001good evening of course I will board member Jeff Bennett board member deer Brown here board member Elizabeth Callahan here board member nuwell Wilson here board member Regina aert here board member Bill Gilford here board member Bal Kapaa here board member will Meyer here board member shanea saki Gable here thank you okay I'll stand for the Pledge of Allegiance please take notice that adequate notice of this meeting has been provided in the following manner that the 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 S and South Orange Township clerks and the editors of the news record Star lger tap into Soma and the Village Green I'd like to make a motion to enter into
002executive session at 6:34 p.m. to discuss attorney client matters personnel and negotiations 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 Urt thank you oh all in favor great let's go e e e don't uh good evening everyone thank you for joining us tonight for our preliminary budget approval meeting before we listen to the preliminary budget presentation I have some things to share I will be very brief I'd like to acknowledge all the hard work of our superintendent RBA assistant ba central office and School principles they've all been hands on deck for weeks to engage in an audit rebuild our District budget and prepare the
0032025 26 budget with looming tight deadlines and deficits to close while also for forecasting for the future all of this with two new Bas who have not even been here for 6 months yet um so a big thank you to their unwavering dedication thus far I would like to remind everyone what tonight's meeting is for this is not a meeting to vote on the budget tonight we vote to allow our district to send along the preliminary budget to the county executive superintendent and the deadline to send it is March 19 this process is required so that the county executive superintendent can address any issues that the district might have to fix budget adoption will take place on April 24 2025 until then the district and the board will continue to review the budget address concerns
004make adjustments and recommendations to ensure the budget aligns with our goals and priorities with that said I know there will still be some questions tonight from my fellow board colleague from my fellow board colleagues as new information came to us down to the wire this week so I will now turn it over to Mr Bing and Mr Moody for the presentation thank you if I can interject for one moment this is the point in the agenda where the board president would typically call out the birthday that we've just had and so I'll just jump in and say very happy birthday to board president n Deval thank you like to uh would you like to say some words prior or should I just jump right in Jump Right In and I'll all right do a little
005back and forth all right little pickle ball I like it I like it um so welcome everyone thank you for that wonderful introduction I will say that you know it has been a daunting and arduous process but in fact approaching it with fresh eyes and and new kind of afforded us a certain latitude a necessary latitude because we had to engage in Discovery to figure out exactly what was before us what had been planned what had been budgeted in the prior year so you know it made for a circumstance where by the very nature of the undertaking we had to really uh dig into this in excruciating detail um and as such we were able to to kind of get some I believe unprecedented insight into the moving forces in the budget and and it's
006good to engage in a a comprehensive process like this as you set up for the future because all of the work and Discovery and dealing with the actual realities of the budget uh Empower your way forward and allow you to to really plan for the subsequent budget year but then and it allows you to actually extend your view uh multiple years so that's said I'm going to next slide if you want to um give a little bit of overview of our budget process right this this is how I'll proceed here I I'll give a uh 30,000 foot view of all of what I just discussed uh how we engag in the process and then how we went into the various other areas like projected revenue and enroll expenditures tax impact uh and our budget calendar
007so next slide I do want to just really Point some big picture points here uh some big picture points uh in our budget there are no riffs there are no reductions in force we are not anticipating any reductions in force by the time this budget is finalized in April want to make that very clear um also want to make clear and you'll see this in the budget that we invested in facilities which has not been done for quite some time you'll see a $5 million increase in facilities to ensure that our buildings are are suitable for our Scholars um you'll also see strategic Investments to lower costs whether that's a child study team fizzed security facility you're going to see strategic Investments where in two three years we're hoping that's going to pay off in
008lowering such costs as out of District tuition litigation things of that nature um and you're also going to see a focus on the next 3 years right so as we looked at this we didn't just look at 25 26 we looked at 26 27 uh 28 and just real quick because I know this question is going to come up you're going to see that in the state aid numbers when we everything was entered uh our projection for student population is an increase for 2026 um it's an increase to 7,143 now I'm going to also remind you of the demographic study you had done I believe in 2023 in this District you had two projections in that based on two different formulas so projection one based upon 8% turnover of long-term home ownership which is Statewide
009that's the average the prediction was 7147 within four of what's currently in the state home room now on the other formula that they used to predict a projection of students um they based it on historical data of South Orange and Maplewood Home turnover that result was a decrease in students to 6,799 so you're going to see this we're using the state number that's populated on the home room because that's what's given to us which is 7,143 which is an increase of about 150 around 150 students next year so that's the number we're using so I just wanted to nip that in the bud because I know you had that demographic done in 2023 we're probably going to need to get another one done because it ends in 2026 that demographic as we move forward thank
010you Mr Bing actually I believe we're at 6831 so 7143 is like you know uh 200 210 or so um so I'm going to go in now into a bit of the budget development process uh next slide so uh we were tasked from the beginning with engaging in a much more transparent process I personally have a philosophy that uh you know a budget is a conversation you know broadly across Stak older groups and to explore the depth and the breadth of of the moving forces there so it dovetail with with what I tend to do and uh we had our marching orders so essentially we engaged in small group board meetings along the way several iterations of small group meetings with our board members as we know this is the board's budget and it's set
011up to reflect the board's priorities we also engaged in um speaking with the community via board meetings uh via board committee meetings and via community conversations budget advisory committee meetings we've had two budget advisory committee meetings where we've addressed about a uh 40 50 member body uh receiving their questions concerns and uh articulations of their priorities we also have scheduled town halls and we've done multiple uh Mr Bing has done multiple town halls and we'll do more uh also surveys surveys out to the district and other District correspondents there's also been advocacy in Trenton superintendent Bing has gone down and uh made it clear how the state funding Reform Act Uh current formula does not serve us as well as it could and then there's also ongoing Town Hall scheduled for March 25th April 2nd
012April 4th and town committee meetings with both South Orange and and Maplewood next slide unfortunately this is difficult to see here but I'll uh essentially this is our budget calendar and it reflects some of the things I've just spoken about uh our budget advisory committe second meeting which was on March 6 we have uh the board meeting where we are today and I should note that uh March 19th is when is our deadline for when we have to uh submit the budget and uh with the exe executive County Superintendent we also have another finance committee meeting Finance facilities and Technology meeting and we have our final budget uh to the full board for review on April 17th uh our April 24th is our final meeting our public hearing on the 2526 budget It's the final
013budget presentation to be submitted to the county so we going back to revenue here okay actually if you could uh Advance the slide thank you so for this 2526 budget calendar the Highlight is that we must submit a preliminary budget to the county on March 19th final budget is due to the county at the end of April and our budget remains a work in progress this is our preliminary budget next slide here we're on to our projected Revenue so I'm going to start from the top here but uh uh and give you the breakdown of the components of Revenue and the changes from 2425 to 2526 essentially we had local tax levy of 136 million uh that grows to 140 million with a 2% increase in tax levy we had an enrollment of healthcare adjustment
0141.3 this year not a health benefit waiver but an enrollment waiver of 850 our state aid did however grow by 619k and our maintenance Reserve utilization in this budget is projected to be two 2 and A5 million uh versus 1.5 million in the prior year extraordinary Aid did uh are we're budgeting 2 million I me 2.5 million this year whereas in the prior year we budgeted 2 million our uh actual number was 2.42 one so we feel comfortable with budgeting extraordinary 8 at 2.5 million we also had uh in the 2425 year and we'll go into this a little bit more deeply uh our audit uh has certain uh uses of fund balance that's baked into the audit and so having finished our audit during our last meeting our fiscal year 24 audit renders us
015with a 7.44 million uh you know draw from our fund balance as well as a projected $6.89 3 million draw from our fund balance in 20 to be budgeted in 2526 uh you'll also see later in the presentation that we're budgeting to use about 5.75 5.8 million in unassigned fund balance uh to help fund the 2526 budget our semi Revenue the whereas in 2425 we were called upon to budget 100% of that at 195k uh there was a change in the state calculation which brought our full 100% budgeted number for semi which is the state uh uh uh Medicaid initiative down to only $247 188 um we are predicting interest earn of about 600k uh and rents and royalties of 200 miscellaneous revenue of 331 and that's our a total for General operating which is
016projected to be for 171 million 465,000 by our County ba and others across the state given the macro environment at the federal level to budget at around 70% of our 25 2425 award and that's what we did so that's 1.5 million in idea and Esa non-public Aid of 146,000 and preschool Aid of 9.5 million total special Revenue fund projected to be 11.2 million in our budget year and then on to our debt service fund I think you do see some opportunities here if you take a look at that sheet you've got opportunities for revenue streams and facility usage we're only at about 200 right that number can be substantially higher um also the preschool Aid you see that we had an increased is year I think we can get an increase for next year and
017we could really look at those funds a little more strategically and and how we use them thank you Mr Bank uh so in our debt service our debt service tax levy is around five 056 million budgeted fund balance fund balance for Debt Service 5152 and Debt Service Aid at 2.82 3 which totals our our debt service fund at 13.33 million uh then we are called upon to make a contribution to our preschool last year that contribution was 1.52 5 million this year it will be 1.74 7 million with a total revenue of 93 m970 and 8 884 if we were to add the the preschool contribution that's about 195 million total budget so next slide uh next slide is just a picture of the components of Revenue essentially we're looking at about you know 82%
018is our our local tax levy our state aid being about 7.8% use of our maintenance Reserve about 1.5 budgeted fund balance at 7.3 uh and you know local Revenue 7% semi is also there but it is so small you cannot see it right because the semi is 24788 on to enrollment if you proceed to the next slide and superintendent Bing kind of uh touched on this earlier but you know enrollment for the district and this is just the high school there are two subsequent slides that look at uh you know middle school and elementary schools but there was a peak of in around 201920 and then pandemic saw for some declines and then we're slowly and steadily moving back upwards but we are projected to experience some enrollment growth uh next we have our middle
019[Music] schools similar story and our elementary [Music] schools next slide one thing of note here is that if you look out over the past uh you know eight or nine years or so we've had you know growth in enrollment and then sharp decline but uh over those declining years since 2019 we hired about 471 uh staff 276 of which have been teachers so you've had a increase of 417 471 staff with the significant decline in population since 1920 I'll repeat that you've had a significant increase in staff hirings of 471 with a decrease in student pop a significant decrease in student population 276 being teachers for the significant decrease in student population thank you next slide please so on to a review of our expenditures and of course as uh with a balance budget we're
020now looking at the expense side of that budget for 2025 26 uh and you know I'll speak to the the major categories here salaries as you can see up uh exist at about 81.9 million of our budget benefits at around an additional $23 million of our budget it's about $14 million in building and grounds uh and of course we have our older buildings so we're we're aggressively attempting to maintain them and and you know it calls for some utilization of that maintenance Reserve um also of note our transportation costs are around 10.9 or about $1 million tuition 13.5 million special services about 9.4 million um Regular prr instruction 2 million curriculum library and staff training around 2 million as well um and uh central office 761 Athletics and co-curricular around 528 so that that those
021are the the broad categories of use uh we've got we went through the sources of our funding and these are the uses of our funding projected for 2526 next slide some highlights from the various different categories uh as pertains to salaries benefits and contracted services our budget for salary increases is consistent with the our projected rates are consistent with our current negotiations where we are uh in that process our increases in projected health benefits costs are 177% our projected increases in our utilities costs are 27% uh 15% increase projected for other categories of insurance these are based on guidance being given to us by the state our Brokers and various different professionals around the state these are circumstances affecting all of the districts around the state and and actually broadly uh around the country uh
022also we're projecting increases of 5% in custodial now and based on visible Trends we're exploring adjusting the language in current contracts and other vendor options around these different categories of expenditures for South Orange Wood School District that's a big piece of the pie because you have privatized since 2015 uh a Maj I would say the majority of what we have custodial facilities transport busing is all privatized so you're looking at Power professionals HVAC technicians plumbers electricians painters lunch AIDS bus drivers a lot of folks fall under those categories so you know one of the things we have been doing since we've been here is really taking a fine too comb through every contract that we currently are under thank you yes that's uh that is the circumstance next slide tuition we're projecting for some increased
023costs for special education out of District placement for tuition and those projections are based on our anticipated demand for services following a thorough review of our projected needs means next slide Transportation just real quick am sorry if Keith can you just go back to that previous slide just real quick and we discussed this over the uh last few meetings last three years special services has gone above and beyond their allotted budget in part due to outof District tuition that is why you're seeing an increase of a million for placeholders just in case we have students who need to go out of District at an average of anywhere from 150 to $250,000 uh We've brought six out of District students back into District over the last six months we're hoping to continue that Trend by expanding
024again investing in order to save expanding our Continuum of services which includes expanding our ER program which we'll be offering tuition to other districts to fill and also our cap program at our high school again for school kids that are School phobic uh inviting other districts who want to send tuition-based kids to that program and we'll continue to purs pursue uh those sort of things thank you yep want to Transportation uh in Transportation uh we're we're increasing the money allocated to uh Transportation costs by around 3.5% in our projections which is consistent with uh growth of inflation growth uh and also navigating our contract conversation um we're reviewing and exploring options and and even looking to employ perhaps a hub or we're evaluating a hub system to enhance efficiency and increase route timeliness all consistent
025with what we're hearing from our population we're also reevaluating all IND District routes to explore opportunities to refine travel uh optimize bus sizes and even optimize the the capacity utilization of buses now Transportation as we all know is one of our bigger nuts in this budget uh and the way to reduce transportation is efficiency of roots and also reducing stops um our next Community conversations is going to be very centered on the topic of transportation and busing we'll discuss the Hub model and a few other models and get some feedback from folks um in regards to possibly uh exploring that system exactly next slide this SL just uh demonstrate that our budget does balance and that our operating Revenue of 171 million our special revenue of 11.2 and our Debt Service uh will actually serve
026the expenditure side of our our income statement next to budget challenges uh yes thank you now I'd like to say here that uh of course our budget challenges were Myriad uh but you know this kind of represents some of the the budget realities that we that were the the the product of our discovery of our research and our year-over-year perspective so you know during 2425 year thus far uh We've engaged in some fiscal appr prudent fiscal management uh superintendent being called for a spending freeze in January and that process is likely to return about $9 million in unexpended funds to our fiscal 25 fund balance right uh fiscal 25 year end June 30 fund balance and approximately 5.8 million of that will be allocated for use in the 2526 fiscal year budget also in order
027to uh address urgent urgent uh maintenance needs across the district $2.5 million in one-time projects have been slated for funding via the maintenance Reserve now uh I should also mention here in this third bll the point that that 6.8 million in audited fund balance was budgeted for the 2526 fiscal year and such is the nature of the audit process the state has determined that it's fiscally prudent for about 2% to be allocated by law to the subsequent fiscal year so uh and I'll get deeper into this but to recap that means that in 2425 uh our audit rendered 7.04 million in fund balance for use in the 2425 year as as well as 6.89 3 million uh for use in the 20 uh 526 year that put in place you're going on 15 years of
028that now it's meant for tax relief and to uh to mediate expenditures so that is a law 2% got to go over every year and as such you know one of the things we covered in our uh audit in our last meeting was we had a fund balance of around 32 million but we're projecting a decline of that fund balance that it's kind of a a potential rapid decline uh which kind of tells the story of the of a impending fiscal cliff that requires prudent fiscal manage of management of us over the course of 25 25 and for the foreseeable future in 2526 and 2627 so part of our work as a as a team is to really focus on that fund balance capital reserve maintenance reserves and make sure we're building those back up
029right that as as Financial stewards uh for both these towns that's probably going to be our biggest responsibility moving forward uh is to really start building up those three areas and it's kind of the next uh screen kind of provides a little bit more visibility into this if you go to the next slide what you see here is the picture that I was just discussing June 30 24 audited fund balance of 32 million million along with that audit uh to be used in fiscal 25 7.04 million as well as decisions that are from our predecessors 4.26 7 from the capital reserve and 1.5 million from the maintenance reserve and that totals to a $13 million uh you know use of fund balance that uh you know came from our audit essentially was prior to the
030beginning of this fiscal year the projected additions in 2025 make for a projected return to fund balance of around 9 million but there's also for budgeting in 2026 uh an audited dollar amount of 6.89 three plus the projected 5.8 that I mentioned earlier and the $2.5 million use of Maintenance Reserve which make for a15 million use of fund balance projecting a $13.4 million fund balance at at the end of fiscal year 26 if we do not engage in prudent uh management and return additional funds to balance so that's our objective is to uh explore efficiencies over the course of the year and just manage the budget to actual over the course of the next V school year and return more to fund balance than what's uh currently projected here and we did that this year
031right we tightened our fiscal bance no no programming was hurt no and nothing facing students was hurt and we were able to put aside $9 million so you know as we move forward that's what we're looking to do to build back up that fund balance next slide so these uh you know our budget challenges included you know reductions of expenses and increasing uh revenue and this is kind of how our 2526 budget uh was rendered uh as Mr Bing mentioned we have been engaging and are continuing to engage in Vendor contract optimization we uh leaving unfilled vacant vacant positions where there's demand lacking unfilled uh retirements that are happening as well as internal transfers have made for some reduction reduction in in projected expenses our increases in Revenue are of course our 2% increase to
032tax levy our enrollment adjustment that I mentioned earlier of 850k uh projected miscellaneous Revenue increase extraordinary Aid increase of 500k and our increased in state aid of 69,000 also we did experience a $1 million increase in uh preschool Revenue right so I do want to emphasize the point that we are going to be leveraging those 276 hires since 201920 to fill vacancies so we're not hiring externally and adding on to the budget I want to say that again we're going to be using an internal transfer process C that most districts use across the state to fill vacancies that we can fill with proper certified teachers okay so next slide on to our tax impact and it's just the summary of uh the revenue so on to the next slide so in 2425 tax levy for
033operating was that 138 million uh 2526 is our 14 1 million based on our tax levy the tax impact is 2.62% increase that as a is as a result of also including the enrollment waiver our 2425 tax levy for debt Ser Debt Service was 5.6 million uh for 25 26 it's 5 million uh as the the bond issuance kind of further amortizes so our tax impact for debt Debt Service declined by 99.97% uh so the 2425 total tax levy was 143,000 and the 2526 total tax levy 146,147 m837 th000 with a total tax impact of 2.12% next slide uh this is just a picture of our bond issuance uh there's been several Bond issuances since 2014 as you can see 2014 15 19 20 3 in 2021 and one in 2024 the principal and interest
034for which total that 13.33 million in debt service so looking back at 2014 Bond because nobody obviously was here for that uh we are looking at Water repairs through the district you're looking at roofs for South Mountain as well as Wings B and D at Columbia High School uh and then you're also looking at uh mantrose General alterations to that building that was the 2014 purpose or how the bond was utilized thank you on to the next slide uh so kind of summarizing budget highlights here you can uh go to this slide essentially what we're talking about is two .5 million in maintenance Reserve use for one-time projects to maintain our buildings we we do feel it's tremendously important to cultivate the student environment and make certain that we're allocating resources towards uh the care
035and safety and uh a place for for solid instruction for our Scholars we also re reprioritize additional projects to Future both uh Board of school estimates Bond issuances where possible we also engaged in restructuring and R redistributing vendor contracts which is still ongoing uh we also did not budget for unfilled vacancy positions where demand is not present and Al and ultimately we are we have our continuing strong interest and in fact we we budgeted for the purpose of having no reduction in staff and that's what we've been able to achieve with this preliminary budget uh and and so we're hoping to to gain the board support just a reminder obviously for everybody our cap Pro current capital project will be ending around September of next year SS is the only school left for the HVAC
036Improvement air quality improvement as well as wiring for uh Fire and Security um Keith uh Mr bonds director of technology has also put in his budget for 2526 finishing off the infrastructure wiring at CHS uh so that will also be completed um we will continue to work on a work that this is a work in progress obviously we have till late April uh so we'll continue to uh work on the work as noted we'll have right now we have three town halls scheduled if more is needed we will uh hopefully we will presenting at the South Orange and Maplewood uh committees uh as well so we look forward to those dates uh and just trying to make this as transparent as as possible with that that concludes the presentation thank you okay so questions anyone
037want to go yes will so thank you for that presentation I appreciate the uh intense amount of work that the business office superintendent have done over the past uh number of months weeks and days and hours leading up to tonight uh to put this together uh I want to ask a question with regard to the increases in Revenue that were listed uh we mentioned the enrollment adjustment about $850,000 and at the beginning of the presentation uh superintendent Bing you mentioned the difference in the projected enrollments between what the state thinks which is a significant increase versus our formula or the local formula should suggest a a small decrease uh can you just remind the board and the public what the impact would be to our budget depending what the actual enrollment numbers are yeah so
038it looks just a little background it looks like the state is as well as uh our demographic uh individual utilize the Rucker model which is the most popular model out there every District uses it it's it's quite accurate I've used it twice um and then it looks like as I noted they use just historical data for the drop in population obviously if there's an increase a substantial increase in population uh you're looking at a a close scrutinization of resources that's class size that's how spaces are used that's materials um that also impacts Transportation obviously so there's a lot of factors that come into play as your student population grows um obviously going with the state aid number is the best number to go with that's the number we've been going with with this budget so
039that 700 7,143 number is what we have in this budget and that's what we're budgeting for uh but if you're looking long term as We Know I I would recommend another demographic study at least taking us out to 2030 2031 32 so we get a better idea of of where we're moving also based upon that numbers I mean the additions to the buildings were extremely were were a very prudent move um regarding our enrollment uh something that school budget Watchers might want to think about is that the fact that our enrollment fell by so much after covid by about like 800 students and then it rebounded it actually helped us budgetarily because of the way the tax cap adjustment works it's like a one-way ratchet so even though our enrollment is about two or 300
040students lower than it was preo since it's rebounded from like the covid naor we've gotten Tax Act adjustments and it's benefited Us by like you know probably well over a million dollars so if our enrollment had just steadily fallen from 7,000 to like the current 67 or 6800 we wouldn't have gotten those adjustments and we'd be in worse budget pain than we are now um it seems like school districts like they do hire Dem demographers but I think actually it's just a crazy situation like with what's happening nationally that any demographer estimate I would have a I wouldn't have a lot of faith in it you know there's going to be a trump effect it's going to reduce immigration and there's even actually an effect on Democratic meaning Big D Democratic birth rates when there's
041a Republican president there's a big drop in blue areas in the country Trump's first term so you know in our school district South AR Maplewood like you know Birth really did fall a lot in late 201s like um you know they had been like in the high 400s like before Trump and they fell to as low as 406 so who the heck knows what's going to happen like yes we should hire demographer it's just the professional thing to do but we have no idea what's really going to happen um anyway that's just something board and Community can discuss um I did have a question about fund balance because like fund balance in a way is kind of like the hero of this like budget cycle like you know I went into this budget cycle expecting
042like a deficit similar in size to last year but we actually don't you know like we are like you know using some attrition like which is not good um but like you know it's not as bad a budget cycle as last year or what I expected um is there anything you can say about like you know where our fund balance that comes from does it have anything to do with the fact that we had a lot of vacancies this year you know we had like 30 vacancies at one point like you know so most of that fund balance well a lot of it is also as obviously start of the Year districts uh districts uh departments schools ask for a certain amount of money to spend to cut POS on certain items um I would
043you know I'm going to average they probably didn't about 50% of those POs were not issued they didn't issue them in time and all honestly you should issue as a former principal I'm spending all my money before the new year always always have always will um so uh a lot of that's POS but also as you noted Jeff it's also vacancies and and not filling spots that we didn't need to fill uh it also goes back to the fact that you know as we mentioned at the last board meeting uh we came into this without any comparables about you know 40 50% of systems 3000 was was filled so therefore it really forced us to do zerob based budgeting and and go line by line and then having individuals come into the office and justify
044what those expenses were so it really gave us a better lens on hey we really don't need this you're you're you're not getting the benefit from from this contract and enabled us to cut a lot of things that were just not needed and you know what I'll add and I think you know the superintendent's commentary was on uh essentially addressing the uh the makeup of that which we were able to save within the 24 25 year to add to fund balance projected June 30 fund balance that said fund balance itself is uh it's almost like the concept between assets equals liabilities plus Equity it's the equity it's the the remainder that exists but that is there for The Prudent fiscal management of the district from a year-over-year standpoint so uh it is prudent to save
045some money and to have some you know for some uh available funds for use in the event of threat or opportunity so it's built into the process of management of a school budget that you uh have fund balance and you should have that fund balance and engage in uh protection of that fund balance for the longer term Fiscal stewardship so as such you know super Bing talks about superintendent Bing talks about the fact that so if year-over-year you're budgeting and you're just being given a number like 3% growth over year last year you're not taking into consider consideration like your inventories and that which currently exists on the cell so there's a lot of moving parts right so but when you engage in a new process of zerob based budgeting from the ground up and
046you really assess your specific needs then and you also as sh things are shifting around the district you're able to move inventories and things of that nature when you do this meticulous process you can carve out that which is unnecessary to be expended uh and then add to your fund balance so uh this is the practice that we need to continually engage in over the course of budget management for the 25 26 year and Beyond really looking at the moving parts and what's necessary and rightsizing our distribution of resources for the purpose of moving some of those funds back to fund balance for the protection of southorn maple South Orange Maplewood School District moving forward it's not great you have to account for all components of the budget that's it and when you open up
047the process and you make it collaborative you're getting different eyes on that budget you know shout out to an shout out to Tom Stanley shout out to all our department heads when you bring people in a room consistently and you have different eyes on the budget it really helps you figure out what you need to prioritize and what's really not needed and that process was really never done in the district over the last few years and I think that really made uh the process a lot more effective efficient just bringing experts and folks into the room and making this more collaborative so you know big shout out to the senior leadership team to our principles to our supervisors uh you know we had conversations with our teachers just for everybody who had their eyes on
048the Budget moving forward right that goes all the way down into software licenses uh do you have a site license where you know it can be collapsed and strategically uh purchased right I mean right sizing how many individuals are using that particular software and what are projected needs these are things that uh unless you're engaging in the dialogue and the research you're not going to know uh and so that's what we've been uh know basing our decision- making on and you had people stepping up in regards to monitoring and making sure big projects were accountable for such as Mr bonds over my right shoulder who has been on top of the CH stage Columbia stage since it's started and we're still on track knock on wood um but that's also a part of making sure
049you're monitoring our expenses uh you have people like Mr Bond stepping up um just to Echo you know it's been a very different process this year so thank you it's been really as as a board member who was on fft last year um very different type of process and I think the collaboration that you talked about tonight was was really evident um I do remember last year asking a little bit about the hiring as it related to enrollment that was something that I had noticed last year and asked about just wondering in your Discovery process do you have a clear understanding of what drove some of the decision- making to continue hiring in spite of the enrollment decreases I think as there wasn't a lot there when we came into the budget because usually in
050systems 3000 or whatever Financial system you're using there's a description column that's really filled out to know exactly why what's the rationale and that just wasn't there so so it's very difficult especially when you're going literally through paper purchase orders which I haven't done in 15 years sure uh because everybody is now digital trying to figure out what was this PO for uh and you can only do that to a certain amount of going through files looking for paper Po's yeah that makes sense and then I guess to follow up given the vacancies that we talked about um and the decision to prioritize internal transfers rather than external hiring can you speak to how our current Staffing levels position us to fill those vacancies are we in a stronger position presumably to fill those needs
051given that we've increased staff in spite of enrollment declining yeah I think the beauty of our staff and we we we talk about this quite often we have a a high level of Masters I think one of the top in the states and a lot of people with multi certifications and a lot of people with certifications that you need for positions that are very hard to fill so I think we're in a very good position to leverage those hires over the last few years to fill positions that for example one of our mandates and and Liz leads the special ed well it wasn't a committee when we ad hoc now it's an official committee uh was to make sure that no students were kicked out of their own school for one of the least restrictive
052strategy inclass support and had to go to another school because their grade level didn't Supply inclass support so you know we'll be able to utilize for in-house folks to fill those spots so now we can you know proudly say that all grade levels uh we'll have inclass resource support K to 5 um and then as obviously as our schools grow we'll be doing the same thing and adding on to those grade levels that are added on to the schools so we'll have a full Continuum of those Services you know what I'd also like to add that you know one of the first things that happened when I came into the district oh so long ago in December um was you know being as though the around 80% of our budget is to you know Direct
053towards Personnel or know 70 80 the fact is just the sheer Logistics of refining or understanding what's at play in your financial accounting system require you to do a meticulous construction of What's called the position control roster the PCR right which documents every position and the compensation and the classroom now when you encounter a situation where uh your financial accounting system is not in direct specific alignment with your payroll system and with other systems you I knew that uh what was ahead of me is to reconcile those to make certain that it's all working with the same information and that and that the analysis is further buttressed by an actual school by school count uh as to who works there right uh that project uh I had you know was headed up by our HR
054department and I brought when departments aren't talking to each other and sharing and working from the you know singing from the same Himel down to the dollar then you have a recipe for Discord so essentially harmonizing the systems to make certain you're working with the same uh position control roster across and that it's actually verified at the building level then now you're working from an accurate accounting of where everyone is so you can make judgments around what positions are uh unfilled or unnecessary to fill or have not had the demand in Prior years things of that nature so a great amount of you know Discovery comes from the reconciliation of the systems that govern both the financial accounting and payroll and you've heard the same thing right if our mandate which it is is to
055move to a datadriven decision-making organization then those are the things you need in place and they just don't appear right it takes about a year or so to put those things in place and then put standard operating procedures on how to utilize those uh those things in place um and then we become a data driven organization but we're we're not there yet you hopefully we'll get there within the next year or so but that's the work that we have to continue to work on um just circling back to the to the fund balance uh comment and question it seems to me I mean I agree with Jee it seems like that's been an nonlung hero in terms terms of helping us with our budget as well as um you know using some of our other
056reserves which I I understand but what I'm kind of concerned about is it it seems like the fund balance this year was a unique circumstance in a way in that we did do a hiring freeze we really looked at everything and certainly next year we will continue that process but I I'm guessing that we're not going to find quite as much because you've already done such a thorough job this year and um you know we are projected to have our reserves go down significantly by the end of 2026 so I'm just thinking ahead to Future years am I correct to assume that whatever we put forth in this coming budget we're going to have to make some real more serious decisions for the years to come um because it's not sustainable and I'm getting the
057sense that what we're doing right now is not sustainable given that how much we've dug into to the reserves and into the the balance is that correct that is absolutely correct that is the message that we're attempting to convey here is that now but I'll I'll refine it a bit I would say that uh my mission has been to show and to bring to a larger set of eyes the trajectory of the district in terms of its fiscal stewardship of resources right the way to turn the ship doesn't inol involve continuing year-over-year refinement of the deployment of resources and uh the discovery around ways to achieve more in the way of operational efficiency and other categories of Revenue and funding right uh and other kinds of uh you know God forbid you know tax uh
058taxes or tax growth or population growth you know things of that nature uh so yes we were able to uh return some monies to fund balance in a projected way for fiscal 25 we will be called upon to engage in that same uh strategy in 2526 to attempt to return funds to fund balance and decline the amount of which we have to uh dig in there for for uh for access to resources to to fund the district so yes that is intentional and it's entirely consistent with the numbers that we've inherited essentially these numbers are come from our budget I mean are are it uh which we just finalized and represent the activity in in the year prior to our arrival so we received the $7 million in in use in 2025 from prior Administration
059and the 6.89 3 for use in 2026 right uh so yeah that is the case so we are called upon as uh fiscal stewards of the district uh as board and District leadership to do just that uh and be be prudent over the next years because of where this trend uh is heading I think also as you you know as we really develop a solid I'll take you back on the M you know a solid PCR you're going to get some aha moments there we're not there yet and Regina can tell you how long she's been trying to get there uh you know once we get that roster you're going to have some aha moments that are going to lead to savings and efficiencies when we get deeper into facilities we're going to get to
060a point where we're going to have more aham moment and and and hopefully be able to do more efficiency we haven't even talked about energy yet that's a that's a whole a road district has not gone down as of yet uh that Bill's been pushing for for quite some time and we're about to go down that road so you're looking at efficiencies and hopefully savings um you know you're looking at a lot of different you know these departments have layers and layers and layers and it takes more than just 6 months to understand all those layers whether it's special services curriculum and instruction uction facilities you know it's it's years of of layers that have been developed and it just takes a little time to peel that onion but yeah 100% of What DJ just
061said and Jeff and Amman it's we're going to have to be lean moving forward uh we cannot predict what's going to happen with Federal funding um you know we can take a guesstimate that will receive Flat state funding for the remainder of the Run of this formula uh they may change the formula in two years which would impact us as well um yeah a there's a lot of different factors out there but we have to be prudent um so yeah my my comment is more of a of a request that I'm sure you will be doing without me saying it but I'm going to say it anyway um for the budget presentation in April um you know when we've had our small group meetings we um dug into a lot of the details of looking
062at the year-over-year um and and that were making us go over budget um and was causing the deficit and so in April I think it'll be really important for the community to also see all the work that has been done behind the scenes looking at year-over-year looking at um our contracts and showing number-wise you know the actuals of how that budget was how that deficit was closed with what is being removed cut or whatever from the expenditures and what is being shifted um so that it's easy for the community to also see the work that was done behind the scenes to get that deficit closed and to understand the decisions that are being made to whether it's the renegotiation of count whatever it is um and especially when going to board of school estimate I
063know the bulk of what we're talking to them about will be more facilities based but if other things should come up whether it is transportation or special services for them to they will be looking for that year-over-year projections and wanting to understand um to to board member Brown's Point what are we doing to also reain it in you know um and what are we doing to to uh make sure that we aren't just constantly dipping into funds because it isn't sustainable um and we don't like to always go to border School estimate but we do realize that the realities in in front of us or that it's the next couple years will be difficult financially so that's a big push for us and we've discussed this many of times is making sure we're ahead of
064facilities right we're 20 years behind right now in regards to maintenance so we have a great director in place that has a great plan that's going to lead right into our longrange facility plan which really will be our blueprint for the next five years of what we're going to do and how we're going to maintain these schools to to make sure they serve our students in the most optimal way yeah I think there's a a common thematic of of the concerns that we're going to raise well first off thank you for for everything that you you've done here um even just in my few months and being a parent in the audience last year seeing that this is a what I think will be a true Baseline for uh for the future looking of a
065of a budget where we don't hopefully have to be in a year-to-year scramble again I mean I think we can all agree that we want to be there and I think we can all agree that uh using reserves to balance a budget is suboptimal uh just doing the math that you've seen that in front of us I think over the next few weeks while we acknowledge that this is a an acknowledgement of a path forward over the next few weeks not only will we be providing information for the public but I think the board will be requesting a lot of information to understand what has gone into this and how we got to the spot mainly to avoid well not not not as an intention to turn over stones or uh you know look through
066the couches for extra change it's going to be more about are we going to get caught blindsided with anything else that we might have missed right uh just to elay those concerns that are out there but I think also we all agree that risks are not the way to go uh we know that maintenance shouldn't be touched special services should not be touched the classrooms not be touched but we should be looking at areas particularly in the short term that we can look at right now and one of the areas I would I guess preliminary ask is more detail around Transportation costs whether it be out of District General Services uh general education the triple by by mileage the distance all those things that are going through there because I think those are things that
067we could look at right now now that don't require impacts to actually what happens in the classroom oh absolutely we we do agree and uh and that's why we spoke on the fact that we're really looking at each potential contract for areas of possibility to optimize it right to do things more efficiently uh we'll be we're continuing to have conversations with our contract providers particularly in transportation to explore all those kinds of scenarios where we might uh achieve some savings and and and and increase efficiency thank you um so again thank you both for that I know it's been it's been a lot of work and I I as somebody this is my third budget cycle um then the amount of information that we have all gotten in just honestly even in the past couple
068of weeks has been really tremendous you know I think newb noted a some of the stuff came in a little last minute and so I'm still trying to process a lot of this so to bim's point there's there's likely going to be from today until April 24th just lots of lots of further questions um so my first two are more like comments I think as we look to the the final budget presentation really I think Mr Bing you've articulated it verbally but being able to show how does how do how does the budget priorities as you've stated here tie back to the district goals is going to be really important not only for the board but the community as well um Mr Moody you've talked a lot about you know planning for the future right
069I think you said three years um anything you might be able to show in April that shows those three-year projections I think would be helpful um you know I sat here last year and um you know I think we all realized that that had never been done looking into the future and so it's exciting to hear and I think trying to put that to P pen to paper and share that with the community would be great um you know I think there's there's a couple of personnel questions that I'm not necessarily going to ask outright here some that probably just can't be asked but just to think about also in our next committee meeting but you know just thinking about the increase in Staffing you know that was about 60% that were teachers so that
070leaves about you know 40% of other staff I don't know what that is so trying to also dig into that so that we can understand better the teacher to student ratio the support staff to student ratio admin to student ratio kind of like all of those numbers um and you know I think there are some other positions out there that have been discussed whether they've been in a previous riff like director of guidance like is that you know how if and how we are planning to bring that back you know those are discussions that I think we we want to be having because as you know from just current and previous board members and also the community um you know there's a lot of questions on on what potentially we could bring back without of
071course dipping into and riffing any other positions thank you absolutely we you know uh board member ard we definitely anticipate that uh the job of research and Discovery and presentation is not is not done um we are we are uh grateful and optimistic and hopeful that we are engaged in a in a in a thorough and efficient budget process right we have a a team spirit a decorum of tying all of our decision- making around to uh aligning with budget priorities right um and that was our in our budget Philosophy from the beginning student achievement optimizing current programming and Staffing and addressing continuing Capital Improvement needs right and those are I'm a firm believer that you know getting the priorities as your you know your North Star it simply allows you to engage in more
072effective decision-making around you know individual account lines individual projects individual contracts um and so student achievement optimizing current programming and Staffing and addressing continuing Capital Improvement needs were sort of the marching orders uh in the beginning of this process and so it's the um the prism through which we've been evaluating everything uh and of course this uh remaining March towards April and towards final budget will be about the business of doing more in the way of Discovery there and and sharing in our our our forums for interaction there and you know it's just uh we're called upon to make tough decisions and we have to think about this in terms of year-over-year long-term success right and we have to sort of uh allow ourselves to consider some of these things you know adjustments in priority
073things that are adjusting both a time frame of bringing to fruition or potentially a funding source right so we we have a we widen the lens of our thought process engage in the communication make the decisions and then uh we can all rally around a budget that seeks to uh to provide for everyone um so that's that's the mission um yes and I want to Echo the thank you that I know you all have been working so hard so I really appreciate it and I just want to kind of piggy back on what's been said I think it seems like you all have work been working TIR Tire tirelessly to try and figure out how we can not have a deficit this year you know put money towards maintenance and other needs for our students
074um I think you know it seems like from what you're saying we're in a place now where we feel obviously more discoveries needed we need to kind of look continue looking at the contracts see where we can continue optimization but at some point soon I hope we're getting to a place where we can have um numbers in front of us that's kind of a breakdown of you know Transportation by you know the various areas special services guidance central office you know core subjects professional development so that we can start to understand okay what are we projecting what did 2425 look like in these areas um and then you know also kind of like a cost per student I think would be helpful to understand you know by supplies by teacher by Administration um and then
075even like the maintenance what are we including in this budget the 5 million what what is that going to cover versus what are we going to go to the Bose for so I'm I know that you're kind of I'm sure you're getting there um but the sooner that we can kind of have that breakdown of numbers I think we'll allow us to continue have to have great discussions and to start to make hard decisions on priorities based on the goals that you stated because we are going to have to start making hard decisions absolutely thank you for that but I would I would characterize it just slightly differently I would say that this process is uh a process which is anount of various different communication forums right as we we went through you know small
076group board meetings finance committee meeting uh you know budget advisory So within those and I think our your board your fellow board members will agree we have gotten down into those excruciating details on certain of the things that you mentioned widening that conversation and amplifying that message is of course before us between now and for the remainder until budget clear clearance so uh I think some of that Discovery uh currently exists it can be refined and tweaked and then further proliferated but we've definitely um you know got into those details but there's always room for improvement and there's always more analysis that can be done your per pupil requests and stuff like that we can definitely do a little bit more of that and distribute that more widely across the board but we've we've covered
077a lot of that in our finance facilities and Technology meetings uh and our um small group meetings but you know we we will continue that effort and uh refine it even further uh so echoing some of what both of you have just said you know this has been uh a a lengthy process and a process of uh as you've talked about zero based budgeting we're not just taking last year and saying we're going to do X percentage of this uh and so on which has led to I think a longer process of identifying all of these and we've gotten some very exquisitely detailed pieces we've seen the uh the grounds and Facilities budget and literally they have planned out how much they spending on every screw in every building um we don't yet have that
078for every other department we know this is uh forthcoming and we we do have a lot of these Topline numbers right now as well as some more analyses that are pending um it would be helpful we've talked about this some offline but if you adjust for us and the public remind us of uh this process right now we're taking this budget and approving it to be sent up to the county uh superintendent for approval and still iterating over the next month before our April meeting would you remind us exactly how that process works as far as uh numbers that can still move and what's happening between now and that final meeting sure absolutely um essentially like the presentation demonstrated here we are today March 13th we have through to March 19th to enter our preliminary
079budget into the state software and upload that which involves a 60 pages of data being typed into the system and then to uh as well as narrative from our superintendent as well as uh information around curriculum and instruction and and the different guiding uh thoughts around our budget after we enter all of that and we render our our tax levy information that comes from that state system then we engageing continuing dialogue and thought process and conversation to make a final budget right we're we're looking between today being March 13th to March 19th and then out through April to make final adjustments and to engage in further discourse about where our priorities are and what the numbers actually indicate right this is what we've been discussing and then ultimately uh we look out towards um and
080I can pull up the calendar again but we we look out towards an April upload of our budget let me see we also have the advantage um you know we've been working pretty closely with John Ferraro the county ba uh Joe zaro our County sup you know 30 years um so all I think the advantage of myself being new ammani Andrew they've been really quite helpful they they they've been in quite a bit our communication has been wonderful with them John has been here more than a few times to walk our build buildings uh you know we meet with Joe every month so in addition to the work our Auditors have been doing um you know I think we're in a good place in regards to being able to continue to work on this budget
081over the next few weeks and submit a balance but also a budget that's uh really future oriented looks out to three four years and to be explicit you know after March 19th which is our our our tenative budget up follow to the the state then we have the April 21st uh preparation of our advertised budget uh for submission to the board of school estimat we have uh budget approval by the executive County Superintendent on April 21st uh we have our notice of of public hearing first you know on April 20th and then uh full uh regular meeting of the Board of Education Thursday May 1st uh April election so let's see our board meeting meeting to have our public our public hearing sorry 21st 21st 24th yes just board meeting public hearing on the 25th
08226th budget final budget presentation approval to submit to the county April 24th welcome I'm just chiming in here because I I did want to highlight um something that I mean there's a lot of things that have been different in this budget cycle versus recent ones the ongoing town halls I think will be really great um I know you've had many many Community conversations Town Halls whatever you're calling them um I think would be great and then I think uh you know and maybe it's for like the next board meeting but the budget advisory committee which I know has been brand new I think I believe there's been two meetings um and I don't know if there's been an established kind of like Forum in which somebody from the committee does some sort of read I
083I don't know what it is um it's brand new I know you've done it before in the past and previous districts but I think internally the board has been able to share some notes for those that have been observing but I guess um and I say this because actually I happen to be acquaintances with a Committee Member and they they ask how how does the sharing of information happen so maybe formalizing putting some together formalizing that for the next committee meeting and then figure fig out how that shares out to the public was there a question there or do do you want respond to that okay no I don't thank you I thought you may wanted to some insight into what was taking place during those those but I know several board members were were
084also there with us during those budget advisory council meeting so um I think some people um sorry um one of last year's most controversial risks was the elimination of the head of guidance and I was just wondering if there's anything you can say about budgeting for that position for next year it's currently in this uh draft of the budget I think uh the community will welcome that thank you okay well thank you thank you so much um we're going to now go into public speaks I'll read the board president's statement hearing of individuals um and then we'll go from there that good yeah go for it all right so the school board meeting yeah this is it oh wait oh Regina are you trying to get this sorry I thought you said something else um
085the Schoolboard meeting is a business meeting in public and not a meeting with the public often times it may appear to members of our audience that the Board of Education takes action with very little comment comment and in many cases a unanimous vote before a matter is placed on the agenda at a public meeting it has been thoroughly 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 the board discussion and action at a public meeting okay now for a hearing of individuals thank you for coming in person and joining us online this evening the South Orange Maplewood Board of Education values public involvement and respects that you've taken the time to address the board at tonight's meeting as
086this is the board 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 it will be enforcing those to enable us as many people to speak as possible this evening each individual will be given 3 minutes to speak the first public comment period is usually limited to 1 hour with priority given to items related to the meeting agenda and the second public comment period may be limited to 30 minutes okay so we have hi Jason Bing 525 Academy Street I just wanted to send out kudos to the board to the ba and also the superintendent just okay we're going to have
087to get him off commend them on a great job very well done thank you too much too much okay um so Carrie you've been waiting so patiently thank you thanks hi my name is Carrie um I'm a former PTA president at the Tuscan school and I was on the president's Council um I'm reading a statement from a group of parents who are applying to prek this year on January 26 2025 Temple OAB Shalom hosted a celebratory event with an Israeli soldier who was active in Gaza during the ongoing genocide of Palestinians the temple also displays a large Israeli flag on the building a political symbol utilized by a country as it currently commits war crimes many community members have privately raised concerns because of this insensitivity and thus do not want their children placed at
088the Mickey freed preschool located in OAB Shalom which is an osm a new SSD prekindergarten site we have spent the last 16 months witnessing the devastating loss of tens of thousands of Palestinian children brutally murdered with their schools and homes destroyed by Israel using us bombs and our tax dollars for some some of us our own children resemble these children heightening our concern preschoolers are especially vulnerable and as they are not equipped to advocate for themselves or recognize racism when it occurs we believe it is essential for the district to publicly and officially inform all pre- applicants that in response to these legitimate concerns they have the option to opt out of placement at Mickey freed and choose an alternative pre- site without penalty SSD is obligated under its own policy to ensure that students
089from marginalized groups are supported and to uphold its commitment to equity inclusivity and the safety of all students in our current political reality this includes supporting Pro Palestine allies who speak out against genocide their advocacy is often falsely conflated with anti-Semitism in an effort to silence criticism of Israel the district has already assured us that should parents decide to decline the OAB Shalom placement they will not lose their child's spot in the pre kindergarten program instead a suitable alternative place will be made available to them for the start date noted in their acceptance letter parents who want to opt out of OAB Shalom prek site should email the school district immediately please email prek info@ sd. k12.us and CC superintendent of schools Mr Jason Bing your Outreach should be a preemptive ahead of final placements
090this is W 6 years old he was stabbed to death by his landlord for being Palestinian in Illinois this is Ree she's 3 years old killed in a bombing of her home her grandfather called her the soul of his soul this is Omar he's 5 years old his father carried the bloody pulp of his body in a plastic bag crying my children are dead my children are dead this is Salma four years old killed by an Israeli sniper shot in the neck and died in her father's Arms This is hin 5 years old a tank shot her car with 350 bullets she was the last survivor am called to the rescue squad I'm so scared please come thank you thank you Carrie so there's no online speaks so we will move to the action portion
091of the meeting wait for Mr Bing to come P it back down okay um so we are going to the action portion of the meeting Mr Moody can you please read the resolutions into record oh Mike Mr Moody can you put your mic on please sorry sorry about that here to take actions and um on resolutions for resolution 4585 a and 4735 B C uh to approve the preliminary budget submission uh to authorize insurance coverage for district clubs parent organization and uh approving attendance in work rated travel for workshops thank you are is there any discussion on these items yeah we have say a few things about the resolutions that we advanced in FF resolution 4735 B authorizes insurance coverage for the parent organization uh the Muslim Arab Student Union under the district's uh njsig
092policy for the 2024-25 school year this aligns with standard practice as all groups using District facilities need insurance resolution 4735 C simply approves travel and workshop expenses of $250 for two employees attending the inrs to MT s conference all right thank you any other comments discussion no okay great so roll call please to vote sure roll call uh board member Bennett yes board member Brown yes board member Callahan yes board member dval Wilson yes board member eer yes board member gford yes board member kapadia yes board member Meyer yes and board member pyic Gable yes okay that concludes the action portion of the meeting um next week we do hearing of delegations but we don't have any and we just did it so our meeting is still short tonight which is nice um so I
093will announce the future meetings um the Board of Education will meet again in public session on Thursday March 27th 2025 at 6:30 p.m. for our monthly meeting action will be taken and now I will adjourn Mr Mooney I would now like to make a motion to adjourn this meeting on Thursday March 13th at 8:53 p.m. do I have a second thank you we'll do B today thank you um board member capadia and all in favor awesome great thanks meeting is adjourned