than we have capital for. There are more facilities needs than we have uh capital reserve for. It's a it's a this it's a um it's an issue that this district that we have to grapple with. >> Yeah. We also, if you remember, it's part of Henry's plan moving forward, uh, bringing people inhouse instead of spending out of house. So, for example, the many issues of broken pipes, uh, in the district, and I'm staring at Miss Lincoln right now because I would get the text about the broken pipes. Um, would be handled in house instead of usually calling somebody and paying overtime, double time, because it was 2 a.m. in the morning. So, we were able to bring in

105specialized maintenance. That's the shift Henry made. Um, he's going to he's got a plan that he'll start presenting at FFT over the next month in regards to what bringing in more certain personnel will do in regards to savings uh over the next three to five years. >> Okay. >> And and Malin, the last thing I would say with that is even if we wanted to put more money into the facilities lines, >> we're still limited to that cap. So, you know, when we put the tenative budget together, we were right at the 2% cap. We're a little bit under the cap, but we can't add more money to those lines if we wanted to because it would come at an expansion. It would come at reduction in another program. And that's the we say, how

106much >> how much do we put towards facilities and how much do we put in toward the classroom? I mean, that's that's the struggle. >> Okay. Um my finalish question is on the uh projections. So the the slide that you created with chat >> um >> that was very telling because when you look at the advertised budget and the forecast that you have for the uh fund balance for 2627 the published um budget has a forecast of 3.4 4 million. At the end of the day, basically our maintenance reserve is down to about 745,000. And we've been we've been basically taking doing budget cuts and using fund balance to kind of plug the hole in the next year's budget, right? But we've come to the point where we literally don't have that much money left

107in fund balance to do that. And then you know budget freezes have all kinds of implications and I guess it is one way to kind of balance your budget but it's not going to yield so many millions that will help plug a hole in 2728. So if you look at this and this is not really a question well there's a question and there's an observation is that in when I look at this right at the bottom you have 27 28 28 29 2930 that cliff that we keep talking about is hitting us starting in 2728 because we've managed to balance the budget for 2627 with almost 9 million in fund balance reserves um and savings from budget freeze um the fund balance used that you've projected of 4.5 million. We don't really have that, right?

108Because we're projecting 3.4 and that's my question is that is that do you feel okay with that assumption because I feel like it should be even less given >> what's in the >> advertised budget. Yeah. Um, you know, I so this this goes back to the discussions we had about the funds available, you know, funds available on the board secretaries before versus versus projections. I this number could very well be zero, not 4 and a.5 million. I just I don't see how when you look at when we look at the overall the chunks now forget if it's generated forget if it's generated in a previous year and it's set up in a legal reserve or it comes from another reserve. We went from budgeting the budget with almost $15 million in total balances, fund balances

109to about 10 million. >> I don't know realistically how you go from 10 million to zero. So, I cut it in half >> because I think I think realistically to get to next year's budget, there's going to have to be more manipulations. You're going to have to start, you know, we're going to have to start really looking at what we're going to recapture this year. Um, and we were already dedicating $3.8 million in current year budget toward next year. >> The hope is that we'll have more than $3.8 million to end the year. The biggest outlier is health insurance. So if we can end this year with5 to6 million, that gives us another $2 to3 million and maybe next year. >> Mhm. >> Instead of budgeting $4 million and cutting out current year, we we

110budget another million and we're at that four and a half. I just don't I don't think realistically you're going to get this to zero. But I I agree with you that in a perfect world, this goes to zero, that makes this $12 million. I mean, >> correct. >> Yeah. I think the point I'm trying to make is there's more pain to come, right? Because we're not going to be able to there's a shortfall assuming these assumptions are relatively reasonable, right? Like we are looking at a shortfall of 8.8 13 million. So it's just tough times in the future. Um and so >> yep, I just want to echo what board member Ner said. budget freezing is is not an effective tool. >> It is a last resort. Uh so two things we have to get

111out of is one using budget freezing to reclaim funds. uh and then also dipping into our fund balance over the last decade uh in fear of having difficult conversations and making difficult decisions which lies on the shoulders of the nine lucky individuals on this board right now over the next couple years. >> Those discussions were put off every year by dipping into fund balance so they didn't have to be had. We're we're we're at the point now where we're we can't dip anymore. >> And I think now is a good once we're done with this budget cycle, we can start to have these discussions as we look at the next two or three years because we don't have the luxury of a big fund balance to dip into. Um so yeah, that's just my observation.

112So thank you. >> Okay, board member Higgins. >> So um first of all, thank you Frank for walking us through that. That is a lot of work and I imagine it every single person in this district has a hand in this presentation. This only 15 pages but it is a mammoth. So thank you so much. Um I think to piggy back off off what you just said Mr. Bing with um and of course I just lost my train of thought. Uh what what did you just say? Sorry. >> Budget not budget freezes. >> Dipping and fund balance. >> Dipping in fund bounce. You know what? Come back to me. It was a take a moment. >> Fair. Anyone else? Board of Brown, please. >> Yes. Um, I want to echo uh Meredith's. Thank you, Frank.

113I know this and others, Mr. Bing. Um, this took a lot of work, but uh, this is a very very informative presentation and I'm I really appreciate kind of the five-year look back you did as well as some of the other analysis to help us really understand where we're at. Um, I have just a couple small questions, but I guess maybe could you talk a little bit about, and maybe this is for you, Mr. Um, if we can only, you know, basically raise the tax levy for health care costs one time and we're choosing to do that right now. I guess why do you think right now is the time? And I know that health care costs went up 29%. Are we thinking that's not going to happen in future years or Yeah. Can you

114give us some more background there? >> Yeah. So what's different with the self assured self-insured versus the state plan uh is really the data available to districts. So with the state plan we never received data. I couldn't I could not tell you if you had an insurance question in regards to uh what we were spending what we they never made that data available to us. But self-insured we have a lot more control over our plans. We can make projection uh projections uh good or bad. Um, and we could also have some control over over the use of the plan. Um, example in Bloomfield, we were able to get a grant through through our self-insured program uh for a fitness room uh to get teachers in a wellness plan. We were able to get therapy. We

115were able to get So, you have a variety of options in a self-insured plan to help maintain and even lower your costs where in the state plan it was just throw money up in the air and let it go. So, we have a lot more control. So you'll be seeing that data over the next 3, six, nine months in regards to rejections and then in regards to also uh our mitigating strategies that we're working with our vendor uh around if costs do start to rise, what are we going to do? >> Okay. >> Yeah, I guess we can all cross our fingers at this point, but I know it's a it's a national issue. It's not just our district. Um, and then I was I'm I'm trying to get a sense because I was looking

116at the um the school performance reports and trying to understand because our enrollment changed so significantly after COVID we had all this COVID funding. So I was looking at you know what what the number of students we had at that you know 18/19 was number of teachers number of administrators can we what are those number like what is what is in the budget now that we're projecting for 2620 or proposing for in terms of number of students um number of teachers and number of administrators. >> Yes. a number of students and I think we've talked about talked to Jeff about this is straight off the state software. So they give us they use their projection data and that's what we utilize in regards to aid. >> Um I know Frank I'm sure you don't have

117that at the tip of your uh >> fingers. Uh total staff I can get you those numbers tomorrow. We have it in the data sheet but >> like we talked to Jeff about state aid is strictly off the software. Uh when that software opens they are projecting our state aid. As you recall, we did a projection 2023 for three years or maybe 2022. Uh that projection used two formulas. One of those formulas was the state formula. Um so I can tell you straight out that those two formulas were right on. I mean right on in regards to predicting of where where we're going to be. So >> it's been my experience since the state software formula is pretty predictable and reliable. So, uh, I'll I'll send that number right over to >> you >> cuz

118I think that one sheet said, uh, 68 6,800. >> Yeah, they were predicting, if as I recall from last year, an increase of around 200 for the next three years each year, if if I'm recall correctly, but I'll get the exact number. >> Do you know if the school performance reports includes preK? >> I don't think they do. >> Is it is it the same number? Because I'm just trying to like in in 201819, we had 7,100 students. >> Oh. Oh, and you think the prek may be the difference there? >> No, I just know that then our enrollment went down and so I'm thinking maybe we're not even back up to pre-COVID enrollment numbers. >> Oh, we're I don't think we're up to >> Right. Yeah, I don't think so either. So, then I'm

119just trying to think about because I know that we have >> reduced the number of teachers last year and this year just by through attrition and not hiring. So, I just want I'm just trying to get a sense of where are we right now with regards to people versus students um compared to where we were pre-COVID. >> Yep. We can do that. >> Board member Higgins again. >> I won't forget this time. Um, so to piggyback on what you were saying, you had mentioned difficult discussions and I think that can mean a lot of different things to a lot of different people. So if it's possible, the sooner the better we talk about those and get not not unkind, but direct and clear and start to step into those discussions sooner than later. Now that

120we have these pretty daunting numbers ahead of us, if we don't start talking about them now and give ourselves time to actually start problem solving or supporting the district and whatever moves need to be made, it only just makes year-over-year harder. So that those like hot topics, it would be great to get a preview of those and start prioritizing them. >> Okay, questions? Yeah, board member Stefan. >> Thanks. In the preliminary budget, the appropriation for field trips had gone down to zero. Has that changed in the final budget? >> Yeah. So, if slide Oh, they're not numbered, but the uh preschool funding appeal slide. We utilize some of that money to put back into field trips. Uh we are working with achieve around that. Um I don't think they realized the number was as daunting

121as it was. I think it's around 58,000. Um and they to Achieve's credit, they were willing to step up and help out. Uh but when we uh won the appeal, we used some of that money to put that field trip money back in the budget. >> Board Higgins again, >> you read my mind because I was very curious with the 328,000 out of that 457 that we got back. Um is that all staying in the prek program? Does it have to stay in the prek program? Can moved? >> Yeah. So, we used that. Um, and I think Frank pulled the slide up for about seven other line items to bring back that were originally cut. >> I didn't see that. >> I don't know if that was in the Friday envelope or he brought it

122up. I got to check it out. >> I have to look at that. But there were specific line items. >> Yeah, I can see. >> Okay. Thank you. >> I'm I'm going to delve well outside of my expertise. But in the in the resolution 4964A you'll there under appropriations there are about that many and I I believe that is where that those funds were being put back and then one of those >> the line 11027512 I think that is >> that's that's exactly right >> okay great thank you >> so I have a question. >> So, the staffing overview slide that we brought up uh discusses the expected 21 positions being eliminated of staff positions. Uh and as Frank mentioned, if you look at our contractors, uh our headcount is going down by uh a

123good amount more than that. And obviously in the ideal, we don't want to remove any of our teachers or staff. Um but I know that in the past, Mr. been you have connected the question of our headcount to structural deficit. Uh and I wonder if you can just give a little more overview of what the philosophy has been in looking at the question of staffing in uh addressing our fiscal cliff this year and even forecasting into the future. >> For us, we've been pretty transparent since the start. Um we would try to do this strategically through attrition, resignation, non-renewal, um things of that nature, which are fluid numbers. Uh we were able to do that last year with filling most of the positions that normally would have been uh filled uh out of district uh

124or externally uh through transfer. Um so we were lucky to run that process. We'll do the same this year as well. Um but you're you're looking at an impact uh we've had these discussions. We're trying to shore up the program of studies uh at the high school. Um we have not changed or or moved from the current class size policy. We have stuck to that and we are utilizing that policy. Um also it it really depends on what size uh class is moving on to the next grade. to be very honest with you, we you could have five third grades in in in uh in one year and next year it's down to four or so this year's numbers that we're looking at uh enable us to reap some savings uh in regards to sections

125needed. Um and again that's going to change depending on the uh retirements and restorations that come in the work that's ahead of us. Uh currently we have a few transfers in the in the pipe but again that will change depending on resignations and retirements coming down. >> Other questions board. >> Thank you. Um on the very first slide we that um pressure matrix I know we've seen before. Um I'm just curious um mental health and security initiatives and technology infrastructure. Could you just maybe provide um a little bit of understanding about like what are we talking about within each of those categories are that are contributing to cost increases or like a planned investment in in those areas just so that the community has a little bit more clarity on that piece. So technology side

126of the house obviously with technology changing as fast as it does um it's it's hard to predict. Um but we also have to keep in mind that um and I'll call him out for his good work. Uh Mr. Bond stepped up in regards to things like our CHS auditorium where he used a lot of his budget um to uh do the infrastructure there and as well as the lighting. So that may continue forward depending on assessment over facilities of him putting more of those projects in in his leasing. As Frank said, most of the things he does is is through lease. We don't buy too much technology. Um I also think we're taking a a different look at how we may utilize technology moving forward, which will have an impact on his on his budget.

127Um, so his is a little tougher to predict, but um, my assumption is we'll we'll be using him a little more in regards to his lease capabilities to handle other issues that maybe normally he didn't in the past, such as the auditorium. Um, mental health, we we did want to shout out because we've seen an increase, and that's across the nation. But I also want to point out that we didn't make any cuts from mental health or or or social positions. um security as we noted uh in our memo and also noted on our presentation uh we had pandemic funding that supplied security guards for our elementary schools which will be reduced so we will not have security guards at our elementaryaries moving forward. On the other side of that coin, however, we've made a

128large investment with our capital project in regards to security vestibules, upgrading our our cameras uh and things of that nature. So, um, as I think Will noted, we're we're taking a pretty hard look at our pre our pandemic's funding when money was just coming down, uh, to where we are currently. I think board member Naara also mentioned that we have to really anal analyze that. We analyzed staffing last year. As you recall, I think the the number was around 215. Some of those positions had to be filled, but I think remaining was about 87 or so positions that we that we utilized uh pandemic funding for above and beyond what we needed. Uh which was understandable because we needed smaller groups. We needed this, we needed that. It was a very unstable time. However, those

129are some of the positions we have to take a hard look at moving forward. >> Yeah. Board member Higgins again. Again, again, >> again, again. Um, so a couple of my questions are basically between like slide seven and slide 13. It's kind of all jumping around those charts. Um, two things that stood out to me around extraordinary aid and extraordinary services is that extraordinary aid is down 20%. Which I don't think we can we can't control. That's state aid, right? But then our extraordinary services seem to be up by 53%. Our spending is up by 53%. So I'm curious is that would you say that's majority what the service is or is it that it's student need and then if we have to tighten the belt how are we just not leaving the student need

130sort of in the dust and that's a very dramatic way of saying that. So >> yeah I think oh sorry Frank uh and I'll let you take it. I think our special services as we've noted a few times have driven our budget uh for some time. I think the work as Frank noted that is being done in special services whether it's around Paris whether it's around expanding our special services continuum inhouse so we don't have to keep sending kids literally three miles down the road to West Orange uh when we can just have the same program here uh is work that I think will pay off in the long term and you you will see those numbers continue to decline uh we've had some good wins there uh but I think we need we need

131some more moving forward. Um, go ahead, Frank. Sorry about that. >> No, it's just there there was a there was a distinct difference between extraordinary aid and extraordinary services. So on the revenue side, extraordinary aid was meant years ago, you know, districts got hit with all these, you know, high cost out of district placements and um the state said that they would pay they would pay for it and then you would have to submit all these costs into the state and they would reimburse you for it started out that any student that costs more than $40,000 a year, you get reimbursed. And then they found out that all these kids, all these uh you know all all the districts sent all their their costs in at the end of the year. And the state quickly

132found out that the reserve that they set aside for all these extraordinary services was eclipsed you know 10fold. And they ended up that year like in our district they paid us like 22% of what our defined extraordinary costs were. And that number has kept so the state keeps changing the bar in terms of what they'll consider to fund for an extraordinary cost. And it's still kind of a joke because you still get funded. They look at everybody's costs and they look at how much money they've appropriated and they just give you a percentage of what your extraordinary costs are. So um that number was $2.5 million uh this year and last year our actual reimbursement was about 2.2 million. So when we put this budget together I lowered that number down to $2 million so

133that we we didn't have a revenue shortfall. But we're not going to know those numbers every year. So every year in May, we start to capture our costs and report them to the state. And then in July, we get our award uh for what our extraordinary aid is. So I lower that because it just it just didn't seem like we were going to hit that number because uh we were short. We were going to be short this year based on what we filed next year. >> Any other question for Brown? Um, I just wanted a point of clarification about something that was just said. Um, it was said, and this kind of gets back to I was looking at these school performance reports because I'm I know we're going to have to make tough decisions

134over the next year and I'm I'm trying to get a sense of, okay, pre-amp pandemic, how many teachers, how many admin, how many students do we have, where are we now? And that will help guide us in some of our decisions. But you just said um I think you said 87 positions were funded with pandemic funds. Do you know how many of those positions are I know that security we're uh we're removing? Are we still funding these 87 positions with this year's budget or a subset? >> Yeah. So I think it was about 212 positions all altogether that were had to be funded. Um my guess is they used pandemic for all of them. some of them were true vacancies that needed to be filled. Uh the 87 after we looked at I think it

135was originally around 212 and then we got that down to 87 that were above and beyond what was previously there a couple of years ago um years before the pandemic um and taking a deep dive into it. Those were really positions to uh reduce group size because of the pandemic it was required or to get more digital instruction or things of that nature. There were also some I believe they increased some paras. So it was a if you looked on a a chart it was quite dispersed but they were all positions that we didn't have in the past due driven by the pandemic. >> Okay. But we we are currently funding those positions in this >> correct. Correct. >> Pandemic funding uh 2019 to 2000 late 23 early 24 ran out. >> No. Right. But

136in this budget >> correct your funding. Right. Okay. Yep. Any other questions? All right. Thank you very much uh Frank for all of your efforts on this uh presentation and all the other folks of course who uh were working with you uh to develop it. We will now move to our first hearing of individuals and delegations. Uh thank you for coming in person and joining us online this evening. We value public comment at our board meetings. Uh while we cannot engage in a dialogue with you, we do take your comments very seriously and your input will inform our work. Our comment period is limited to one hour and each speaker will have three minutes. Uh we ask you please begin by stating your name and your town. At the present time, we have no inerson

137speaks. We have no online speaks. And that will conclude our first hearing of individuals and delegations. And we will now move on to the action portion of our meeting. Uh and so first of all, we will uh move to resolution 4964 which concerns the adoption of the 2627 school budget uh and tax levy as well as travel expense reimbursements. Uh I will uh welcome a motion to consider resolution 4964. Uh board member second cable. Do I have a second? Board member Callahan. Uh the motion is open for discussion and we're not voting quite yet. >> Yeah. 4964. Any discussion on the budget resolution? Board member Higgins. So, in um I just would wanted to clarify the the travel part, the travel and related expenses reimbursement because we did vote on this back in March for

138the maximum travel amount of 200,000, but there's more detail in here. So, I just wanted to understand what are we doing differently with this resolution. >> I'm going to let uh our uh interim BA tackle this one. I need to find it first. No. So I I mean I'll do it off of memory. So we are supposed to I I think the piece that was missing off of the the original one was the amount that was expended to date. So nothing has really changed. Uh we budgeted $200,000. We set a maximum of $1,500 per person for regular ordinary travel. And then we had to report on what has been expended to date. And I think that was the number from memory was 112 or $113,000 that's been spent so far. It's 117. I'm trying to

139find the the resolution right now. So this is this is the information that we're required to when we adopt the budget, we're required to to set aside a maximum amount for travel for next year. And and I just kept it the same. Uh last year's budget was $200,000 maximum for the year and we kept it the same for for the proposed 2627 budget. >> So if we've expended so far it I'm looking at it right now 113,7755. Yep. >> I'm just curious are should we lower this from 200,000 to something a little lower or is this already in the actual budget? I didn't see it as a line item. So, I think I'm just >> rectifying the documents. >> It is it is interspersed all over your budget. So internally, Tiffan and I have spoken

140about, you know, assigning uh assigning it the same consistent travel line item across the budget so that we can just filter and sort and come up with this dollar amount. Um, you know, one of the reasons why we've only spent $113,000 is that we've had a budget freeze and we've stopped people from traveling. So in a perfect world, if we don't have to do that, we'll probably come closer to spending that $200,000. So, we didn't want to reduce it on $200,000, but one of the reasons it's so slow low this year to date is because we've had this budget freeze. >> Got it. Okay. Thank you. >> Yep. Any other discussion? >> Um, go ahead. >> Do you had a question? >> I did. >> No, no. I just wanted to kind of make a

141couple of statements as we wrap this process up. So, feel free to ask a question. >> Okay. board member Brown. >> Um, I guess I'm I'm concerned about the 200,000 because we had a budget freeze and I just think 200,000 for travel, for training. It's not the training itself and training is important. Do not get me wrong. We really need professional development for everyone in our district. Um, it just strikes me that it's potentially two and a half teachers. So, I guess does it it it makes me a little worried just to flat out approve $200,000 for travel in in and when when we're just basically scratching at anything to try and save some funds for this year and future years. Other comments, questions, >> we are currently discussing the resolution 4964A and B together

142uh unless there was a sever of any piece. Right now we're discussing uh the combined resolution >> and in that case I just want to say a couple things since I please. So, as a new board member coming into the budget process halfway through, I think, you know, we've learned a lot about what the district's been able to produce and what they get right. And, you know, I think we can also talk a little bit about where we can make some improvements. So, I just wanted to kind of say and start by recognizing the substantial work that's been undertaken by the administration to develop this budget um and refine it with postmodification adjustments in the midst of a transition in the BA's office. So, I just want to say thank you to Frank and the

143administration for all the hard work. Um this is has been an iterative process with materials coming to us um throughout the FFT committee meetings um and other questions that we're putting in our trackers. Um so I do want to just recognize the effort to be responsive and thoughtful. At the same time I do think that going forward we can continue to focus on transparency in how we allocate resources and the range of options that the board should consider. Um, and I do think that level of detail is essential, especially in light of what we're seeing in the coming years. Um, in terms of the trade-offs that we're going to have to make as a board, um, particularly given the significant tax impact on the community. Um, I do think that we must continue to focus

144on rigorous analysis um, particularly in scheduling middle school and high school uh, in the high school levels. there is opportunities clearly to uh gain some more efficiencies there as we've talked about. Um and I think we could better align staff with student needs and still have um a really strong educational outcome. Um overall I think this year's process having come into it halfway we've you know has we've had a strong foundation but I do think again I would like the district to build on this foundation with more transparency deeper analysis and continued discipline in decisionm prior to the preliminary adoption of the budget. Um and that's I think the way we will strengthen our financial position and also accountability to the community. So, thank you. >> Anyone else? I guess I will just say that

145um you know this this process is difficult uh every year. This is not my favorite time of the year to be a board member because uh every year we are set up for failure in the way that uh the system of revenue for school districts and especially school districts like ours uh is is done in the state. the fact that we are limited to uh a uh generally speaking a 2% increase when we know that expenses are increasing more than that that salaries are increasing much more than that uh you know you have one line going here and one line going up here and you're guaranteed to have a gap every single year uh and being required to cut things every single year. Uh and in the case of the budget freezing, know that you're

146planning to steal back money from things that you're already uh appropriating and and it puts us in a in a really tough situation. And even in a year where we are uh taking that extraordinary step of having a significant additional tax increase to cover the massive health insurance increases that we're seeing uh across the board, that all municipalities and school boards are seeing. Um which is going to be a hit to the taxpayer. still leaves us in a real squeeze. Uh and having to look at the cuts that we are making is is not pleasant, right? Uh we know that there are things we can do that are going to keep our elementary schools safe even if we're taking that security guard out, but we don't want to have to do it. Uh we know

147that there are uh structural deficits in the way that uh the that we are funding certain positions and that we have staff in our schools and our administration buildings that were able to let go, but we don't want to let go of of any of our teachers, any of our staff members. I mean, they're all essential to keeping this place operating. So, it really is is uh it's difficult to have to make these decisions. At the same time, we know that this fiscal cliff that we're we're sitting on is a real thing. You look at these projections. I mean, the amount of money that we're looking at as a as a default shortfall here, um, you know, the amount of additional state aid we're going to get is not going to get us anywhere close.

148The number of teachers that we're looking at or staff to meet that amount. I mean, it's it's massive. So, figuring out what we're going to do is terrifying. Um, but we know that other districts are also in this same process. And the question is uh how we are handling this fiscal cliff, right? Are we going to, you know, carefully tread our way down the the cliff like a mountain go or are we going straight over like Thelma and Louise? And unfortunately, we've seen some of our our fellow peer districts are are experiencing that freef fall right now. And I'm glad that uh we have been able to uh deliver a budget here that is not doing that that is able to softly uh bring us down. And the big thing is um that the public

149isn't necessarily seeing here are all the cuts that are not being made. uh the number of things that could have been on the table, the increases in class sizes, the decrease in the number of special education teachers, the amount of the day that special education teachers were with students. Um a lot of different items that we were able to save and keep them there. And God knows in in following years we are probably looking at having to talk about some of those or figure out the next clever solution. But uh I am pleased that we are in the position we are today where we will see our schools continue to operate much the same as they are today. We're not experiencing we're not closing schools. Uh we're not, you know, firing immense numbers of of

150teachers and staff. This is moderate. Uh and I am appreciative to the administration for having put this together uh and that we are not in a far worse place than we are right now. Anyone else? Okay. Um and just to be clear, there were questions about uh resolution 4964B. Are there any requests to sever or any motions with regard to that resolution? Board member Brown. Uh, I would like to sever it, please. I think I don't know if you asked that earlier. Sorry if I missed it. >> No, you know what? I did not explicitly ask for severs. So, we can sever 4964B and we'll take them separately. Did I see a hand over here? Okay. Uh, we're going to tackle first then resolution 4964A, which is the adoption of the 2627 school budget and

151tax levy. So, Superintendent Bing, would you please call the role? >> Sure. Thank you, sir. Board member Safon, >> yes. >> Board member Sacket Gable, >> yes. Board member Nar, >> yes. >> Board President Meyer, >> yes. >> Isn't there board member Higgins? >> Yes. >> Board member Callahan. >> Yes. >> Board member Brown. >> Yes. >> There. Thank you sir. >> Okay. It's uh adopted unanimously. Uh moving on to resolution 4964B. Uh we have already had conversation but we'll uh take it up separately. Do I have a uh a motion? Board member Brown. And do I have a second? Board member Higgins. Uh all right, we're back in discussion for 4964B. >> Board member Brown. I guess my question is can is there a a lower amount that we would feel more comfortable proposing

152now or I this this has to be voted on today. Correct. >> What do you think, Frank? I'm I'm good with lowering the amount. >> Yeah. So, so it would be separate. If we lower the amount, it would just be a limit. And you know, one of the difficulties that we we ran into when we were trying to come up with this dollar amount is there's no way to run through our budget and filter and say, "Okay, this is how much we have budgeted for all of our travel. This is a separate resolution. It's been $200,000 for for the last few years and and we looked at the last two years. So, we can lower this amount to whatever the board desires. It just we'll just have to create a separate tracking document to track

153all the travel in all the various accounts to make sure we don't exceed it. >> Yeah, we we'll start just keeping a closer tab on that info as well. Can we can we do 150 just to play it safe this year? >> Yeah, that's fine. I mean, theoretically, you can go over you just would need the board's approval, right? So, this is just a a stop gap. So if I can ask just a a clarifying question in this regard. The language of this indicates that board members have to approve travel and then it says uh that the law says we can create an amount that the board is uh approving all at one time that you can get up to before seeking board approval again. We're not near that point this year, but every month

154we are approving travel expenses. So, I guess number one, are we in fact even using this if we are every month approving specific travel costs? Uh, and number two, if we do lower this, couldn't we just keep voting to approve additional costs if need be? >> So, the the question that I don't know, I if you want to give me five minutes to look at it, I could look at 6A23A. the the the the board can the board has to approve all travel. Even if you have this $200,000 travel limit, every single piece of travel, unless it's regular business, you know, one of your staff members travels between the two schools and they get paid mileage between the two schools. That's called regular business travel. But any professional development, attendance at conferences, attendance at anything

155require specific board approval for each individual event. So even if you have this $200,000 max, the board can say no to travel. You can you can ask for the details of how much has been expended on any given point in time. And we're not allowed to reimburse for travel unless the board has previously authorized it. So you definitely have a hook every single month, which is why you need to approve all the travel. My only the only question that I have is the maximum travel that you establish at budget time. If you're able to two months from now, say you make this 150 and you get six months into the year and you you're approaching that 150, do you have the ability to change it to 175? And that's the only piece that I don't

156know because they're making us establish a maximum at budget time specifically. It's the only thing they make you do. So, so without knowing the answer to that, I I just I I'd hate for the board to make this 150 and then you find out that you're getting close to that next year and you want to increase it and you can't because you didn't do it at budget time. So, that's the only piece. So I we can either you know to be safe you can leave it at two. You can give me a couple of minutes to see if I can research it and find the answer by looking at this statute. But know that that it's being tracked and that all the board travel needs to be specifically approved each month. So >> yeah I

157think Frank we just tighten our belts. I think we go with the 150. That's puts responsibility on us in regards to tightening our belts. The 113 was my assumption projected cost for uh the year. Try to put them in as early as possible. Uh but I'm comfortable with the 150. >> Okay. >> Order Higgins. >> So I appreciate the explanation because the regular district business travel only. It sounds like you said that's like between two bu between buildings like within the district and it sounds based on what we saw we're moving to sharing personnel between buildings. That's one of the budgetary moves. So is that that's within the 200,000. Is that correct? >> Yes. So all that's with So that that also means like so in my previous district, you know, every month I went

158to a county meeting, right? So I would travel to a county meeting. I would I would go between schools. I would go out. So that was like regular business. It wasn't it was separating me from going to a professional development seminar from regular travel that I had to do as as a result of the course of me doing business in the district. Right? So that's what this separate the $1,500 max said. You know, if you're going to drive to the different schools and put in for your mileage or you're gonna come back to school at night for a board meeting and put in for that that mileage, that's regular business travel. It's it's excludes attendance at a seminar, excludes professional development, going to a conference. That's what that limit's for. But it all counts toward

159that $200,000 or $150,000 limit. And again, if we set a lower limit and we hit that point, then that regular district business travel could be submitted to the board on its monthly agenda to approve if we saw fit. >> I I wish I wish I had uh I'm looking I'm looking at 6823A right now. >> It the the third whereas paragraph in the resolution seems to indicate until the annual threshold is exceeded. At that point, looks like board approval would be required. >> Yeah. And so I'm looking at I'm looking at 6823A and I'm I'm looking at it really quickly. Um it it doesn't appear that if you if you establish it in the pre-budget year that you can adjust it in the following year. So I think if you make it 150 you have

160to live with 150. That's if my you want me to give you a quick because because I don't see that you can go afterwards and and increase that. It says annual in the pre-budget year each district board of education shall establish by resolution and it's the pre-budget year a maximum travel expenditure amount for the budget year which the school district shall not exceed. So I don't I don't see anything that says after that if you run into that problem that you can exceed it. So I just if you want to be super conservative and you want to make that 150 know that you may be limited. You may not be be able to increase that in the following year. >> Okay. Got it. Uh, so hearing that, are there any Sorry, board member Stefins. >>

161Yeah, I just want to make sure I understand if we were to change this from 200,000 to 150,000 that would not actually change any of the line items in the budget, the amounts we had actually appropriated that it would set this cap that we could not ex that we maybe could not exceed and we may be able to raise later, but we're not sure of that. Right. I think it's defin it's setting an authorization for what the district can do without coming to us because we are pre-authorizing a certain amount for regular district travel is is the plain reading of the resolution as I see it. But it's all travel. So even if even if you approve this $1 150,000 or $200,000 travel, anybody that puts in and they want to go to a conference

162or they want to do professional development, they still have to get separate board approval. It doesn't it doesn't supersede that that requirement. It just establishes a maximum. And this goes back to those accountability regists going to, you know, going to different countries and spending all this money. It it predates all that. And it's it's the only thing we have to do in accordance with the submission of the budget for all the things that we have to certify. This is the only one that's required with the resolution. So >> well um >> just can I can I just ask one other clarifying question? So the 1 2 3 fourth paragraph from the bottom um it basically sets a a limit for per staff travel over 1500 where prior and that does not need to be approved

163by us like if a staff member's travel threshold is under 1500 then it doesn't come up as a resolution >> right >> so >> I I have forgotten because we We have a number of virtual members here that we do still have uh board counsel and I think board counsel is still on the line. Uh >> good. >> Patrick, are you there? >> Maybe he's not there. Can we summon him? >> I'm very glitchy. >> He says he's he says he's here. Wait, he's calling me. Hang on. >> Who's got the link? Hang on. Can you're not on the WebEx, are you? Mr. Carrick, >> I'm an attendee. >> Oh, he's an attending. Can you elevate, Mr. Carrick? I get the thumbs up. You may be coming online. >> It's a big league. >> I'm

164just trying to see. >> Can you hear me now? >> Yes, we can. >> What's What say you, Mr. Carrick? So, it is an annual statutory maximum um that you're supposed to set in the pre-budget year. Subsection 7.7 penalizes you if you go over it. Um it would be up to your county BA as to whether or not you can raise it before you exceed it. But if you exceed it before you do raise it, you get um penalized and it's it penalizes you via your state aid amount. This was part of the accountability regulations that were passed a number of years ago to rein in uh board spending particularly on travel. And so it is a number that is intended to be a fixed number and not to be exceeded. Um, I don't find

165anything in the regulations that indicates that a board has the ability or the authority to later amend it, but that doesn't mean it doesn't exist. That's just something that you'd have to discuss with your county business administrator to see how comfortable they are with that. And maybe maybe what I would suggest is because of because of what I'm seeing and what Patrick's saying is to leave it at $200,000. You can track it. They track it internally. I know because there's a spreadsheet where it tracks all the travel. And if you're getting close to that dollar amount, the board can decide at any given time not to approve any more travel. You just don't pass the resolution. Jason, I mean, Jason sent something out this year that the travel is done and that's why it's so

166low. So, I think I think there's a different way barring lowering that because I I just would hate to have an unintended, you know, that we can't change it and now all of a sudden there's something that's really important and we can't we can't do it because we passed this resolution that we can't increase. So, I think there's another way to accomplish cracking the travel date and being vigilant about, you know, to your point, we're we're making all these reductions. We need to be very sure about what we're allowing people to travel for. >> All right, we have the monitoring of traveling up for bid for the committees. Who wants that responsibility for for next year? Looking in the direction of someone over there. >> All right. So, >> I think um but uh um

167board member Nyer is correct. I I don't I think I read this as the board does not approve travel that's under 1500%. >> I think >> I know we do but >> for the for regular district business travel only it says in that third whereas I also am a little curious about the way this resolution is drafted because it doesn't seem entirely in line with the guidance we're receiving as far as what our limitations are. And based on that, I think I would I would encourage us to perhaps leave this where it is and use uh you know tracking powers to keep us well underneath this cap. >> Yeah. Okay. That's that's fine. I just it's not I don't think it's it's not lost on us all hopefully that like we just had a discussion

168about the huge debt we're going to have next year and the year after. So, I mean, this is a small amount. This is the drop in a bucket, but like if if we don't even start looking at the drops of in buckets, we're we're in trouble. >> I don't think we're going to have a lot of travel next year. I can guarantee you that at this point. >> Okay. Any more discussion on resolution 4964B? Okay. And Mr. Bing, would you please call the role? 4964B. Board member Stfan. >> Yes. >> Board member Sack Gable. >> Yes. >> Board member Nar. >> Yes. >> Board President Meyer. >> Yes. >> Board member Higgins. >> Yes. >> Board member Callahan. >> Yes. >> Board member Brown. >> Yes. >> And thank you, sir. >> All right. Motion

169passes unanimously. Uh finally, we have a hand carry resolution 4965. This is a resolution affirming an HIV determination. Uh it was discussed in executive session. Uh do I have a motion? Board member Callahan. Do I have a second? Board member Sack Gable. Uh and uh we can't really have discussion on this. So Mr. Ping, would you please call the role? >> Board member Brown. >> Yes. >> Board member Callahan. Yes. >> Board member Higgins. >> Yes. >> Board member Meyer. Board President Meyer. >> Yes. >> Board member Aar. >> Yes. >> Board member Sacket Gable. >> Yes. >> And board member Stfan. >> Yes. >> Right. Motion carries unanimously. And that concludes the action portion of our meeting. Uh we will now move to our second hearing of individuals and delegations. Uh we do not

170have any online public speaks. I don't think we have any in person. This morning would you please take a look and thank you so much. >> We have no public speaks. That concludes our second hearing of individuals and delegations. Uh is there any new business this evening? Hearing none. Uh we'll now discuss our future meetings. The board will next meet on Thursday, May 7th, 2026 at 6:30 p.m. for an organizational and staff renewal meeting. We'll meet on Thursday, May 21st at 6:30 p.m. for our monthly board meeting. And we'll meet on Thursday, May 28th at 6:30 for a board retreat, followed by executive session for the purpose of discussing the uh chief school administrator evaluation. And reminder that our last strategic planning meeting is happening on May 11th. Uh this is an open call. We

171would love to have as many people as possible come and share your thoughts for the uh direction of our district in the next 5 years. And with that, uh, I will invite a motion to adjurnn. Order second gable. Is there a second? Board member Brown. All in favor, show of hands. Unanimous. The board is adjourning at 9:25 p.m. Have a good night. >> Good night, everybody.