Board of Education Meeting - Public Session - 4/24/25

001[Music] Sure, Madam President. Will do. Uh, board member Jeff Bennett. Board member Dearra Brown, present. Board member Elizabeth Callahan, here. Board President Nubia Dval Wilson here. Board member Regina Eert here. Board member Biml Kapadia here on his behalf. Board member uh Will Meyer here. Board member Shaina Saki Gable here. All right. [Music] United [Music] States and justice for all. [Music] Please take notice that adequate note do oh do you need whatever way um notice of this meeting has been provided in the following manner that written notice was sent from the office of the secretary of the board at 2:30 p.m. on January 3rd 2025 that said notice was sent via email to Maplewood and South Orange Township clerks and the editors of the news record Star Ledger Tap into Soma and the Village Green. I'd

002like to make a motion to enter into executive session at 6:34 p.m. to discuss attorney client matters, personnel negotiations, and hibs. The length of the executive session is estimated to be 75 minutes, after which the public meeting of the board shall reconvene and proceed with business where formal action will be taken. May I have a second? Thank you, board member Brown. All in favor? Great. to approve the board meeting minutes from the March 13, 2025 exec and special budget meeting minutes and the March 27th, 2025 executive and regular board meeting minutes. Do I have a second? Thank you. Forward member uh second Gable. All in favor, please raise your hand. Great. minutes are approved and now we'll have the student update. Thank you. Uh hello everyone. Um so I'd like to start off by congratulating

003junior Lola Cart Foster for being accepted into the highly competitive secondary student training program at the University of Iowa. This year, the program had an acceptance rate of just 1%, selecting only 35 students from a national and international applicant pool. Lola was matched with the neuroscience at pharmarmacology lab where she'll pursue research that aligns with her interest in neural engineering. She'll spend the summer engaged in specialized hands-on research and has also been awarded a 50% scholarship to support her participation. Congratulations to Sophie Khan, a CHS junior and aspiring political science major for being selected as one of 32 New Jersey scholars for 2025. This prestigious program at the Lawrenville School offers a dynamic 5week summer experience where students engage in an interdisciplinary college level curriculum. Great work. Congratulations to Columbia High School's film students for

004earning the best in cinematography award from Kentplay School. Colombia's first filmmaking award from the school in 15 years. Junior Oliver Pendlebear directed the winning film Project Weekend with standout performances by seniors Zachary Baron, Nev Kunyki, Theodore Rothberg, Sophia Nup Jones, and Adam Jacob. Special recognition also goes to Reese Wolfinger for earning his second award in two years. Kudos to all and to their teacher, Mr. Muriganiano, for guiding and inspiring our young filmmakers. We're so proud to announce that nine educators from five schools in the South Orange and Mapwood School District have been selected as recipients of the 2025 Ricky Teaching Fellowship, generously funded by the Achieve Foundation. These fellowships totaling nearly $10,500 will support teachers as they engage in professional development programs this summer across the country. The selected programs focus on advancing teaching practices

005in literacy, diversity, social emotional learning, and the arts, areas that are central to our district's commitment to equity and excellence. Congratulations to the following SOMD teachers. Miss Tui, Miss Riss, Miss Mamrackck, Miss Montes, Miss Lake, Miss Row, Miss Hampton, Miss Johnson, and Miss Thomas. Congratulations to all. I hope everyone is doing well this evening. Um, first, security issues remain a topic of interest for the student body who believe that the current ID system um is ineffective and many students have expressed feelings of discomfort upon entering the bathroom and seeing crowds of people smoking. An issuist recently triggered a fire alarm at CHS, diverting emergency resources from potential necessary calls. Ace and I have spoken with Mr. values on addressing these issues and plan to follow up on their plan to install heightened detection systems so

006that all can feel safe. Um ACE and I are on a more positive note excited to be part of a student advisory committee including both middle school and high school student councils with its first meeting tomorrow and we'll report on what issues we get into there. And we believe that this cooperation is important in getting ideas out from students across the district. Um construction has continued to progress at CHS, but many students are um feeling frustrated by the absence of a working stage. So we're eager to see um that specific project continue to develop in the coming months so that CHS arts can be back in full swing. Um, school and action night at Columbia was unfortunately delayed due to scheduling issues, but we've assisted student council in um, planning this event so that younger

007students can best experience the wide range of activities which CHS has to offer and so that these clubs can continue into the future. Those are all my remarks for tonight. Thank you so much, Ha and Oliver. Are there any questions the board? No. Do you um what's your date for the survey going to that you uh sent to students? What are you going to be done with that soon? Yeah, so we do have a lot of um findings that we can just share with the board. But um yeah, you could you can email it to us and then report in the next month. I think that sounds good. Yeah, perfect. Thank you. Don't want to put you on the spot. Okay. Um, next the superintendent update. Shakespeare festival. Just the Shakespeare festival is tomorrow. [Music]

008Um, I do have the student advisory council on my calendar. I also have you two bringing the bagels. So, I like them hot. I like them fresh. I say about 2:00, not in the morning. They're going to be cold by the by the afternoon. It's appreciated. Wanted to just touch on some items we've been working on. I do want to give a big shout out to South Orange Police Department Chief uh Ernesto Marillo who is retiring. um he has been a wonderful partner since I've come on board and has just bent over backwards working with the district and trying to ensure every student safety. So, just a big thank you to Ernesto. Uh I understand they did a nice little ride out. Yeah. Today. Yeah. Um this week I met with Mr. Seckler from Stonefield

009Engineering to discuss conducting a study on potential safe routes for our students. Again, we're now I think three years into our last one. you usually should have them redone every three years. Um, our senior leadership team is currently reviewing the proposal uh with a dual focus on enhancing student safety and identifying opportunities uh for cost savings. Um, elementary placements and uh intentional integration initiative. As part of our intentional integration initiative, we're preparing to share elementary school placements or families. Kindergarten students who registered early can expect to receive their school placement notifications by the end of May. Families of students entering grades one through four will receive placement information during the summer months. We understand that many families are eager to receive this information and appreciate your patience and continued support as we carry out this

010important work. Uh for more details, including the full timeline, please visit the district website and click on click on the triple I link. eighth grade re-registration process. On March 26th, we held a virtual town hall to outline the eighth grade re-registration process. This initiative is focused on ensuring that all currently enrolled eighth grade students who will be entering Columbia High School reside within the boundaries of South Orange and Maplewood School District. Uh families of questions or need additional information are encouraged to visit the district website registration page to view the re-registration process. We are now completed with stage one of that process which was the digital electronic portion of that. Uh letters will be going out to uh all incoming 9th graders within the next few weeks. Uh either stating that you're okay, all your

011documents are up to date. Uh they're what we need or you need to uh submit uh different documentation or or you're missing some documentation. Again, uh documentation will be shared with no one. It will be kept private um and data will be shared uh with no other body. Richerfield uh we are currently waiting uh for a cost update uh on version one of the richerfield proposal from Speasel Architects that was approved in [Laughter] two years ago. two years ago. Okay, just testing um children's cabinet. So, we uh recently sent out invites uh to our new children's uh cabinet uh that we'll be uh facilitating. Uh again, the objective of the children's cabinet is to connect all members of the Soma community who support children in order to create and coordinate a cradle to career system

012of services, supports, and opportunities that ensures every child can thrive in Soma. Uh the inaugural meeting will be held April 30th. Um we invited uh over uh 30 individuals and organizations uh that directly service children of the South Orange Maplewood School District. Again, one of the one of the objectives of a children's cabinet is to uh really look at gaps in services uh and also look at uh redundancy. You know, one organization may be doing what we're doing already. So why not work collectively and also get groups together for uh opportunities in regards to grants and funding budget advisory committee. Um we had our last meeting Monday. Believe that was yesterday. Yeah. No Tuesday. Tuesday cuz I was on Tuesday. Tuesday. Thank you. Sorry. Uh Tuesday our fourth meeting. Uh for those you don't know,

013it's an advisory committee with representatives from all stakeholders in the district. Its purpose to learn more about the district's budget that share that information with uh constituent groups and provide feedback in the budget development process. Um we want to give a big thanks to everybody that participated. I think we had 98% attendance at almost every meeting. Great recommendations that you will see we utilized uh in our in our uh budget. Um, our intent is to extend this initial inaugural committee another year uh and also put in uh quarterly check-ins so we can check the progress of the 2526 budget uh and obviously also help construct the 2526 budget. I think one of the um recommendations we did receive is just do a little more training with the uh committee members which I think what we

014can we can do uh and also provide uh frequent one-pagers that they could share with with the public and uh and our families. And finally uh the anxious generation book study was held yesterday. Yes, last night. Last night, Wednesday night, uh had about 50 plus community members attended uh the book uh Anxious Generation by Jonathan Hate. Uh hate shows how play-based childhood began to decline in the 1980s and how it was finally wiped out by the arrival of a phone-based childhood in the early uh 2010. He presents more than a dozen mechanisms by which this great rewiring of childhood has interfered with children's social and neurological development covering everything from sleep deprivation to attend to attention fragmentation, addiction, loneliness, social uh contagion, social comparison, and perfectionism. The initial book study covered chapters 1 through five

015of our next session. Uh the date is still to be announced. We'll focused on chapters 6 through 10. We do want to give a big thanks out uh to Rachel from team Unscreen who uh helped us as a facilitator, provided some great information and some great insight. Uh and of course big thank you to Ashaya who facilitated it and Dr. Gilbert who also sat on the panel. So big thanks to both. That is all I have. Thank you. Mr. Moody, would you like to do your update? Sure. Thank you. I guess I'll proceed right into our budget presentation. Um Keith, if you wouldn't mind queuing that up. Thank you, Mr. Bonds. Bless you. So, thank you everyone for joining us here today for our final budget hearing. Uh, I will be presenting the school district

016budget that's proposed for fiscal year or school year 2526. Um, as you'll notice, the superintendent and I will uh pass the microphone between us to to share our insights, but uh I will get started. Keith, you can next slide. I will start by just characterizing our budget process. Uh essentially I see a budget really as a conversation amongst a broad array of stakeholder groups for the uh assessment and determination of appropriate spending levels uh and setting of priorities. So it captures the depth and breadth of of the various different groups and it incorporates that into a plan going forward. It is kind of equivalent to a lighthouse and a beacon in that we're looking to actually present forward what our priorities and objectives are and then direct and signal where those sources of funding should

017be directed toward their intended use. All linked to the priorities that are set forth by the school district and the uh the board uh who's tasked with setting that way forward. Next screen. Okay. Okay. Thank you. I want to point out that when we presented the preliminary budget, I could see this screen and it was not blurry. So, I don't know if that's a comment on my age. I have an extra pair of Mr. Bond classes here. So, uh did want to put in my two cents before we start the presentation. Uh and as you see on the left when we came in or when I came in um you know there was a theme of uh distrust and trauma. You know distrust is a little different than mistrust. Distrust is uh you're not trusting

018a person or a party due to something happening due to an experience. Uh so you know we were we were very intentional in using the word distrust. Um, so for us it's, you know, one of the barriers or challenges that that we're trying to overcome as we move forward. We understand there was a lot of trauma from that distrust over the last few years. Uh, and that's a lot of the work that we have ahead of us. Um, so just real quick, you know, coming in, as you all know, I believe July, um, we had our BA had left, um, and our assistant BA was leaving. I think she had another week. Um, so obviously that those two actions pushed me right into the budget, uh, one of the more important uh, things we we

019deal with uh, in central office. Uh and then when we brought our interm, it provided an opportunity to get another set of eyes on the 2425 budget and also provide a partner to sit down and analyze uh what it looked like. Uh we shared with the board, we shared with the public that we did find some challenges with the 2425 budget. Um thereafter, uh we were lucky enough to get a new assistant business administrator, a new BA. Um we also had had the privilege of bringing in a very well-known consultant uh and we all realized there was a need to redevelop the 2425 budget completely uh while starting to develop the 2526 budget. Um during that process uh we all came to the agreement that uh we landed on a zerobased process that we would

020employ just strictly starting from scratch just due to the lack of information and artifacts that that we had. Uh and part of our job moving forward is is really to bring that department into the 21st century and make sure that we're utilizing such things as our systems 3000 that we're using an online PO system so we have a track of everything uh that we are doing. Um you know we have been strategic and our methods have been more scaffold-l like spending freeze in January. Uh we froze hires until an audit of certifications was completed. We examined schedules visit classrooms. Um, however, the challenge still remains. We have costs that are much more than our revenue. Uh, and by much more, you're looking at the millions. Um, we have to build up our reserves. You've heard

021this message again and again and again. And for those of you who aren't familiar with, uh, ed technology, that is our savings. We have to build up our savings. Uh this budget we will be utilizing reserves again due to the need to maintain our facilities uh to avoid reductions in force to avoid program cuts. Um this should give us time and and uh to continue our process of analyzing uh such things as our outsource contracts and you've heard that message throughout. Uh we outsource custodial maintenance, transportation, power professionals, food services, security. Um during this budget cycle, we had the opportunity to really delve deep uh into a couple of our private uh vendor contracts, but we still need more time to continue that work. Uh and also to look at the identified areas in the

022budget that we all agreed upon uh uh have and hold uh a lot of monies that hopefully we can be a little more efficient around. Um, moving forward into 2526, we have to be more resourceful and innovative when it comes to making the hard decisions in developing a balanced budget. Uh, we cannot continue the pattern of relying on reserves. Uh, additionally, we need to explore alternative revenue streams uh and continue to look into cost savings. Um, we've been showing uh this at all of our presentations, town hall presentations. Uh, but you've read the headlines. Uh, we are not alone. Whether it's West Orange, Monontlair, East Orange, Oldbridge, Lacy, Ridgefield, Hillsboro, South Planefield, Planefield, you name it, the list goes on. Uh we will need continued advocacy on our part in Trenton to hopefully change the

023funding formula or as noted in the aforementioned paragraph, um we have some uh some investigation, some analyzation, uh and some real difficult decisions to make moving forward. Um and for us to overcome the challenge of distrust and the trauma that uh this community has gone through uh that means we have to be very transparent around that work. Uh so we're going to be exploring every option and again as noted we're going to remain as transparent as possible with that process for upcoming budgets. Um the idea of no surprises will will be our focus moving forward. We talk about this regularly. Um and you'll see in this budget uh presentation. We we have a projection. We're hoping to detail that projection moving forward as as we do more of our work. Uh our plan is to

024start the 25 sorry 26 27 budget October 1st. So work around that budget will start October 1st. will be as transparent around that as possible. Uh we're hoping uh that this open communication and transparency this past year has demonstrated our intent to create a more participary budgeting process where we want more people involved. Um as noted previously, we we really did enjoy working with the advisory committee. Um we got some great ideas and utilized um some great strategies from that group. Um, I think that also means as as we become fiscally responsible and really are working on uh building a sustainable budget in the years ahead that we also have to address and I've noted this before the uniqueness of South Orange Maplewood School District. Um, it's it's we have to work to do a

025to do communally as well as remembering we are we are models for our children, right? that's got to be in the forefront of our work. Um the honesty, the cander, the transparency uh needs to be there, but we also need to work collaboratively and be intentional around that and know that we are every behavior and every word that comes out of our mouths are modeling it for for our students. um you know for for us and when we discuss this I I think we have a real good possibility of shaking that uniqueness moniker and and really transitioning over to collaborative professional and and united and that does not necessarily mean that we agree on everything right but it it can mean that we can agree to disagree uh and we model that for our students

026we also model that for our uh community um so that agree to disagree also mandates civil discourse which I think over the next year we're going to provide parental and community workshops on that. Uh I can speak to everybody in this room because they know this. It's part of our work with New Jersey school boards as well. The board has been putting in time and work around that. So uh we're hoping to model that as we move forward. Um I can promise you that we we do remain steadfast to working together to set the district up for success in order to have a fiscally responsible and sustainable budget in the years ahead. Um, we're going to have to keep in mind that this is going to involve going beyond district borders and really working closely

027with our community stakeholders. Um, because as we've noted previously, whether it's SOPAC, whether it's uh, you know, South Irons government, we're all going through the same thing. We have to work collectively. I truly believe the more people in the room uh, the better innovative strategies will get. uh and that we will be able to get through this. Um but we do want to put it out there. These are we're going to need to make difficult decisions moving forward. We will be as transparent about those decisions as humanly possible. That is the promise we will make. Thank you, Superintendent Bing, and thank you for uh setting the tone here for this process. And I I have to um just echo some of the items that the superintendent mentioned briefly. Uh I want to extend my gratitude

028to the board, the full board for operating collaborative collaboratively and with decorum as we as we have moved through this process in in in a more granular way than I think has been done in the district. Um there's a great deal of scrutiny. I'll speak to that in our process. Keith, you can uh um do that next slide. But here I want to just give an overview of what our process was, right? Um our our process was one where first we listened to the concerns that were expressed to us from prior years and concerns and we we kind of did some research and determined that this had to be a great deal more collaborative this process. We had to involve all all the various different stakeholder groups. So, I'm going to speak to that, but

029we wanted to collect our budget priorities that are given to us by our board uh and then uh make certain that they form the thread that pulls through everything, every set of decisions that we make uh during the whole budget process. Uh as superintendent being mentioned, the budget process is actually a process that just never stops. It's a year- round process. budget priorities are set in uh July, August, the summer that precedes the school year. Uh by the second payroll in October, we should it's healthy to have uh at least established your projected uh uh staffing through your position control roster. And then it's an iterative process over the next several months to really uh infuse the budget priorities into all of your analysis and all of the your sets of decision-m. And we have

030chosen in this process even though it was uh compressed due to the lateness or the timing of of our arrival um to really be collaborative throughout. We'll I'll detail some of that. Uh then we go into projecting revenue uh meticulously and ascertaining the likely projected levels of resources that we'll have available to us. And we all know that there's been tremendous pressure both at the federal and state level and local level as to uh the the setting of the revenue that we have available. Then we look at our enrollment. We project out the enrollment and we look at the needs that we will be serving in the coming year. We uh then go through every account line and every function or department and determine the necessary levels of expenditures. Then we look at our tax

031impact and uh then I'll I'll take you through some budget highlights that exist for our process for this year. Uh next slide. [Music] So we were lucky enough been a wonderful help in this process. um the audits that were done in regards to special services uh the long range facility plan uh that was done as well uh and also uh Speasel Architects who really helped us better understand the capital project and and where we were and where we were going. Yeah, thank you for that. Those are the some some of those external stakeholders that really helped us kind of train our lens and inform our thinking. uh when you have auditors uh at your shoulder for your entrance to a school district uh kind of like it it directs you directly to the challenges and

032the the details the facts uh you know that are substantiated. So that process starting that audit process in conjunction with the start of our budget process was really essential and the other stakeholder groups that you mentioned as well. Um so in that process we availed ourselves of those external parties. Uh we also of course uh engaged through board meetings and with a board forum. We engaged in uh iterative small groupoup board meetings. Of course we can't uh assemble the full board all the time because that would uh violate uh open public meeting act designation. So we assembled small group meetings to hear from our board and share developments uh with our board. Uh we also have board committee meetings and in those committees such as the personnel finance uh facilities and technology we uh dive

033deeper into the concepts that we're exploring into the levels that we're looking to set. Um and then our community conversations u and as superintendent Bing mentioned our budget advisory committee meetings where we interact with folks who we've asked to come and lend their time from the community. Uh we've also engaged in um many different town halls. We've done surveys with the community and there's been other forms of district correspondence. There's been advocacy in Trenton. superintendent has gone down to the state capital several times to advocate for a change to the SFRA, state funding uh reform act that sets the level at which state aid is distributed to districts. I myself had the opportunity to also speak with Senator Teres and uh advocate also for the changes and updates to the formula to be to make

034everything more equitable in terms of how state aid is aortioned. Uh, we've also had town committee meetings with South Orange and the town of Maplewood. Mr. Bonds, Keith, if you can advance that. Uh, oh, okay. Sorry. Got it. Um, now, uh, off to our budget priorities. Um, I spoke earlier about the fact that our board set forth for us priorities to guide our hand, to guide our thinking, to guide our decision-making, to guide our analysis. Uh, these what you have before you are the priorities that were set for us. Uh, we uh were called upon to design learning experiences that will propel students through college and career by preparing them to become leaders, designers, problem solvers, and innovators. We were called upon to optimize current programming and staffing uh and engage in strategic deployment of

035maximized resources. Um the the fact is you know this guidance was essential throughout this whole process. Um we we we needed to meet the needs the growing needs of staff and students and community but that called upon us to assess those needs uh at each juncture. Our priorities that were given to us also called for us to continue building improvements and to execute on maintenance projects and construction projects that were already underway consistent with our long-range facilities plan and any emergent need that we see. Uh and this plan aligns with our ambitious academic climate and culture aspirations for the school district. We were also called upon to look backwards analytically and to look forwards strategically. So we needed to use uh our database decision-m in order to allocate resources and be very strategic about identifying

036needs and prioritizing the initiatives to to provide the greatest impact. I think a lot of our work as Ammani noted and I noted briefly at the start of this is really building up uh those warehouses of data. um that we currently well we didn't have when we we came in. So whether that's link it, whether that's training all staff on systems 3000 um whether that's uh online assessments, we want to make sure we have a data warehouse so we're able not only to track where our monies are being spent, but also track the impact of of the items, equipment, books uh that we are purchasing with those monies. Absolutely. that uh that additional um technology will will help us going forward. So uh uh next up Keith. So our budget development milestones, our preliminary budget

037was presented at the board meeting on March 13th and then submitted to the county on March 19th. Uh as mentioned before, we've had budget advisory committee meetings and those dates were February 20th, March 6th, March 19th, and March 22nd. uh budget town halls March 25th, April 2nd, April 4th, April 10th, and April 11th. We also did municipality presentations April 1st, and April 28th, as well as tonight, our public budget hearing on April 24th. Once the budget is uh voted for approval, the userfriendly budget will then be posted on the district website within 48 hours after the public hearing. Uh the 2526 budget is implemented starting July 1st 2025 but runs through June 30th 26 and the district starts working on the 2627 bud budget as I mentioned in October of 2025. Thank you Keith Re.

038Next slide. So our revenue sources this is the first stop. This is where we look at the very real uh and certain realities of the likely money that we're that we're going to receive. I mean, it's a difficult thing to do in advance of the setting of those revenue targets, but we can project at least local tax levy uh at 2%. New Jersey's law NJSA187F38 uh um assigns that rest that it restricts school districts to a 2% increase in their tax levy. So that's something that we know and can project. Uh and then we need to go forth and project enrollment adjustments, healthcare adjustments that are based on our likely uh growth or decline in enrollment uh and any changes year-over-year in healthcare uh healthcare spend by the district. What's more difficult to determine is

039the level of state aid this year. There was a great deal of uncertainty. There's a great little consternation uh across the state because folks uh had no idea what they would get in the way of state aid amongst us included. But uh guidance was provided to us uh in advance of state aid being determined that suggested that at least there's a floor. They let us know that state aid would not go down more than 3%. Uh however, we were lucky. We were lucky and we got 6% in state aid and I'll cover that. uh when we get to the actual levels then there's also the semi special education Medicaid initiative uh and this is where we can get reimbursements based on uh our allocation of resources towards special a special education endeavors. However, um year-over-year

040in this year, there was a change to the calculation methodology and each district across the state uh is actually uh due to receive less in semi- aid. And I'll I'll talk about that when we get to that. Our internal sources of revenue uh to supplement the the appropriations are interest earned on our assets that we have in our operating account or assets that we have that are proceeds from the sale of bonds. Uh we can earn interest or returns there. Um there's also rents and royalties through the uh allowance of our communities to use uh our our facilities for their needs. Um we're hoping to grow that as well. There's also miscellaneous revenue. That's a category that kind of is a catch-all for any other source of funding that comes to our district, not even

041necessarily funding it because it could be reimbursements or bank uh you know uh monies that are returned from the bank. And then we have as a potential re it's not a revenue source. It's kind of a source of funding and that is our district reserves. And we can use this as a funding uh resource where we deem necessary. But we are called upon as fiscal stewards of the district to be extremely uh conservative in the in the use of those funds and to really do our best every year to try to add back to those funds so that the next year and the subsequent year to that uh we have some available resources for emergent needs, capital needs, maintenance needs or any other needs. In the in corporate world, you do a a SWAT analysis.

042Uh strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. And where there are opportunities that may allow for you to invest in them that'll increase and achieve new efficiencies, we want to have reserves to be able to to address those. Uh and where there are threats, we want to be able to address that as well. So, uh, it is our duty to do, uh, everything we can to try to engage in some savings to, uh, increase our district's reserves because, uh, prior to our arrival in the years that lead up to today, the district had to really tap into those reserves year-over-year. Uh, and this budget that we are presenting here today also does contemplate uh, using some more in the way of maintenance reserve. I'll go into that a little later, but we need to turn that tide

043and be about the business of adding back to reserves because of the fiscal cliff that we've been talking about. We also have a pretty good opportunity here because we'll be starting the strategic planning process in the very near future. Uh, and really have an opportunity to look at growth areas for us moving forward and get different sets of eyes on that. So for us, I think we're in a really nice spot to bring in the community and bring in stakeholders to really take a comprehensive look at, you know, where we have growth areas, where we have cost-saving opportunities, uh, and things of that nature. That's correct. So, um, this slide is our revenue picture. I discussed, uh, you know, the fact that we don't know in advance how to project for this. However, we do

044our best at each uh iteration to to kind of project forward and as information comes in, we're able to set these levels for the coming year. As you can see here, uh year-over-year, our tax levy, you know, did in, you know, uh we were able to leverage that to the 2% cap and that accounts for the increase in tax levy revenue. Then uh we also were able to get an enrollment adjustment that we're projecting to be 850K because our enrollment is projected to increase. We also this year uh as I mentioned prior got 6% on our a growth in our state aid which took us up by around $619,000 to 10.9 million. Um a lot of our our neighbors did not get that kind of growth and they're they're they're suffering. Um so uh I

045also spoke about the fact that maintenance reserve has been used in the past years to really address some of the emergent needs around the district. As we know this district has some of the oldest infrastructure. Uh Columbia High School is the oldest high school in the state. I always like to say that. But uh we've done a lot there in prior years with uh our bond issuance, taking the proceeds of the bonds that were issued in prior years and doing some very um comprehensive structural projects behind the walls, replacing a HVAC units and the like, adding on additions to to better accommodate our students and staff. So um yes, there has been reserve use. Yes, we do project uh uh on the outside to potentially level $2.5 million from our maintenance reserve in the coming

046uh proposed fiscal year. That said, we're taking that on a project by project basis and making those decisions during the year. Um, so there are projects like uh district concrete that needs to be uh corrected, district fencing, uh things of that nature. Um that that we'll go into a little later. There's also the next category would be extraordinary aid. Uh $2 million was budgeted in extraordinary aid. Um the prior year we actually did get 2.421 in extraordinary aid. So we're we feel comfortable budgeting for 2.5 million giving an assessment of our special education spending resources in in terms of budgeted fund balance. This 7.044 million uh for 2425 and 6.893 million in 2526 are numbers that are given to us by our auditors from our audit. Uh we our audit was completed in January of

047this year and they calculated these amounts. Um and so our fund balance needs to have those amounts uh in for this fiscal year and the subsequent fiscal year uh based on their calculations and uh we'll get more into that when we start talking about our reserve utilization and how just how close we are to fiscal cliff. We're also projecting to use about 4.45 million from our unassigned FUD balance. I mentioned the uh special education Medicaid initiative because um there was a decline in that calculation methodology as you can see here. Uh the prior year 195,000 was our budget but this year our our budget is really $24,788. However, we are budgeting uh or the the 100% of the semi would be 24,788. We're budgeting at 90% of that which we are um called upon to

048do by law and that number is $22,000. So a significant decline there uh but that was given to us by state new state calculations. We're projecting 600k in interest on our investments, rents and royalties of 200k. We're going to try to grow that and miscellaneous revenue of 331,000. So all totaling to general operating budget of $170,225,226. The next subtotal is for our special revenue fund and that includes IDA, ESA, non-public and preschool aid. Those total to be 11.2 million. And we all know what's been happening at the at the macro level at the federal government level. uh we know about the turmoil and the uncertainty there as it pertains to federal funding for school districts. So we're projecting that out at around 70% uh prior year budgeted levels, but uh we're hoping to get as

049much as possible on on those lines. Then our our subtotal for debt service fund. Uh in working with our municipal advisors uh who helped us with the the array of bond issuances which I'll go into a little further later uh they calculated our principal and interest responsibility to be 13.033 million. Now that money comes from three areas. It comes from uh the debt service aid that we get at 2.8 8 as well as the $1.1 million in uh returns or or earnings on our investments that we can contribute from fund balance. And then there's also the $9 million from the debt service tax levy. So that totals to the $13 million requirement. Uh and these these bonds were issued with full knowledge that there would be these principal interest and interest payments over the life

050cycle of the bonds. But it was necessary because uh that that borrowing uh allowed the the district to really do some uh a wide array of structural uh construction spending that that I've referred to prior. Then there's also the preschool contribution from our budget which is 1.74 million. Uh and our total revenue is $192,730,958. Next slide. So this is just a picture of our revenue. As you can see, the local tax levy is 83.3% of that. Our state aid around 7.9%. Uh maintenance reserve that I spoke on a moment ago is about 1.5 of that. Um and then our budgeted fund balance uses 6.7% of that. That's what we're trying to scale back. And then we have uh local revenue of 7%. Next slide. Here we'd like to just show trends in enrollment. This reflects

051our high school enrollment. And as you can see, um, it kind of peaked out around 1920, trended downward somewhat, and then now is on the rise. Next slide. Middle school shows a similar structure just a bit more pronounced in its peak around 1920 but then uh the levels have been increasing year-over-year and we project uh further increases. Elementary school similarly uh much more pronounced and that bodess well for u growth in our pop our student population moving forward. uh our staff and hiring trends along that time frame. Um since 2019, we've hired 87 new staff and maintained uh staffing levels. But as you can see also here with a decline in uh enrollment from 1920 uh to those years there wasn't uh so much of a right sizing uh or adjustments were were not made.

052However, uh in the coming year um you know or we're actually turning that trend around uh and bringing those numbers closer together. Do what I emphasize as Monti noted uh New Jersey is projecting us to offer another 150 to 200 students increase uh into next school year, right? uh whereas our current uh enrollment is around 6,993, we're projecting 7,143 for the coming year. So next for appropriations, um this is the other side of the budget. This is the uh expense side where we've arrayed our expenditures here and appropriations. The ones that are highlighted are the ones that I just want to call to your attention. As you can see, $82 million in salaries. The next uh largest uh category is employee benefits at 22 million and then 13.9 in custo custodial services. I mean that

053actually includes utilities and insurance. Um and then there's uh 12.5 I'm sorry 13.2 million in in uh in 2025 for tuition. So you can see uh the growth year-over-year and or decline. For instance, with transportation, you can see we've taken some actions. We've been able to bring that dollar amount down uh a little bit. We need to achieve more in the way of savings on that line going forward. Um next slide. So here I want to just go into some of the different uh categories of expenditure that we face and our rationale for for making our projections. We did project for our increases in salary which is our largest expenditure um with rates consistent with our current negotiations and there's increases projected of 15% in terms of health benefits cost utilities costs and insurance costs

054uh 5% for just custodial services. Now, based on our trends, we looked at uh Superintendent Bing mentioned just the wide array of different uh vendor contracts that we have, how things have been outsourced. That's a part of the challenge with the district. We've been looking at trends. We've been exploring those contracts, exploring making changes to vendors and vendor language and just optimizing making those contracts more efficient. We have to do that with each line in in this budget process, but we also have to optimize that further as we we push forth into the 25 26 year and begin looking out to 2627. Next, tuition. We spent a lot of time with our assistant superintendent of um special services and really projected out the costs associated with out of district uh tuition um placement for tuition

055uh as well as transportation costs for out of district for special education. We also judged and based our projections based on the demand that we see that exists today and we made very realistic projections as to the 2526 year uh in terms of projecting our needs and and made certain to allocate resources to those needs. We've made some good progress also this year just bringing students back in district uh and that's got to be our focus moving forward. If we talk about areas of growth, areas of opportunities, it's it's investing to be more efficient and to save money. So, uh you'll note we we added a child study team uh and we also added an ERRI classroom this year. So, we need to take a close look at our continuum of services and really see

056what we're sending our students out of district for uh and address internally if we could if we could facilitate those programs with Fidelity inhouse. That's a that's a good point there. Uh for each of these categories of expenditure, we're called upon to make investments in order to change the economics of the likely outcomes or to experience savings or uh increase revenue. So we're uh you know similarly with transportation, we're anticipating a growth in in transportation costs um next slide Keith um of 3.57%. And we're looking to review and explore options for employing a hub system. I I like to refer to it uh more as a bus stop consolidation initiative uh just because we want to be very uh mindful of all of the forces at play in in our transportation analysis and and be

057certain to be increasing efficiency and enhancing savings but also shortening routes, getting folks to school on time faster. Um, so we're re-evaluating all of the district routes and refining those routes, optimizing bus sizes and the capacity utilization of the of the buses. Yeah, when we came in, as you all know, there was a a transportation issue. Uh, we we had the passing of the director uh and it was all hands on deck. Uh, and you know, to be very honest, it it we learned a lot about the transportation system being down there for four and a half, five months. Um part of that work uh was riding buses and getting a better understanding of the length of routes. Uh so that's really work we have to do on our own as as we uh just

058recently upgraded our transfinder software which is the software almost every district utilizes to schedule routes. Um I think we need to do a better job in regards to shortening those routes for our children especially for our younger kids. um ideas such as bus hubs, you know, are really ideas and concepts we'll we'll be delving deeper into this school year, but not looking uh to implement. Um everything that we're really exploring over the next year, uh we'll look to implement uh if the community thinks it's worthy, uh in 2627. So I think this next year 2526 is going to be a big year of uh exploration and discovery. Um, as Ammani noted, we identified the large budget areas. Now, we need to get more eyes on those budget areas and try to figure out creative ways

059uh to make those more efficient. Thank you. Yes, thank you, Keith. Um, so this slide really just looks at the fact that we're balanced and gives you uh the the broad picture by fund. We have a general fund of 170,225,226. We have special revenue of 11,219,775 and the debt service of 13,33,043 that I've spoke on before, but uh there's also a little blurb in this slide that talks about the fact that the debt service is the the annual debt obligation of the district. Uh and it's fixed and it's the basis um that is known from the beginning. It's a it's a it's uh separate from the school tax rate, but uh it's known since the actual bond issuances were approved. I also think and and Ammani and I have talked about this and Andrew as

060well. Um you know, we have noticed uh a bit of uh lack of knowledge around budgeting 101 uh in our community. So, you know, the advantage of having a lot of these town halls is receiving feedback and a lot of the questions are are around terminology and what does that mean? So, I think on our end, we need to do a better job of just budget 101 workshops for all of our stakeholders moving forward. So, we'll work on that uh for the new year. Yeah, that enhances our ability to communicate and collaborate. Uh, next slide. Now, we've been talking about the fact that prior years, uh, there's been a a use of reserves to meet the needs of the district from a facility standpoint. What's clear is that this district was in need and remains

061in need of continuing investment. But we also have to be fiscal stewards of our resources and be about the business of not allowing for any movement closer to or over a fiscal cliff. In that regard, we have to change our disposition and uh in the year to in the year and years to come to really add back to reserves and add back to fund balance uh just to be prudent and to be certain we're not in a situation like these other districts that are that are out here. So I want to kind of give a picture of how that has happened. Um as you may recall and as I've mentioned earlier uh during our audit in January of this year we were presented with our numbers and that was the audit for the fiscal year

062June 3024 and we had around $33 million in uh in reserves. Um however the way reserves work and the way um our fund balance works is uh there are certain reserves for certain purposes. There's a capital reserve, there's a maintenance reserve, there's legal reserves. Uh and so what you'll see here is that from that audit, our auditors calculated $7.044 million mandatory to be used in the fiscal 2425 budget. Uh there's also a dollar amount of 6.8 893 million to be used in the 2526 budget. That all came from the analysis during our audit. Um, our predecessors did elect to uh use $4.267 million from the capital reserve in fiscal year 25. We've been carrying out those projects. We we're continuing to use uh that money to uh reinforce our infrastructure and also authorized a $

0631.5 million uh draw from the maintenance reserve. So already right there in this year, this fiscal year that we reside in today, uh that contemplates a $ 122.8 million decline in uh our fund balance. That said, we have been uh vigilant about as we discover and do the research for fiscal 24 25 account lines to generate a 2526 budget to be extremely prudent and to make certain that all of the uh monies are encumbered properly and that the the resources are distributed properly but that we are achieving savings to add back to fund balance. And that is referenced here in our projected additions at the end of this fiscal year of $9 million to our fund balance. And that was essential. It was crucial because we're going to need some of that money in the

0642526 budget year. But then also we need to save additional money in that 2526 budget year to add back at the end of fiscal 26. And you'll see why. Um this contemplates us adding back $9 million. uh and we're on target to do so. Now, however, we have in the budgeting in 2026 column the 6.893 plus the dollar amount that we're projecting to use in our budget of $4.45 million, which takes us up to an 11.35 million budgeted use of unassigned fund balance in 26. Again, this does this particular chart does not contemplate any savings in 26. That's what we will be called upon to achieve next year. We also contemplate a $2.5 million withdrawal from maintenance reserve and that's only if we do 100% of the projects that we've earmarked. Uh we have a

065long list of projects that include uh cement, uh fencing, grounds work, uh fire escapes, things of that nature, and we will be doing those projects as needed over the course of the year. and while we're undergoing the process of attempting to save more for the coming year. So th this scenario does contemplate a $13.8 million use of additional uh funds uh or fund balance. That is if we do all of those projects. Um that said, we will be seeking to save more and to explore each of these account lines and explore each of the areas where we can optimize efficiency to add back to fund balance in the next year so that we can turn the tide around here. We can do the necessary structural work that we've been doing over these years, but then

066achieve the efficiencies going forward. And we'll we'll talk even more about other projects that we have teed up like our energy savings improvement plan bond issuance. We're looking for an additional area of funding where we can engage in updates to our infrastructure that immediately pay pay for themselves uh through savings. If we insulate and add uh you know items or like windows to our building envelope or do things that increase efficiency like solar, we then can really track the savings that come from those initiatives and then uh we we will be doing the right thing for the district for the long haul and also achieving savings in the short term. Yeah, I think it's important to emphasize as Ammani noted that you know we will be using reserves again this year uh really to to

067main maintain staffing uh to avoid program cuts and also just to give us a little more time to really take a closer look at everything and get more eyes on this so we can be more innovative around uh where we need to go uh with our budget over the next year. So, uh, I do believe that, uh, getting the right folks in the room will enable us to do that. Uh, and that also lends, as I noted, to our really good timing of our strategic planning. Correct. Next slide, please. I do, just real quick, because we noted this last time. Um, you know, when we did create this budget, we did place an emphasis on on not decimating facilities. Uh too often districts that's the first place they go to because that's where most of

068the money is. Um you know we really sat Tom down uh and just discussed priorities and what has to be done to make sure that we're providing healthy environments for our students. And then we revisited those conversations probably about 18 more times. Um so this this is what we've been talking about here. Uh fiscal cliff just ahead. We've seen it in the news. We've seen uh districts that are laying off teachers, closing buildings, that are doing dramatic reactionary things uh to just keep their students educated. We want to learn from those c circumstances and situations and and we've been motivated to do so really by taking a really hard look at the realities of our current situation and the data that was presented to us and the levels of spending and and doing a a

069strong analysis to look at how we can avert this fiscal cliff. Uh and and I think you know we've done a solid job thus far but there's a great uh deal of more work to come. So um next slide. So you know I mentioned the the dire nature and the dire need to decrease expenses and to add to fund balance reserves. Uh because we have capped increases in revenue. We're subject to a 2% local tax levy cap. So if everything else is growing in the way of expense four 5 27% uh you know it's the math doesn't work. So, we really need to be um you know acting with ingenuity and innovation. The district the district's been using capital and maintenance reserves over the past uh years to address facilities needs. We know that um

070we've talked about that and our general operating revenues uh do come from tax levy. Our enrollment waiver is projected to be 850k this year due to growth. These are increases. This is these are are good things now but we want to be prudent this year. Um again tax levy only 2% a year. Now the funding of the state aid again unknown. This is this is a recap but uh so many districts lost state aid. It's it's it's well worth it to really underline this so folks can understand this. And everyone knows the future of federal funding is unknown. Um and you know we budgeted 1.484 u for 2526 school year. I think it's important uh to note uh and again going back to the idea of speaking the same language and doing those budget 101

071trainings um that you know $140 million of our budget is from tax and taking that out of the percentages we often use it's $140 million funding 80 81% of our budget which really is another mandate for us to be more efficient moving forward. Yep. Uh next slide. There's a lot of numbers on this page because this is the uh full uh 2526 budget um as I showed prior, but this projects things out. And what I want to call your attention to here are a couple things. And the if we project out for 26 27 and 2728 and 2829 um of course projections uh involve quantifying various scenarios. We know that we are not attempting to really outline all of the various different scenarios in these coming years. But if you look at the last column

072here, you'll see that even if we projected out flat over, meaning no growth across these various different expense categories, we're limited to the amount projected consistent with negotiations for salaries. Uh we're limited to uh you know 4% you know increase in utilities and insurance. We put that in because that's known. 15% increase in benefits. And what you can see is even just holding everything flat with modest increases and then increasing the 2% tax levy for our revenue at the bottom. You'll see that these budgets are short by 8.7 million in 2627, 9.7 in 2728 and 10.7 in 2829. So this is intent intended to demonstrate the forces at play here and the fact that we need to achieve new efficiencies. We need to invest in projects that change our economics to increase our savings or

073better maximize our revenue uh so that these pictures don't look like this and we're not looking at uh engaging in cutbacks of staff. We we have to be proactive. You know, living budgettobudget is a horrible way to live, especially as a school district. We have to be proactive. That means we have to continue to visit these projections, continue to look at efficiencies, continue to look at best practices that are across the state and being used and are yielding results and try to implement that at South Orange School District. Thank you. Next slide. So, you know, we we I I've mentioned several times during our our committee meetings and our town hall meetings that, you know, we were a new team this year. Uh, and we came to the table I came to the table in

074December as superintendent being in in July, my assistant in November. But our newness afforded us a opportunity to really take a fresh look and to look at every single line because we needed to figure them out in order to project the rationale forward. So as such we engaged in zerobased budgeting. Uh when we arrived we saw that essentially uh year-over-year the budget process has been more okay a percentage growth on prior year uh as you're setting your levels for appropriations. But we said, "We're going to look in every corner of the district. We're going to look at each school. We're going to talk to all parties. We're going to talk to the principles and the secretaries and the department heads and and we're going to look at each account line and be certain to justify

075and validate that which is in our 24-25 budget so that we can make better projections for 2526." And so we engaged in this zero base budgeting and we'll be looking to do that again next year. So as you pivot and change strategy, you're putting the right dollar amount on your appropriation lines, you're taking the right level of resources and deploying it for its intended use. Uh I think we were also uh you know when we came in, we we were all in agreement with zerobased budget. I don't know if we had a choice moving forward uh because when we came in uh the district was still using a paper PO system. So, we literally were tracking down carbon copy POS, which I haven't done in over a decade. Um, descriptions in the systems 3000 budget

076were not there. And then obviously we discussed the issue with incumbrances and pretty much a guessing game there. Uh, so uh, you know, we all agreed whether that was our intern BA or Monti, Andrew, our consultant that a zero base would be the best for us. But I don't know if we even had a choice. Oh yeah. Moving forward. Yeah. No, absolutely. Uh but it's both a uh a challenge and an opportunity because it gave us the widest array of knowledge of the current situation and the best in the way of uh rationale for projection. So as such we also then um well first I should mention here operationally uh early on in this year that which was known was not encumbered and was not reserved in the in the uh fiscal the financial accounting

077system. Once we got through the initial period of making certain that all known uh purchase orders were in so that we can see how much uh of each account line we've used then uh we called upon everyone in the district to get all of the remaining purchase orders in that would take us through June 30 and then we engaged in a spending freeze beginning in January. Now that freeze uh was not 100% comprehensive because there are things that we did uh that come through my desk that I have to allow through you know for regardless um but it's with the intended purpose of understanding that which we need to expend for the remainder of the year so that we can be active about uh savings and uh and then active about understanding our rationale for

078the next year. that uh manner will continue year-over-year and we're only going to get better and more knowledgeable around every account line and uh every pivot in strategy and and the dollar amount that that will um call upon us to appropriate. I think the heavy lift there also and I think Ammani would would also state this was the fact that um you know part of our process was bringing folks into the budget process but folks that have never been part of it ever or had any background knowledge around it. So while building the budget, we had to train individuals in how to use systems 3000 and how to budget uh for a building or how to budget for a department and what that looks like and what certain line items are are for. Um so

079that that that was a bit of a heavy lift. Yeah. And then also making the necessary corrections uh to the chart of accounts utilization across account lines so that we can actually project things properly moving forward. But it's it's the nature of collaboration. We we we went out to all those folks. We distributed our loginins. We got them trained up. And it will only serve us as we move forward. Um so those efforts over the course of this year uh we're projecting to uh to make $49 million that we can add to fund balance uh for June 30. And then we're budgeting for approximately 4.45 million of that. hoping to not use all of that even um for use in the 2526 school year. Again, I mentioned uh the setting of the uh ability for

080us to draw $2.5 million for one-time projects that we've allocated from a maintenance standpoint. I've also talked about the 6.89 million in legal reserves that was given to us by our auditor for use in the 2526 of our fund balance. Um so that projected a substantial decline and that prior slide showed that so future budget years must have the objective of adding back to reserves adding back to fund balance. Um and you know the recommendation from the state is that we hold about 2% minimum uh year-over-year budget. I mean next uh slide. So the, you know, more in the way of budget challenges, more in the way of uh color as to kind of what what we were experiencing in coming into this, many folks know that uh a wide array of federal funds, you

081know, kind of disappeared or dried up or sunset in the prior fiscal year. The ESSER funding that went into uh you know, into place to help school districts during the pandemic, that was Carissa and then CARES and then ARP. all of those funding streams sunset uh in the prior year. So that was a part of our our macro challenge. Then um as we've been mentioning thus far, we had to engage in the redu reduction of expenses, vendor contract optimization, uh unfilled vacant positions or fa filling vacant positions with internal transfers and retirements. Then I've mentioned uh now several times the limited nature of our increases in revenue. 22% tax levy enrollment 850 miscellaneous revenue uh extraordinary aid of 500k state aid 619 and additional aid for preschool of of of 1 million. Um next slide.

082We also ran into a uh circumstance this year which is um referred to as the yield arbitrage restriction liability when it as it pertains to our debt service, right? Um this one is uh not widely understood or known, but it's pretty straightforward in our and I'll show you the bonds, but bonds were issued bunny money was borrowed by the district from 2014 through 2024. The two largest bond issuances were in 2019 and 2020. Uh so when those bonds were voted upon and agreed to, it was known that they would be assessed after a 5-year period uh for excess return. because of the preferential nature of the uh interest rates that you're allowed to borrow with for school funding. Um they put a cap on how much you can earn on that money while it's sitting

083in your bank account. So you've borrowed this money for construction purposes. You put it in either your bank or an asset management firm. That money is that that firm is managing that money and increasing returns on that money to help you with your your tax levy, right? Um now our returns because of the macro environment the growth in uh the financial markets over that time period uh exceeded the the dollar amount that was um allowable. So as such the 2019 bonds were assessed this year in October and $1.28 million in excess returns on that money uh had to be given back to the IRS and we did so. And then in the bud in the uh audit process, we were prudent in making an assessment of what the likely dollar amount that we'll need to

084give back in excess returns to the IRS in November of 25 will be. And that number was set at 2.08 million. So that's all in around $3.3 million in excess returns that we're returning to the IRS. uh because uh while we had our money in in in the asset management firm, we just achieved more than was allowable in the in terms of return. Now during the prior years, our tax levy, our debt service tax levy was kind of artificially held down and so that's why there's going to be an increase in the debt service tax levy this year. Uh next slide. So this is the array of bonds that I was telling you about uh from 2014 through 24. You'll see that uh $3.2 million is due on the 2019 bond issuance, 2.78 million due

085on the 2020 bond issuance. And those are uh you know the areas those bond issuances are the ones that we had the excess uh return. Next slide. So, the total tax impact as a result result of all that, we've talked about the fact that 2526 with a 2% increase takes us to a $141 million tax levy. Um, and the tax impact is 2.62% because you're also including the enrollment waiver of 850K. Uh, our debt service did go up and also because of that yield arbitrage tax liability, it did go up to 9 million. this year. Now, that made for a total tax impact of 4.92%. Uh, next slide. Now, what that does, um, you know, when we we did our research on that, we found out the drivers for our our increase in tax levy,

086but then we also found that there was a revaluation in both, uh, South Orange and Maplewood of all of the ratables. And because of the fact that they changed the re valuation methodology for ratables uh and they finally did a new valuation in 2024 whereas they hadn't done one since 2017. The ratables grew by 2.2 billion and 1.4 billion across the townships. And what that just means is that there's a larger tax base. And so even while we're projecting an increase in the school portion of the tax levy, the total uh tax increase tax rate for both uh townships declined declined to 74 in uh by 74 in Maplewood and 65 in South Orange. So on a $300,000 home, that makes for around a four uh,000 tax or 4.5 or four $4,500 tax. Now we

087thought it best to go through a number of different uh homes. So the next slide would be uh for a half million dollar home. As you can see there, that means that uh again a similar uh decline in that tax rate for the school portion, but you know that's 6.7 or 6,700 and 7,500 in the two townships respectively. The next uh next slide, Keith 750. That would be uh a $10,000 tax levy and a 11.2 2 or 11,200 uh tax levy. Next slide. For a million-doll home, that would be 13,400 and 15,000 uh as taxes on those homes. Do want to point out and I I do want to thank uh Sheena and Nancy. You know, both mayors were extremely helpful along with their staff in regards to collecting data. Uh and also the uh

088municipal partnership meetings that BIML has been facilitating. you know, we were able to get a lot of information uh from both towns. So, it really helped us during the budget process. Absolutely. As well as the tax assessors um who were at the ready and uh we found that they were very thankful that we went out to them early um because they said, you know, in prior years there had been some frustrations around that and so we went out and coordinated our our sets of information early. Uh next slide, please. So the big budget actions that we took budget freeze in January we've spoken about that um we were able to project to add back uh millions to our budget. Uh we also made for um you know an additional child study team. We always need

089to enhance and become more efficient about how we assess circumstances and distribute our our special education uh revenue sources towards their intended use. So, an additional child study team. We re renegotiated vendor contracts. We are right sizing personnel across the various uh levels, elementary, uh, middle, and high school. Um, we're implementing special services audit recommendations. One of the things that I did in preparation for coming to the district was I looked at some of the board meetings from November and dece and October of last year and f and and I was able to see uh the result of those special services audits and and how we were you know making changes to uh better serve our special education community. We also talked about the yield arbitrage restriction liability and that that that mandated returns of

090excess funds to the IRS. We are also bringing back in and each year we'll be looking to do this bringing back in key positions you know because of the fact that we're spending so much on HVAC maintenance and the fact that we've now uh brought in new HVAC systems across the district from the proceeds of the bond issuances. Now we can actually retain the services of an internal maintenance professional so that we can achieve some efficiencies there uh hiring somebody in house versus having to go out um from a contract standpoint and pay three to four times what we would pay. So we're looking for those kinds of opportunities. Uh again zerobased budgeting across the board for the years to come. Also doing train the trainer models for professional developments to decrease some of our

091professional uh development spend. And then just further honing in on every uh unidentified large budget ca budget category, transportation, facilities, utilities, special services across the map to try to do more with less and to be more efficient with how we uh leverage our resources to get, you know, better outcomes. I think it's important to note how uh vital those two special ed audits have been as we've gone through this process and also obviously bringing a new assistant superintendent of special services and having that as a as a roadmap for her uh you know by look through looking at that data I think and again going back to being data driven um the case loads of our child studies teams were quite high which were resulting in uh in really communication that wasn't isn't as efficient

092as it should be. Also, uh more litigation. So, we're hoping that the additional child study team uh will lower our litigation costs, also hopefully bring some students back into district that are currently at a district just because parents were frustrated with the process. Um we've also been really emphasizing the fact that when it comes to scheduling, we schedule special education first instead of last as it has been done in previous years. uh that allows us to take a look at oneto ons and in put students together so we can have small group shared powers instead of oneto ones throughout the district which has really helped uh reduce our amount of power professionals. We'll continue that practice moving forward. Thank you. Yes. And you know, um, further budget highlights, we talked about the 2 and 12

093million maintenance reserve. Um, we talked, we didn't spend much time talking about this, but Superintendent Bing did mention that we are not going to ask the board school estimates in this coming year for any new bond issuances. We're rep prioritizing certain projects uh, to, you know, the out years. We're also looking at other kinds of of pools of funding like I mentioned before the energy saving savings improvement plan. Um I did also mention that you know we had to do a great a great deal of discovery research and uh digging through to find out even digging through boxes uh of paper and uh and um and computers actually to to to be certain to set everything on the right account line to realign our budget with the comprehensive comprehensively with the New Jersey minimum chart

094of accounts. Um, anytime you have uh a lot of transitions in administrations, what you can have is creep away from the standards of account use. And what we're trying to do now is correct that by bringing us back into alignment with the New Jersey standard minimum chart of accounts. uh and then also really be about the business of creating institutional memory here in the business office and broadly across the district so we can draw from that and move forward um versus you know losing information year-over-year. So uh what we were able to do is uh enga start that process. We're going to ramp up those efforts in the coming year the uh chart of account alignment. Um, and also we're we're happy that we we did not uh kind of dig further into the capital

095reserve in this year's budget. Um, again, we're we're implementing special education audits. Uh, we're looking at privatized positions and bringing them back in house. Um, and we talked about the participatory process the first time that buildings, departments uh, developed and own their own budget. that's going to continue and that's going to be enhanced. And then we're going to in this coming year as we manage the budget uh really engage in dialogue with folks so that we they can understand you know their levels uh of of supplies and what have you and and we can make better judgments going forward. So we're also implementing a new math series at middle middle schools and we made a substantial investment there to complete that K to8 uh continuum and better prepare students for high school. We also were

096able to achieve a budget that sought out with its objective being no reductions in staff. I think it's also important to note uh because we've been talking about projections. Um you know as soon as uh I would say by the end of 2526 all those budget line numbers should be aligned account codes. So for me I'm looking at 2627 as a baseline if you want a comparative budget process meaning so 26 27 27 28 28 29 would be budgets that you can compare right now the budget account line numbers are so off and you know we've been questioning why things were placed there because it doesn't align to the uniform system. Uh so you know we're projecting that the 26 27 will be a nice baseline to start if you choose to look at a

097comparative system of budgeting. And the next slide please. So moving forward next, um these are the array of things that we're we're looking to uh explore and review and uh implement in the year to come and in the the budget planning year to come. We've mentioned a lot of these energy cost analysis and reduction through the energy savings improvement plan. We're reviewing the current participation in the state health benefits plan because each year we're seeing double-digit increases in in uh uh the costs associated with that. We'd like to look at the possibility of getting into the state health insurance fund which is projecting increases of around 5 6%. Um we're going to be further analyzing transportation with bus stop consolidation. uh the Rucker's implementation plan. We have an ad hoc committee and Dr. Fergus equity

098audit that will be in place. We tal superintendent talked about the re-registration initiative. Um now we also mentioned that you know our budget projections instead of living budget to budget we're going to be having and employing dashboards over the course of the year so we can know where we are in the budget process, how we stand, how we're stacking up. We're looking to to provide more visibility into that AC across stakeholder groups. Again, town halls, community conversations, surveys. We're even looking to explore how we can bring back ownership of some buses to take the away some of the load for athletic field trip athletics and field trips. Um we're you we're looking at uh our facility usage um rental fees. We're trying to achieve more in the way of revenue there. We're also going to

099continue with that budget advisory committee uh and definitely have quarterly updates and just really engage with our stakeholder groups over the course of the year. We're also um continuing with our achieve foundation partnership. We're going to do those budget 101 trainings that the superintendent talked about uh with the board of ed community families and students. and we're exploring alternative revenue streams, uh, newly constructed spaces. Um, it's a possibility that we can achieve new revenues there. Then we have a strategic planning initiative that kicks off and that's where we take a fresh look at our priorities and we set up our goals, objectives, strategies, and tactics that are going to lead us forward into the future. Um, and then every year, I mean, every five years, we're called upon to review our long range facilities plan,

100and we're actively in that process now. And that's where we have the wide array of district needs, the wide array of, uh, district desires uh, for facilities expansion. But then, uh, we then relegate those things to various different forms of funding, whether they're uh, operating funding, maintenance or reserve use, or uh, border school estimates funding. So, we're looking we're always looking at that wide array of uh possible sources of funding uh and all through the lens of our long range facilities plan. We know that the further we look out into the future, the the better position we are. I've been an advocate of that since joining the district of widening the lens, looking further back, gaining insights, and then looking further forward and understanding uh and and developing and communicating a better understanding across all

101of our stakeholder groups about where our guard rails are. The guard rails are in our fund balance and our reserves and we've got to add back to those. So, um with that, uh that's the I finished the the budget presentation. Want to final words from Superintendent questions. All right. Um I know our FFT chair, but one thing I want to say one real quick, Bill, um is I just want to expand on what you first, thank you. Very comprehensive. Appreciate it. Um, I want to expand on what you said about the Rutgers implementation committee and I appreciate the district's um, support and re and reiterating how important that work is and that it's a non-negotiable and that we will continue to allocate budget to those efforts um, over the next I guess now it's almost

102like a year and a half that we have left. Um, so I just want I I want to make that point and thank you for that. And then I know our FFT chair uh would like to ask a question, say some words. Thank you, Mr. Moody, Mr. Bing. Thank you. Um you know, everybody knows this was a unique year with a new superintendent and a brand new uh BA 4 months in. Um last year we faced a much short uh smaller shortfall and we rifted 28 positions. uh this year we did not do that. Um and I want to commend the commitment and creativity that it took um to do that. I also want to commend my fellow board members um who everyone uh was very engaged through the whole process and asked the very

103hard questions um some hard more than others. Um, and you were all very responsive, as responsive as time and uh, space would allow you to be. So, I really I like to list those people you just mentioned. Call to order. Call to order. Thank you. I do want to point out that uh, part of our mandate was uh, to avoid a reduction in force from the board and that was mandate before I even started. That was part of my interview process. That was the question. Uh so it's been a long-standing mandate. Definitely. Definitely. Um and we're at the fourth quarter. So we're almost there. But um yeah, so I did I did just want to say that the the one, you know, um critique that I I have heard as FFT chair about this budget

104um is the amount we're dipping into reserves. And so I just wanted to allow you to to speak to this strategy um and and why maybe people shouldn't be so worried. Oh, absolutely. You know, that that is a concern that not only I share, but I literally evangelize about uh in every forum. And if you look at this budget, we're only contemplating a $2.5 million at its highest end uh use from the maintenance reserve. We're hoping to not to use all that's being prudent about project by project what we may need to use. We we may not use uh more than 500,000 but we want to allocate that uh because if if we choose not to use it that actually will go back to uh to fund balance which is great. Now again, we are

105looking to turn the district away from the fiscal cliff, right? We need this district to be adding to reserves, uh, capital reserves, maintenance reserves, legal reserves, every form of manner that we can add back to fund balance, uh, we'd be well served to do. So and we can only do that through new efficiencies through breakage um difference between you know projected uh salary spend and realized salary spend these these are we're called upon to create new efficiencies here and we need to be as good fiscal stewards directing that money back towards fund balance and reserve. So I I I uh I'm fully in uh on that. Uh it's just that it is prudent to be certain in the event we need to allocate that 2.5 million. We may not use uh more than a third

106of it. It's it's we'll have to see over the course of the year. Again, I also think it's it's a good opportunity for us to really take a hard look at this long range facility plan that we're developing over the next 5 years. Uh and that work's going to start over the next couple months. Speed is almost done collecting all their data. Uh I think we hit every stakeholder you possibly could. I think the last meeting was with students uh in regards to what buildings needed. Um so we should have a pretty comprehensive list uh things that were not done from the last plan and then new things that that were observed that we're going to have to make some decisions about of what that's going to look like over the next 5 years and

107how we're going to fund it. There we can't put any makeup on on this pig. We know we've been in these buildings. We've we've done the tours. We know the state that many of these these facilities are in. So for us, it's it's an opportunity to really put something concrete in place uh over the next 5 years. Thank you all again for the thoughtful and transparent approach to this whole process. um especially the opportunities that you created to educate both the board and the community on the budget process. Um I was curious if there was any feedback or insights from the community sessions that informed any final budget decisions or shaped any of the considerations that you made along the way. Oh, absolutely. And I mean we can both speak to that. I I'll mention,

108you know, you can go ahead and go first. Yeah. I think, you know, we're trying to create a runway. Um, and I know that may be new for this district. Um, but, uh, you know, we took a hard look at finding areas that we were had high expenditures. Uh, and we had some intentional town halls around those. Uh, transportation was one of those. Uh, we've already started talking about the uh, looking at hubs. Uh again as we've said at every meeting we're looking at 26 27 but we have to look at everything and explore all possibilities uh looking out at the projections that we just have shown. Um you know we're lucky enough also uh to have CPAC that gave us some really nice recommendations for special education around best practices that have been happening.

109Uh you know we had meetings around the in-class resource uh K to 5 model. Um, we met as as Ammani noted um with every vendor that we had and shared that information and every community conversation and town hall. Um, and some of the feedback uh we got from our community members allowed us to, in my humble opinion, negotiate a little more effectively with with some of these vendors because they gave us some history that we didn't have uh and that not a lot of people in-house had because of the turnover. So, um, you know, those community conversations and town halls really work to our advantage. Absolutely. you know, and I would add to that that, you know, as it pertains to messaging, as it pertains to communication, uh, the fact that we were able to

110actually engage with folks in these smaller forums, uh, gave us the ability to kind of take a read on what they're sensitive to, what recommendations they had for refinements in our messaging, uh, how we could make things clearer, uh, and perhaps proactively. uh demystify certain uh financial terms or school terms, things that uh may be bandied about in board meetings and district headquarters but perhaps are not so um you know relatable to to folks and and folks have a natural need to to to get clarity there and so we were able to do a lot of that assessment and then refine our messaging and I think that was key. We've also been privy to uh the Satan Hall University survey responses that we have those those are being organized currently to share but you know

111they pretty much align to what we heard at community conversations and town halls which is a good thing. I think we had about 400 or 500 people participate in that in that survey. So um we'll share that in the near future. Great. Thank you. So, uh, first I just have to chime in and say I also want to thank you both and and all of your staff for the huge amount of work. I mean, blood, sweat, and tears went into this. I think that's actually in part literal. Uh, you know, you uh have talked a lot about uh belt tightening. You've prepared the community. This year and years ahead are going to be tough years, and it's really important that everyone has been prepared for that. Um, it's different in theory than in reality and

112seeing things. So, I want to just highlight I appreciate that we have a year-over-year expenditure chart on slide 15. And it does show some areas where there are steeper cuts than others. Uh, and I know the district has plans for this. That was a recommendation from a community member I'd like to point out. I and I probably a very wise community member. Uh when we're looking at the net result of some of the renegotiations, the right sizing, etc. Uh and so thrilled that doesn't include staff because sitting here a year ago with all the riffs was was really terrible. What should the community expect district operations to look like in 2526 under this budget? Um will there be differences that they experience? Yeah, I mean for us and Ammani could also speak to it. I

113think we're moving into the 21st century as noted, you know, going through those carbon copy papers, looking for ditto sheets, uh going through in the special ed department a wall full of files, um was just insane. Um so I I think we could move us into 21st century that again will allow us to track what we're doing a lot more effectively. And uh you know I think we discussed this going back to my interview the idea of dashboards and really being able to share those dashboards with community members online. Um we're about 80% done with the with the website. We'll be at 100% in about two months. Uh we're hoping that's going to help out as well. Um for us it's also as you noted we were holding these town halls. we were holding these

114community uh conversations and out of those uh came the idea of the uh community action committees. Uh so we tried it with the budget advisory committee and we really got some good stuff out of that. So you know we're going to be able to identify those larger challenges and utilize that model moving forward as an action committee system whatever those larger challenges are we identify so we can get again more minds involved in what we're doing. But from a business standpoint, I think we did a pretty good job empowering people this year. Uh, and you know, Regina, you could probably touch on how restricted Tundai has felt for many years. Um, so I'm hoping we're giving departments a little more leeway and empowerment uh to to utilize some of their innovative ideas uh for efficiencies

115um moving forward. Um, you know, we have a pretty solid senior leadership team, uh, that I think when you remove some of those guard rails, uh, they're going to show some good stuff. And Tom, I mean, I could only speak for to Tom Tom as well, who again going back to facilities really stepped up this year, uh, as well as all all our committees know this that all all our uh, SLT broke down their budget items, but you know, the the immense the immense amount of things that Tom had in his budget uh, and how he had to prioritize those and then how we have to transition that to a long-range facility plan that that was a challenge. Absolutely. I'm glad you you mentioned those just because, you know, it's uh it's really calling upon

116uh our director of facilities to to look out across the whole district uh and really attempt to to determine what what is priority versus what is not. You know, what what do we have to do today? What can we invest in that will allow us opportunities to do things moving forward? Your question, board member Meyer, uh is more about like what kinds of change um you know, do you expect folks to see? I I expect honestly that our efforts in this year to bring folks together, to enhance communication, to enhance collaboration. It's not words really. It's attempting to kind of change the the the spirit or po move the the spirit of collaboration forward in the district so that we're looking at the district in its entirety and we're celebrating the wins uh broadly across

117district. I think you know we all want to make investments in athletics and uh you know to middle school athletics things like that so that we can better prepare folks for for high school athletics. We want to do things that are morale uh enhancing and and kind of engaging with a spirit of collective collaboration, you know, versus uh othering uh and and things of that nature. So, we're we're looking to to really celebrate uh the the growth that we're we're planning for and and tease out new value and and and um in everywhere possible across all the account lines and all the district endeavors. And speaking of morale building, let's not forget about SOPs. We will start seeing a large amount of those coming over the committees uh over the next few months uh as

118well as the work uh the committee will be doing on regulations uh which I think will just help us moving forward. Absolutely. Thanks. [Music] So um thank you. I just want to echo what my fellow board colleagues have said about just the overall process. Um, as somebody who is in now her third budget cycle, I of course have my ideals of how this goes, but then there's also the realities and the realities of new leadership coming in in less than a year. You especially I think what what did you say? Four months I think it's been. Um, so so thank you and thank you to also all other stakeholders involved. SLT you mentioned, you know, there's also had to be some training. I know that takes up a lot of time on top of everything

119else that they have to do, building principles, teachers, everybody involved. It sounds like while I don't know exactly what how the sausage, you know, all of those internal meetings are going, the gist that we've all gotten is that it's finally starting to come together. um you know and I hope we can acknowledge that it should be an iterative process and so while we've you know definitely made improvements there's still some work to be done um so I just wanted to acknowledge that first this is more of a comment I do have some questions you can come back to me but um going back to Bill's kind of broad question about the maintenance reserves I think um you know I know it's it's Mr. Mr. Bang, you said 2627 is really going to be the foundational

120year of when you can really start to compare year-over-year. Um, and I think with that in mind, once we get past this and then of course as you start to plan in the fall for the for the 2627 school year, like I know that as part of FFT, you know, you discuss all everything, the spendings, the revenues, all of that, but really like even putting it as an agenda, a standing agenda item, what that maintenance reserve spending is and how that's going down or and hopefully not so much based on what you said. Um because I think we all share that the concerns I mean in all honesty for me I'd say it's a fear right considering the state of our buildings and what that's doing. And I I do have to say I I

121understand you know obviously you came into a situation where um these reserves were being depleted by your predecessors. You can't do anything about that. You just have to think about how you move forward. And I think thank you for explaining a little bit more about how you know taking from reserves maintenance reserves would then give us a little bit more time give you a little bit more time to really think more strategically moving forward. Um but I think it's really important Bill if we can just add that just to really be vigilant about how we're using that because you know we also then randomly get the emails ceiling tiles are falling all of these things happening. So I think it's just really important that we all stay on it and then you know address. Yeah,

122I think uh the committees have done a good job around the goals making them standing items this year. So I think that that would be a great idea. Thank you for that. Um um I'm going to join also with my colleagues in thanking the administration for all the work it's done. Um, I'd like to also thank you for clearly forecast the next few years that we face a lot of physical pain. Um, you've used the location physical cliff many times and I can be kind of literal about things. So, you know, I know what you mean, but when you fall off a cliff, you know where the bottom is. And we don't know how long our period of deficits is going to last. U, we could be in the middle of a period of deficits

123or we could be at the beginning. Uh, it's unknown. Um, just still wanted to make a couple points and then ask a question. Um, for state aid this year we gained $600,000. So, you know, we had reason to be happy about that, but we are still under aided you because our state aid target increased by over $2 million. For next school year, we're getting significantly, Jeff. Significantly underfunded. Yeah. So, you know, for this coming school year, we're going to be getting $10.9 million, but if we were fully funded, we would get $12.6 million. Um, which is about a deficit of $240 per student. Um, you know, that's unfair. That's bad in many ways. Although the silver lining is that I think it means we're less likely to lose state aid, you know, for the 26

12427 school year because we're already like in the red, like in the negative. Um, regarding our tax rates, um, it's kind of interesting. We did do the reval and it does kind of mean that like, you know, people's property taxes aren't going to fall. Um, because like a $500,000 house like after the reval is different from a 500,000 before. Um, but our tax rate is falling to about like 1.36%. And you know, as like the old-timer of the board now, like when I joined the board in 2012, you know, we had a school tax rate of about 2%. So, and it has fallen. Um, if we get to the point where the board and administration decide we should ask the board of school estimate for additional money, which I know really comes from the taxpayers,

125we could, you know, refer to the fact that our school tax rate has fallen. doesn't mean that like an individual household's taxes have fallen, but like the acuteness of the tax pain isn't as bad as it was, you know, a decade ago. Um, now I do have a question about transportation. You know, we have another cohort of triple students going to be in the district next year and then another cohort after that and then we're, you know, um, fully implemented. Um, I'm estimating that like, you know, the increase in bus riders for next year will be a net increase of about 200 students. Um, I know that a lot of those kids can ride on existing routes, but are we prepared for another 200 kids riding the buses for K5? Yeah. Yeah. We met with

126Chris today over that question. So, I I'll actually have the data for you on Monday. So, I'm having him break down exactly what that number is going to look like, where those students are coming from. Uh, so you'll have a little better data on Monday or Tuesday. Okay. That was a good question that you sent. Appreciate it. Okay, first I'm going to give my flowers just like everyone else. Um, but I do want to echo uh I do think it bears repeating what's been accomplished this year really is commendable. And so I think with the fair share of challenges that you uh inherited um it's been pretty amazing to see how far we've been able to come. And so I share concerns as well, but I am grateful for the creative problem solving that at

127least for now has helped us avoid some of the more severe challenges that we see in in many of the things that you highlighted earlier that districts around the state are facing. Um and so obviously the road ahead will be difficult, but I feel confident based on the foundation that we've laid this year. I've seen noticeable improvement in communication um and open dialogue. Um and sitting on in the budget advisory committees was as helpful for me as I'm sure it was for you. Um, and I'm excited to see that same cohort coming back next year. I think that will be really great to see. Um, I think earlier another colleague had said something about the impact of this year's work um, with school leadership teams and just that increased collaboration with SLT. Um, and so

128I wanted to highlight that in our last special services committee, we actually had a conversation. Um, I think Shaina, you had mentioned um, K through8 math curriculum and CNI and special services are already working together in a in the spirit of of the budget as well as making sure kids get what they need um, to ensure that general ed and special education students are both getting those needs met in inclusion classrooms, that they'll have what they need, and that it's outlined in the budget. Um, and that's not really a conversation that I would have anticipated hearing about last year because there was a lot of siloed work, not to anyone's fault, but because the budget conversations just didn't have that spirit of collaboration. And so that was really nice to hear this year. Um, with

129that, I also have a question. Um, and so I had two special services related ones. Um the first one uh in reviewing those projections that will pointed out earlier board member meer um 2425 to 2526 there's decreases in several areas in special education so LLD our multiple disabilities and resource rooms as well as preschool disabilities. So I was just wondering if you could speak to the rationale behind some of those reductions and what factors might have informed those projections. Yeah, I think as Ammani noted, one of the advantage of there's many disadvantages for having a rotating assistant superintendent of special services every year. Uh but one of the advantages is that she literally looked at every line item. Uh Kathleen met with her team every single day to look at every line item in her

130budget. Um you know, this year we we we got lucky. We had some students graduating out uh who were out of district which which saved us some money. Uh Kathleen organized some parent meetings uh that really showed we needed another ERRI classroom uh which saved two out of district placements right off the bat. Um, and then we also had the opportunity to to speak uh with the long-standing supervisor and really give her room to give us some uh some historical background and also things that she thought needed to be done and should be done. And then we also gave the gave some platform to our special education teachers uh which really helped. There's a lot of work that still needs to be done. I mean, there's a lot of work that needs to be done

131in special education. Um, a lot of that work is again lowering case loads, retraining folks at child study team, uh, getting SOPs out there. So, there's un there's a common language around special services. Uh, and that's work that Kathleen and her team are are currently doing. Uh, you know, I think we'll see the fruits of that labor starting in September. Yeah, absolutely. Can I ask a followup? Thank you. Great. Um it you talked a little bit about and I that all makes sense and I think um it's been great to have Miss Ellis who has that historical knowledge working in consistently over time with that team. Um you mentioned the ERI classroom. So when we talk about investing in that continuum of services we we've talked about that in committee. Um something I think probably

132most of us would support. From a budget and planning standpoint though, are how prepared do you feel we are to continue making those proactive investments like you said on the front end while also ensuring that we do maintain high quality as we expand those offerings? Obviously, the offerings are intended to, you know, either pull back or prevent students from going out of districts. Um, I've seen this happen before where, you know, say we open an elementary school one and then all of a sudden we haven't planned or we don't have the funding for middle school and so then we have the net posit negative impact of then having to send those very same students back out a few years later. And so just thinking like just want to get some sense of your thinking about

133both like the investment on the front end and then m maintaining quality over time. Yeah. I mean I use as an example. So we have uh I think it's two to three students from New Providence that are now in the program. So we've been networking on a regular basis. Kathleen and her networks my me and mine. Uh so tuition students just tuition students. Correct. So trying to open up those programs not only for our students but for other students as well. We have programming at the uh Columbia High School that we can also open up uh for school phobic students. Um we also are looking at programs that we can do in partnership with such organizations as the YMCA. As you all know, they have camps. Uh many districts utilize camps for something called Project

134Wilderness where school phobic students uh who receive IEPs uh have outdoor classrooms. Um, so looking at programs where we can bring in tuition for us is something that I think is going to be vital as we move forward. Yeah. Uh, I think hearing from folks on the ground as well, our special ed teachers saying this isn't working, this is working. Uh, and the fact that this is working, I think we should expand it and and invest there. Um, so I think that open communication is going to be important moving forward. Absolutely. Thank you. Um, I just wanted to say uh thank you for this presentation. Thank you for all the work that you've put in over the past few months with all of us with the community. Um, you know, I I realize I see

135that many of these town halls are at night when you can be, you know, I'm sure with your family or friends and it's a big commitment and it's a big sacrifice and but I think it's been really worthwhile because you've you've discovered a lot of information and you've really gotten to know our community, but again, it takes a lot of work and I I really want to thank you for that. I also want to thank you for how transparent you've been. It's not easy to deliver news that's hard to hear. And this is news that's hard to hear. You know, we have some hard choices in front of us, but I think your transparency and cander about it. Um, you're being strategic about, you know, thinking thinking through where we can cut costs is going

136to go a long way in building back that distrust that that we do have. Um, and I also just want to shout out the budget advisory committee. I think that was a great idea. I'm so happy that you implemented it. I've listened in on a couple sessions and I think it's been, you know, from my perspective, I know Liz mentioned it's been really valuable. I I think the people on that committee have have really made some great comments, given some good feedback. So, thank you for doing that. Yeah. So, just a big thank you. You're welcome. I think it's and I think it's going to be important moving forward, you know, if if we're going to continue this data driven culture. um is holding each other's feet to that fire in regards to data. Um

137you know, we we have to get to a po point where that's how we're making decisions. That's what we do. That's the norm. We have places that store the data. We're utilizing the data and that's how decisions are made. Um I'm referring to trust in the district and trust for the district. Um, one of the most unusual things in this budget cycle is the arbitrage yield limitation fee. Like, you know, I've been a board watcher for 12, 13 years and I've never heard of our district owing money to the IRS before. And you don't hear about that happening with other districts very often. And I just wanted to say it's nobody's fault. Like what happened is that we had money from bonds in our investment account for a little longer than we should have because

138of delays and state approvals of building projects and then the supply chain shortage and like it was a very good time for investment. So we made more money than we were supposed to make, you know, and the government like doesn't allow us to make more money because they don't want school districts playing the market and basically making money on margin. And you know, it is a palpable impact and like no one should be happy about it. Um, but no one should really be angry about it either. It's nobody's fault. And like, you know, we did have like smaller debt tax increases for a couple years because of the excess profits we were making. It was a punch in the stomach, Jeff. Not going to lie to you. When we It was It was a punch

139in the stomach. I know. We were told I think was a learning experience for a lot of us. Yeah. Yeah. the um for many uh points and inflection points in the process we've I've had to deliver some uh disturbing news but I will say that uh in the uh research and and discovery around that we found that it was uh due to just a confluence and a convergence of events you know uh higher returns in the market uh and the fact that we hadn't drawn down the funds yet because we were still engaged in the uh construction project. So uh all in all um you know unavoidable but um we're we're well positioned moving forward and then I think we'll wrap it up if everyone's been able to ask. Yeah, one more. Okay, sure. I

140uh politely disagree with my board fellow board member Jeff that we shouldn't be angry about. I mean, just because it's right doesn't mean they like it on the uh on the on the tax on the tax liability for the for the returns on the bonds. Market was up, we should get it. But anyway, um look, echoing everybody here, right? Uh the thank you for all the all the work um and really for the courage uh for engaging and collaborating with the community, all with the goal, as you heard me say before, is maximum communication and assurance. Uh it won't always be perfect. Uh but the fact that SLT is out there I think speaks volumes uh in especially compared to previous years and um you know in the spirit of committees which seem to be

141on trend uh what's let's just add one more committee uh I' I've heard around uh that the recommendation to have a working committee for exploring alternate revenue streams could be a good one uh and exploring the art of the possible so that's in particular working with SOPAC with Satan Hall with the townships private private uh companies small companies small businesses, whatever it might be. Uh we are if we're going to embrace creativity, we should also embrace all those uh all those different areas that where we can do that. Absolutely. Thank you. Well put. We definitely have to get innovative. So those those are great ideas. Um, that was a really good segue, board member Kapadia, because I learned which I didn't know on the last budget advisory committee. Someone asked a little bit like of

142a question similar to that. Um, and I think you brought it up tonight just exploring best practices from across the state that are showing positive results. Um, someone had written in the chat something about can we have a sponsorship and kind of jokingly said Nike and I was like, haha, that'd be funny. But then you pointed out that like in fact and I didn't know this and I go to a lot of schools so I was surprised but like you can actually get like was it Tom's River that you provide as an example? They had the president of Poland Springs sent their children the Tom's River School District and they have the Poland Spring. I had no idea. I had no idea that was the thing. So I say that to say something else. That's

143a whole different story. It changed to Poland. Are there any other examples uh that you have of those types of best practices just you know just as like examples for for coach Winstead our new athletic director is bringing in some good ideas from her time in Newark. Yeah. Uh but as of them all noted you know we have these new spaces and we have opportunities there. Um so you know I think um one we have a pretty strong alumni. So, you know, Shannon, you mentioned uh one of the town hall meetings. We had two people who are professional fundraisers come up to us. So, you know, we immediately had a meeting with Achieve because we really want to keep Achieve in on all this. Of course. Uh so, we're in the midst of working with

144them currently to see if we can, you know, tap some of those alumni, whether it's an an art center, whether it's to help rebuild the stages that we all kn know need to be re rebuilt throughout. Uh so, yeah, I do think there's opportunities there that that that we need to utilize. Sponsorships are are really utilized uh in North Carolina, South Carolina, those states, Texas. Uh so yeah, we have things to learn that that that we we could incorporate. There's a lot of districts around here that utilize their buses for advertising. I've seen that in New York. Mount Olive is great at it. Uh so and they bring in really strong streams of money. So, you know, we have a lot to look at. Thank you. All right. Thanks everyone. Thank you. Thank you all.

145Okay. So, I will now read the board president update and move on to um hearing a delegations. Tonight, we are voting on the 202526 budget. If you haven't already noticed, it has been a herculean effort by the district to not only make this process more open to the community, but also start from a zerobased budget. The district balanced the budget without riffs, which is commendable. This evening's presentation outlined both the challenges faced and the strategies used while also looking ahead to the financial realities in the coming years. We know the years ahead will not be easy as tough decisions will need to be made while also being creative about how to to save and establish new revenue streams to reduce the tax burden on our community. As we look to the future, I would like

146the board to continue to work with our superintendent and central office on honing our internal process with respect to tracking spend and deficits, info sharing via our FFT committee, and further developing the community input process via our new budget advisory committee and town halls. The budget process is an iterative one and I'm confident it will strengthen over time. I also want to acknowledge and thank my board colleagues for their flexibility, engagement, and thoughtful questions, especially in attending additional meetings and supporting this work. Our three new members have brought valuable fresh perspectives and our returning members have served as important institutional historians throughout. Finally, I would like to reconfirm that Michael Alves of the Alves Group will return and present the year 4 intentional integration initiative recap at our May 29th meeting where Dr. Gilbert will

147also share results from our recent triple eye experience survey. Now, I will read the president's statement. The school board meeting is a business meeting in public and not a meeting with the public. Oftentimes it may appear to members of our audience that the board of education takes action with very little comment and in many cases a unanimous vote. Before a matter is placed on the agenda at a public meeting, it has thoroughly been reviewed by the administration, the superintendent of schools and the board of education after which it is placed on the agenda for board discussion and action at a public meeting. Uh now for the hearing of individuals and delegations. Thank you for coming in person and joining us online this evening. The South Orange Maplewood Board of Education values public involvement and respects

148that you've taken the time to address the board at tonight's meeting. As this is the board's business meeting, a friendly reminder to please be respectful as we take into consideration your valuable input, which will inform future deliberations and work by the board of education and its committees. The board does have time limits by policy and it will be enforcing those to enable as many people to speak as possible this evening, although I don't think we're going to have that issue tonight. Each individual will be given three minutes to speak. The first public comment period is usually limited to 1 hour with priority often given to items related to the meeting agenda. And the second second public comment period may be limited to 30 minutes. There's someone on there, right? Yeah. Okay. Thank you. Carrie, please

149come up. Thank you for so patiently waiting. Oh, there. All right. Uh, hi. Thanks. Thanks so much. Um, my name is Carrie and I come before you tonight as a concerned parent and former PTA president deeply disturbed by the anti-Palestinian sentiments that have recently surfaced at South Mountain Elementary School. During ArabAmerican Heritage Month month month, accomplished musicians were invited to perform traditional Arab music and assemblies at some elementary schools. An opportunity that should have been empowering and affirming for Arab, Muslim, and Palestinian students. Instead, the celebration of heritage was met with unwarranted outrage, ignorance, and racism. Some teachers lodged complaints and demanded an apology from the PTA, not because of anything the performers said or did, but simply because two were introduced as Palestinians, and because the PTA did not center Israel during ArabAmerican Heritage

150Month. Let's be clear, Israel has never claimed to be an Arab country. From its inception, as documented by the United Nations and countless human rights organizations, Israel has engaged in the eraser and ethnic cleansing of Arabs, treating those who remain under its military occupation as second, third, and even fourth class citizens. The teachers reactions steeped in political bias fuels misinformation, racism, and fear during an ongoing genocide of Palestinians. Their response is not only inappropriate, it is racist and harmful. It is unacceptable that in a district that claims to champion equity and inclusion, the presence of a Palestinian voice is treated as a threat to be silenced and erased. How can educators be trusted to teach any child, let alone Arab, Muslim, or Palestinian students, when their own biases render them incapable of accepting the truth

151of someone's identity? When teachers react to a Palestinian performer with outrage and hostility, they send a dangerous message to our children that some stories are not valid, some identities are not welcome, and some communities are not worthy of recognition or respect. That is discrimination, that is eraser, and it must not be tolerated. Palestinians has have every right to identify with their country, no matter how aggressively racist or colonial narratives try to erase them. Palestinians are not obligated to conform to a fictional version of history or geography created by those who support ethnic cleansing and colonization. Teachers who reject this reality are not just expressing an opinion. They are actively supporting the denial of international law and the suppression of Palestinian identity. I'm calling for an immediate investigation into the teachers who made these discriminatory complaints.

152Their actions are not only unacceptable, they are a violation of the district's stated values. I would also like to know how we as parents can file an affirmative action complaint against these teachers for their intolerance and anti-Palestinian behavior. This is also not just a single incident. This is about the environment being allowed to take root, one in which Palestinian children are made to feel invisible, unwelcome, and unsafe. There needs to be professional development on Palestine and cultural competency as we've experienced a steep rise of Islamophobia and anti-Palestinian racism in our schools and community. If the South Orange Maplewood School District truly believes in equity, justice, and anti-racism, then that commitment must extend to Palestinians fully, visibly, and unapologetically. Thank you. Thank you, Carrie. Um, there are no online public speaks, so then that concludes public

153speaks tonight. Um, now we will move on to uh committee reports. Much of the work our board does happens in committees and the results are brought to the board meeting for action. Detailed minutes of each committee meeting are posted on our website and we encourage you to review them. We'll now hear from the chairs of our committees with brief highlights from this month's meetings and we'll start on this side. So, Dearra for Ruters. Oops. Thank you. The recorder's implementation committee met on April 8th. Those attending from the board included President Dval Wilson, second vice president Eert, board member Zachie Gable, and myself. Among the issues addressed in the committee were the following. The district provided an update on visits made by Dr. Fergus. Dr. Fergus provided professional development to administration on risk ratio ratios. He

154has also conducted visits with each of the schools. In the elementary schools, he conduct helped conduct risk ratio analysis to understand which students are referred to special services. At CHS, he examined recently released state accountability data. And in the middle schools, he examined the new middle school math initiative criteria for recommending accelerated math. Information gained from the visit visits included a number of black and brown students in elementary schools are classified especially boys. So this is an important area of focus going forward. He also commented that good general education programming is important to support classified students and NJTSS is the right pathway to get the district there. At CHS, findings from the data included that of the students with D's and Fs, 70% are blacks and there are gaps in students referred to NJTSS at

155the middle school. The again he examined data on student students taking accelerated math um including the risk ratios and some of these data are in the written notes. He also examined the criteria that the district is using for making middle school math recommendations that was also discussed in CNI. So Shann uh Shana will have that into her notes as well. Um it was also discussed that the current access and equity policy as written may be contributing a contributing barrier to getting students of color in accelerated math due to the universal parent choice option. For future Dr. Dr. Fergus visits. He will provide professional development to administration and he will also met meet with SLT to debrief his visits and make further recommendations on how to help better align our district work with the Rucker's uh

156recommendations. The administration will think about how and when to present information learned from Dr. Fergus to the full board. The district also provided an update on meeting with Judge Wallace which occurred on March 19th. The district updated the judge on recommendations in the ALV's 4-year report. The judge was interested in further information on the workforce diversity plan which relates to Rex 16. Um it was also discussed that the sibling preference at Tuscan is making achieve achieving the 5% variance difficult. The next meeting will likely be scheduled for June or July. And uh as Nubia mentioned, the district will present an update on the ALVs group four-year report at our our May board meeting, our May 29th board meeting. We also discussed triple eye busing and placements. We discussed analyzing data to be more efficient for

157the 2526 school year. This includes after that algorithm is run having the ELF groups model and analyze the results for unnecessarily un unnecessary isolated placements and for inefficient routes and perhaps also adjusting the variance a little a bit if it could gain efficiencies. It was also suggested that the Alps group hold some spots at school for late registration that occurs which we know accounts for more inefficient bus routes. The past year, 70% of kindergarten students were assigned to their closest school. So route inefficiencies and isolated placements could be modeled analyzed for the remaining 30%. District leadership will engage with the Alps group on these points before finalizing the kindergarten placements for the 2526 school year. Um in terms of placements, the deal and Marshall placements have been assigned as have as have the middle school

158placements and the prek and kindergarten placements. Um the district is ending for aiming for the end of May. Uh the administration also stated that included in the assignment letters that are sent to parents is information on how to request a transfer. There was also discussion that the district website should be updated to include easily identify identifiable information on the hardship and transfer request process including within the transportation section of the website. The district will present on the Jan um on the January triple eye survey at the May 29th board meeting and potentially other surveys that have been recently conducted. These include the Satan Hall University market research project that 100 families opted into as well as the handover research diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging survey which was administered in December. And there will also be

159an upcoming uh the annual NJSCI climate and culture survey will be going out this spring. Given all these recent surveys, there was discussion of not we typically do the triple eye survey in Jan January and May. So there was discussion of potentially not doing in May given that there are planned upcoming changes to that survey that will be discussed in this committee. Uh the number and the number of recent surveys that have recently been conducted as well as survey fatigue. Uh the next meeting will be on April 8th and the topics for that agenda include plans, time frames, and milestones for the triple eye evaluations that the district will be doing with the Alps group as well as plans, time frames, and milestones for the up for updating the triple eye survey. Please go to

160the district website for a full recap of the meeting and the board in the board committee section. Does anyone have any comments or questions, please? It's not directly connected necessarily, but I did want to ask it. Um more more to Mr. Bang if that's okay. Um the conversation about the letters going out and including information on prek sites reminded me of an earlier conversation we had just about before and afterare information um and how that can be a little tricky for parents to find depending on their familiarity with the preschool sites. So wondering if not in the letters that parents get, can we just ensure that that information does get included on the website before those go out so that it reduces the effort for parents um to find and track down Oh, thank you

161Ashia. [Music] Thank you very much. Um, I wanted to I'm not on this committee, but I wanted to make a comment on the information about the triple eye on our website. Um I what's on the website now like in the FAQs about the triple I it doesn't mention I think a very important part of how placement is done which is that firstborn children are given a random number and that determines actually like you know who goes to their closest school and who goes to a non-closest school and I think that omitting that kind of creates some misunderstandings with the triple I would also say like you know Michael Alves he consistently uses the term sibling priority not preference. And I think it does make a difference because like putting younger ch younger siblings with their

162older sibling unless there's like a special ed um placement or unless it were like a Marshall Balden issue like it is an absolute like we do keep siblings together even when we've made a mistake in like the initial assignment. So I think um we really can make the information about the triple eye more accurate and like when we have like the next time we explain to the public how the triple I works like we should mention that it does use a random number and maybe I'll just note in case um uh community members are questioning we are in the process of um creating a resolution for that survey switch because it is in policy that we have two that we do two surveys and so in order to make that change we do need to

163create a resolution. We've already spoken with legal counsel about it and that is in process so we do that the right way. Yes, Jeff, I have a question. And um I think since his first recap report on the triple I Michael Alves has recommended that there be some kind of conversation between you know people working on transportation and people working on placement and like you know the previous superintendent like he didn't implement that really and I was wondering like you know is the current administration like committed to that to like having like more a little bit of pragmatism in placements to avoid isolated placements. We started those conversations about three months ago. Um, and we gave Al access transfinder for the first time. Uh, so they all Chris Jordan and Al are communicating on a

164regular basis. Oh, good. Thank you very much. Um, you know, in a document we got from Alves, it came out that actually for the first time ever, a child whose closest school was Marshall was assigned to Tuskin and that hadn't happened before. And like I'm like thinking like it's probably a child who's hard to bus and like it would make things easier to put that child at a different school. Thank you. I mean that just an example as a isolated placement. There aren't very many but they do occur and like they are a problem for busing. Yeah. I just want to make note and I'm I'm on this committee but I'm also just doing it for all of us. Um as we all know we're we're doing many things. Um you know I think as

165we as we think about transportation especially specifically as it relates to II um you know Mr. Bing prior to your arrival here the Marshall Balden unpairing happened before Balden actually either school could really accommodate all of that. And so uh the first two or three I'm looking at Jeff he's not looking at me. two or three cohorts were done when there may have not been certain grades available at Balden. And so again, this is it's not going to save millions. It's just as we think about chipping away at expenses, you know, the idea that potentially surveying Balden area families that were part of III cohorts to see if they would want to be put into the lottery again with a better chance of getting into a closer school because the reality is I don't have

166the number. I don't even know if we actually have that data, but there is certainly a decent number of students in that area that are currently being busted to all of the other elementary schools. So, if as we think about more efficiencies, listen, at the end of the day, it could be three families because at this point, they're already third graders and they're involved. But, you know, it's worth looking at. All right. Uh, the personnel committee met on Monday, April 21st at 6:30 p.m. Board members Gford, Kapadia, Sacket, Gable, and myself, and along with Mr. Bing, Dr. Gilbert, and Mr. Adidoan. Um, as usual, much of what was discussed is confidential. However, we have put whatever is public facing on the district website. Um, among the topics discussed in terms of job openings and vacancies

167update, we did talk about the assistant BA um, job wreck that is still open, fielding resumes. Um, in the meantime, the district will be bringing on two consultants through the end of the year, an accountant, um, current one is on on leave right now and an assistant BA. Unfortunately, Mr. Um, Zeiega has taken another role closer to home who and he'll be leaving us in May and that you'll actually see that in financial resolution 479P. We discussed district goals and the five-year workforce diversity plan. Um, in terms of major updates, um, the comprehensive needs assessment, uh, you know, the survey that went out to staff members, survey results and anal analysis will be shared, um, with the full board, I believe, in tomorrow's weekly packet, if not the following. That was the goal. I know

168that SLT still had to review it before it was shared. So, it'll be in our hands whether it's this week or next week. Um no other major updates coming from that. Um in terms of the workforce diversity plan as dear mentioned the meeting with Judge Wallace on March 19th um he had asked for additional information on you know the overarching goal of the 5% annual increase in um the number of teachers of color. Dr. Gilbert is reviewing internal data with um with Mr. Adoyan and we will cover it in the May personnel meeting. We discussed we reviewed staff evaluations um the data tracking provided to the committee. Um given at this point we are in a good position. you know, there's there's one or two schools that are slightly behind schedule just due to circumstances

169uh beyond their control, but SLT is working with those principles and supervisors to ensure they are completed. And last, we in terms of budget uh which obviously we just had a a very in-depth discussion um we talked around about 25 26 school year staffing plans. Next committee meeting will be Monday, May 5th, in advance of the reorganization and renewals meeting. Any questions, comments? The policy and government governance committee met on April the 2nd. We had a sort of streamlined committee, myself, board member Brown, as well as Ms. Jess Marriia and Dr. Gilbert. Uh we reviewed uh four regulations that are coming up tonight for second read. We have 2460.1.8.9 and 15. All policies implementing our special education programs. uh the regulations are created by the district and the board has sort of a general oversight

170function pursuant to our bylaws, but we do follow the same uh to read uh adoption for uh regulations that require uh board approval. So, we're looking at those up tonight for second read. No changes have been made from first read last month. We don't have any policies up tonight for first or second read. There are several policies that we discussed at the meeting and there are numerous policies in the pipeline right now from a recent policy alert that our vendor Stras Esme put out with regard to changes in the law. We will anticipate seeing a number of them come through over the next few months. Uh but we are right now focusing on uh doing sort of maintenance and upkeep to our policy manual as need be. Otherwise asking the district to really focus their

171efforts uh on development of our regulations which as we've noticed I mentioned a number of times we uh are historically and institutionally in a rears on on having on the books. So we're working on uh getting that number down. We did have discussions during the meeting regarding policies on generative AI for which we're seeking some additional input from teachers this month and then review it next month. uh our corporal punishment policies as it relates to the policy on physical restraint of special education students and finding some new language there in coordination with the special services committee. Uh finalizing uh a regulation on uh the evaluation of the business administrator which has been on our docket for a while to complete. uh looking at our policies on substance abuse, student smoking, and reporting violence, vandalism, HIV,

172and alcohol uh offenses, especially as it relates to the concerns mentioned by our student reps earlier tonight regarding uh substance use and smoking in bathrooms, uh and making sure that our policies reflect what they need to be and that we're implementing them. Uh we also discussed smartphone policies uh making sure uh and this is in response to in part a uh a policy update coming down from Strauss Esme that we are uh keeping up with our policy language with uh with updated technology focusing more on smartwatches and less on portable fax machines. uh looking at making sure that our policies are going to uh uh allow us to look at whatever changes we need to make in the way uh smartphones are being used in middle and high schools especially next year. Uh we looked

173at the current status of the tuition assistance policy for teachers and staff making sure that that is the way we need it to be. uh the academic placement policy regarding especially students accessing AP classes and finally the public relations policy and specifically the portion within there that has to do with district communications that could uh feature or mention a board member during election times. Uh our next meeting is on May 7th and uh the minutes are on the website. Any questions? Thank you. Um, so as we were in the middle of budget season, the FFT committee met twice this month. Once on April 9th and again on the 21st. Board members Meyer, Callahan, and Bennett and myself were in attendance for the first and board member Eert was good enough to stand in for Jeff

174on the second. Uh, for both meetings, the majority of our discussion was laser focused on the 2526 budget and the forthcoming budget presentation. Additionally, we discussed the following items. Gem solutions invoice. Mr. Moody updated us that the district and the vendor have come to an agreement to pay for 65% of the cost. Uh we were refreshing the facility usage fee schedule. These are the fees we charge organizations for using our facilities. It's been a while since we updated these numbers. So, we are beginning the process of potentially raising the facility use fees for the 2025 2026 school year. A hot topic is the search for a new a new assistant BA. Sadly, we are losing our very talented Andrew Zabiega. We wish you luck, sir. And lastly, um Mr. Bing and Mr. Moody discussed the

175transportation hub efforts. The district is still collecting and analyzing data. However, the transportation for the 2025 2026 school year will continue to operate as it has and I think that's important uh to emphasize. That is my update. Um you know uh the detailed minutes can be found on the website. Um and the next meeting will be May 21st. Any questions? Jeffrey? Oh, sorry. Like a more like a comment. I just wanted to say like for the public that you know we had a bit of debate about transportation and I said that I felt that like you know consolidating bus stops is something like we can do. Um but you know there was uh but like a transportation hub system was not something like I felt so good about. Um but I said like as an

176alternative since we do have like real challenges with transportation and a budget deficit that perhaps like we could discontinue prek busing under 2.0 miles. Um, but you know that also wouldn't be something like we would possibly do for like you know next year either. Um, and you know we'd have to study it and we can't like do it like blindly. But you know I I don't know if something like the district should sustain in the face of other cuts we know we're going to have to make. And it's definitely an ongoing conversation for sure. Thank you Jeff. Okay mal partners. All right. This will be quick because uh Mr. Bing covered almost 100% of it in his opening statement. So uh in in attend actually the attendees will be longer than the update. Uh in

177attendance was board member meapadia superintendent Mr. Bang uh mayor Sheena column village trustee Dr. Olivia Lewis Chang mayor Nancy Adams town council Debangle business administrator Pat Wary. Uh we covered the draft of the safe walking campaign as ready for review in the next couple weeks. uh hazardous route study is ready to commence in conjunction with township and stonefield consultants. Uh a board of school estimates this year will there be no ask from the board of school estimates. The only bond issuance will be for the energy savings project in conjunction with the state DOE and environmental department. Uh Ritzer, we got clarity for the approved plan which was the the the first the the first plan the 1acre plan is approved. Uh elementary placements K placements will be ready for review at the end of May

178and we'll send the geographic data to the PD and townships as well. uh newly enrolled one, two, three, and four, first, second, third, and fourth graders will be released over the over throughout the summer. And as uh Mr. Bingman also mentioned at the end, re-registration uh will be uh getting going on the all out all outgoing eighth graders to reregister by firstphase electronic screening. Uh me, next meeting is May 19th at 1 p.m. And that's it. Eocacy, Sheena mentioned that we would not be able to do that this year because the session was already That's right. sessions were already in in progress. So, we'll have to go for it next time. That's it. Um, with the work that has commenced in Maplewood regarding the the pipes, the lead pipes into the streets, do we know

179if that's going to be if that's going to impact anything in terms of road closures? I mean the at least the village green article I read said that it could go to the end of the year. So maybe at your next meeting you could just add that. Um I don't know that it'll impact anything but just with road closures um you know anything around transportation obviously this year but I'm also more thinking about next year when we've got 200 plus new riders all new routes and and and whatnot. Thank you. You got it. Great. Oh, take mine. Okay. Or touch and go with my microphone, but I think I got it. Thank you. All right. 100% of this has not been covered, so get excited. Um, so special services met on March 18th. We met

180from 6:30 to 8:24, which is approximately 20 minutes less than last month. You're welcome. Um it was myself, uh board members Ekert Meyer and Sacka Gable along with Superintendent Bing, Miss Jessa Maria, and Dr. Gilbert. Um we began as we always do with our CPAC check-in. We were joined again by the VP of policy initiatives, Miss Nasberg. Um reinforcing our commitment to increasing that collaboration. We discussed reading and writing times across elementary schools and what those minutes look like across IEPs. We discussed the implementation of the 504 processes and the implementation includes communication. And then um we landed also on making sure that IEP prep information for families is disseminated across schools in a variety of languages including um Haitian Creole which there were some updates at the state level to um things like the

181prize this year making sure that everyone has access to those. Um as with other committees the budget was the primary driver and point of conversation in this meeting. Um one of our goals that uh for the our committee is efficient use of funds and educational resources and that supports our district goal 1.4. 4. Um, and we looked over the special services budget line by line. We highlighted some key investments and discussed professional development and classroom resources. So, funding will support continued work on Orton Gillingham training to help students maintain um, and learn in general education settings. Um, expanding that raw screen training that we've been discussing in the last few months, collaborative problem solving, moving to a more coaching model next year, and also continuing to provide IEP and legal training for CST members. Again,

182coming out of the special education audit, which helped us kind of identify what some key levers are. Uh, to Mr. Bing's point, the better processes that we have, the more likely it is that parents and students are getting what they need here in a way that feels supportive. Um, new allocations also include training for our related service providers, which is exciting. That hadn't existed before. Um, there are also additional resources being allocated for ERRI and LLD classrooms, um, and preschool furniture for mantros. Um, the administration also confirmed, like I stated earlier, collaboration between our special services and our CNI teams to ensure that all needs are addressed regarding inclusion classrooms, particular attention being paid to our new math curriculum. Um, we also noted that surveys were sent to principles so we could assess materials, needs

183for teachers, moving classrooms, and things like that so we don't miss anything. Thought that was a really important important point and was excited to hear that. Um, the committee also discussed adding an additional child study team, which has been discussed earlier tonight as well. um to reduce case loads and also is recruiting for two full-time BCBA positions. That's behavior uh board certified behavior analyst um to address some high behavioral support needs that are currently being covered by an outside contractor. Um we discussed as board member Meyer shared earlier um policy on corporal punishment. Um this was discussed adding additional language to ensure that this policy and policy 5561 use of physical restraint and seclusion for our students with disabilities. um so that those two policies speak to each other. Um and to that end, we

184appreciate a public speaks from I think one or two months ago at this point um from community member Danielle Thorne um that put this back on our radar, brought it back to our attention. Um we also discussed the regulation that's needed for our 504 um that's currently missing and prioritizing that. And that is it. Our next meeting is May 15th. Full recap is on the district website and I'm opening the floor for questions, comments. A round of applause because it's late. I'm just kidding. I'm just kidding. Thank you. Okay, on to curriculum and instruction. Uh the CNI committee met on April 7th at 6:30 p.m. with all members present from both the district and the board. We discussed progress and updates related to district goals, including the following highlights. Goal one under college and career

185readiness. We discussed the grade six school assignments that went out on April 4th, and families will get math course recommendations on May 1st along with the information on how to make those selections in P school. Um, board member Brown already highlighted some of the components from Dr. Fergus's visit, so I won't repeat those, but more details are on the website. Um, under goal number two, the district is seeing a drop in suspension numbers thanks to a mix of strategies like MTSS, restorative justice used proactively, not just as an alternative to suspension, and stronger school climate efforts. Ongoing efforts to address suspension disparities include culturally responsive PD and support for students with repeated suspensions. At CHS, attendance is improving, especially with um new coding in power school and outreach efforts, and we should see the data

186related to the correction action plan in August. The Fresh Freshman Academy is gearing up to support ninth graders through community building, mini courses, and dedicated teaching teams with a focus on long-term success. Uh, with goal four, we discussed the curriculum nights for reading and art portfolios, as well as ongoing efforts to increase participation in those nights. We didn't review any policies for adoption this month and there are no curricula up for board approval. Um we discussed CNI related budget items with a focus on summer programming which are included in resolution for 4792G. Um the district is rolling out its usual summer programs with a couple of exciting additions. Camp Invention for elementary STEM is coming back and a new program for aviation training. While CO funding is no longer available to support some programs such

187as music, financial assistance will be offered to families in need. Um, in addition, we received key updates related to the CHS scheduling process, which remains on track, and our next meeting will be May 12th at 6:30 p.m. [Music] questions. Okay, thank you. Great. Good job everyone. Thank you. Uh we are now going to the action portion of the meeting. Um Mr. Moody, can you please read the resolution into record? Sure. Absolutely. We are uh the board is prepared to take action on items 47.89 89 through 4796 as well as uh hand carry for 4797. Um we prepared to do a vote. What's up? You want to do them together or Okay. A and A and B. Yes. So if we're ready, we can do a roll call vote. Just reconfirming. Were there everyone ready to

188vote? No one had any comments? Were there any discussion items? Great. No worries. Okay. So, I'll proceed with the vote. Uh, board member Bennett, yes. Board member Brown, yes. Board member Callahan, yes. Board President Duval Wilson, yes. Board member Eert, yes. Board member Gford, yes. Board member Kapadia, yes. Board member Meyer, yes. and board member Saka Gable. Yes. All right. Thank you. Okay, great. Um, almost done. So, this concludes the action portion of the meeting and then we would have public speaks, but I don't think I'll check online. Um, there's no one online. Okay, great. Cuz I closed that window. Okay, wonderful. So, now on to any new business. We just did them. We we added them in. Thanks for reminding. Yeah. be business anymore? No. Okay, great. So then now I will announce our

189future meetings. The board of education will meet again in public session on Thursday, May 8th, 2025 at 6:30 p.m. for our reorg renewals meeting. Action will be taken and then again on Thursday, May 29th, 2025 at 6:30 p.m. for our regular board meeting where action will also be taken. Mr. Moody, I would now like to make a motion to adjourn this meeting on Thursday, April 24 at 10:26 p.m. May I have a second? Thank you, board member Brown. Hold on. Hold on one second. We're just trying to determine whether we need a a separate vote on the budget. Oh, do we need a separate for the budget? I thought it was included in the It was in the financial. Yeah. Okay. Thank you. Yeah, I remember looking at that. What are you trying to do,

190Patrick? Trying to get another 15 minutes. I know. Come on. I'm like, we're trying to get out of You wanted Chador Sanders, didn't you? For the Giants. That's why you're That's why you're angry. Okay. So, wait. I got to update the time. 10:26. I don't know if that's that was what I said earlier. So, yeah. Journing at 10:26. Uh, board member Brown second. All in favor? Yes. Great. Meeting adjourned. Thank you.