001Here we go. The regular meeting of the Kingsburg Board of Education will be held in the Bulger Middle School media center. Adequate notice for this meeting has been mailed to the Andre Park Press file of the municipal clerk of Kingsburg posted on the district web page and posted inside the office of Kingsburg Board of Education 100 Palmer Place Kingsburg, New Jersey on February 16th, 2026. Roll call. >> Mrs. Clayton >> here. >> Mrs. Friselle, >> Miss Kelly >> here, >> Mr. Masley >> here, >> Mr. Kitchen >> here, >> Mr. Cook >> here, >> Mr. H >> here. >> Mr. Ryan >> here. Please stand for the pledge of allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, liberty and justice
002for all. >> Okay. In case there's an emergency, there's four exits. The closest exit may be behind you. We're going to have a presentation in one second, but for people out there in video land, the guy behind the camera is his birthday. So everyone can say happy birthday to Michael. >> So now that presentation please. >> Good evening everyone. >> Um so we were privileged uh over the summer to uh receive the exemplary educator award from Miss Aaron Gomez. Um, one of the reasons why we nominated her for this award is um, I get the privilege every day to walk back and forth multiple times in and out of the building um, right by her classroom. So, one of the things I always notice is that she's always up and working with the kids. She's
003engaging them in um, some amazing discussions. Um, so that was one thing why we were we wanted to um nominate her. Um, even when the date ends, so even at the end of the day when I'm walking out, she still works after school and tutors kids in our classroom. So that's always nice to see. So um, definitely very impressive. But the award, I think I mentioned the last time that only 120 educators from the entire state of New Jersey were recognized for this. So we were very excited to have um Miss Gomez AS the state department. This is the actual letter. >> And then this is your fish. >> We'll take you want to come up and take a picture. >> Thank you. Where's your daughter? Okay, we're now going to have the student reports
004last time over there. So, we're not start. >> Good evening. This winter season has been one of the most successful in our school's history with our student athletes achieving incredible accomplishments. Our boys basketball team finished with a strong 14 and 11 record improving by five wins from last year. Asan Young earned first team all division honors while Tori Black and Aishan Young were named to be the second team. Our girls basketball team made school history with an outstanding 204 record, the most wins ever. Gabriella Flanth was named C North Player of the year and received all shore honorable mention. Princess Graves and GA Beinger earned first team honors and Bella Fernandez was named for the third team. Gabriela Flan and Princess Grave were also selected for the short conference all-star game. Our wrestling team also
005had an impressive season. Four wrestlers advanced to regionals and Shawn Rea became a regional champion, only the second in school history and qualified for the state championships. He finished his career with a record-breaking 124 wins. We are incredibly proud of all of our student athletes and coaches for their hard work and dedication. Beyond athletics, our students continue to make a positive impact in our community. The environmental club along with GSA will host a clothing swap on April 18th. In addition, senior Laura Benzis has worked with the town council to launch the Beach Bucket Foundation, a new initiative that will place cleanup stations at local beaches to help produce litter. Finally, the drama club is preparing for its production of Ride the Cyclone, a unique and powerful musical that highlights the creativity and talent of our
006students. Their continued dedication makes the arts an important part of our school community. And lastly, our sophomores are hosting a burger night at Freddy's tomorrow, March 25th from 5:00 p.m. Thank you. From our school, we have Mrs. Lanny and Mr. Prescott. not I'm sorry, no disrespect, sir. >> Uh the week of March was across America. The gifted and talented students decided to add a little extra to the week and call it spirit week. They appropriated suggestions of clothing to wear that coordinates popular books such as Monday where animal socks for the books were posted around the school indicating suggested clue or the individual book titles so that all our students could participate. They also went to the Russo school and had a good time reading to the younger students there. >> On Monday, March 9th,
007the sixth grade students attended an assembly entitled substance abuse prevention. Don't get baked in March 10th grade student selected to represent the middle school at the annual county school boards association dialogue forum program. She did an outstanding job sharing her reflections and experiences in middle school. On Thursday, March 12th, our school held an induction ceremony in the media center for the Honor Society. There were eight stu new students from the seventh grade and four new students from the eighth grade who qualified to be included in this year's ceremony in our chapter. Also in attendance were seven were seven eighth grade members from last year. Proud parents and guests also attended the ceremony and were afforded the opportunity to take lots of pictures at the conclusion. Last week were signups for this year's older baseball teams.
008Teams who are very interested begin their first game this week and look forward to a wonderful season. Last week, the eighth graders made their selections for the class poll of 2026. The winning were posted on the hallway bulletin board for all to see and will have their pictures taken in the coming days that will be included in the 2026 yearbook. Also last week, everyone at the Bulier Everyone at Bulier started their third and last trimester for their enrichment classes for this school year. The sixth grade students of the month were Alexander Lane and Max. Seventh grade were Riley and Joanni Quent Quentinella, sorry. And the eighth grade were Mark Walker and Reagan Crumbai. We are very proud of the great work they have done. As we close the month of March, look forward to the
009first week of April. We wish everyone a joyless >> Thank you. >> Committee reports, please. >> Thank you, Mr. President. I'm going to uh just give a brief overview of the budget um financial uh meeting was held earlier today. Um just to keep it brief, there's a lot on our agenda today. Our business administrator Lizzy Casease can speak more on that later in the evening, but the tenative budget was discussed at the financial meeting today. There's a lot to discuss and again this case is going to do a fantastic job explaining it to everybody. So without further ado, I'm going to keep that very brief. Sure. Uh so we are always loving budget season and every single year we take a hard look. Thank you hugely to all the staff and the administrative team because
010uh you know we never get into this lightly and we know how difficult it is to raise taxes and we take it very seriously because we know every single dollar that can stay in the household we are trying to do so. However, have been a large amount of budgetary constraints. Uh some of those constraints we are not met without surprise, right? So with the healthc care rising for the second year in a row, looking at a 35% increase is always a challenge as well as utilities in double digits and then ensuring that we are covering salaries and any other student and staff requirements that are through the whole entire budget. So with that uh we can give a little sneak peek on what will happen with the And prior to last year, we went out
011and that was a about a $450 increase. This year, we are looking tonight to approve the budget uh at a $218 increase. The Kesburg um average home value went up about $41,000. So, you will see that there is a tax rate decrease. However, due to the increase in home value, it's about $218 for the year or $18 a month. It does cover all of our needs that we have throughout the the whole entire budget. We are utilizing the adjustment for the healthcare costs. We are one of 22 throughout the whole entire county that is using healthcare. Some have the ability to use a waiver for enrollment. Um, others have the ability to go in an alternate direction. However, there are over 22 districts that are going anywhere between a 5% to 10% increase in taxes.
012And so, we are looking to also utilize our reserves so that that money is a no tax impact. And anytime that we can utilize that money and reduce the cost for taxpayers, we're going to continue to do so. Um, and then is there anything else that I'm missing? And with the preschool expansion aid, we did receive an increase. However, we have a decrease in classes that the state was able to fund us for. So, we are going from 15 to 13 classes. So, that is also in here as well. We will get into much more further details at the next board meeting and that will be on April 28th as long as the county gives it back to us. um they had 53 budgets to do in about three weeks time. They did for the
013election calendar due to the delay of the governor's address had it where they changed the dates that we can hold the public hearing meeting from Friday, April 24th through Sunday. So we will again cover on Tuesday, but those are the dates that are listed. >> Okay. Sure. M we open up to questions from the board have So at this time any of my board members have any questions for mentee in reference to the budget that's going to be proposed feel free to ask I have several M. >> Yeah I just um as far as I know you explained a little bit more but maybe S to just explain to some people that are viewing at home. Can you talk about the tricky scenario that we're placed in with the budget calendaring year for the school
014district and the healthcare calendaring year and how they it's almost like a double hit. Could you explain that a little bit more time? >> Sure. So, uh, every district has the ability to, uh, go out and we do. We go out and we try to get the best rate possible. It all is determined by claims and who will offer us a plan. Our plan has been needed to stay in state health benefits. State health benefits does roll on a calendar year. Um, so we are always projecting what those costs will be. We work with our broker closely. We monitor claims monthly and uh, They were projecting at this time last year a 15% increase. However, when our renewals came back around October, those renewals came in at 35%. And you know, so with that, we
015had to dive deep in the budget, see what wasn't going to be utilized or what we could no longer do so that we could afford the healthcare cost that we had. Uh we were very lucky during open enrollment. Uh we did some training and A lot of our staff moved plants that helped us that helped them so that they could reduce cost but still keep it equal to or better than uh we will be you know rolling into the same issue this year that we will stay in state health benefits and that we are anticipating again another 35% increase. So you can only have your claims for free every two years. We do pay so we get their claims on the off cycle here just in case that we are running long enough that we
016can go out to another provider for benefits. However, we've been unsuccessful where our claim drivers are. We will continue to monitor it. We will continue to see what other avenues we have. We have worked with legislation so that they do have the ability that if it's two districts and plans are running well, you can open up a jointer. And so that jointer We've been working also with municipalities. We've been working with Horizon. We've been working with the reps so that we can see due to the fact that we are over 150 people in a plan that can we use our purchasing power when we all come together where we can create it where we're getting those renewal rates around the budget time so that we're then we're not either over or under anticipating what those
017costs are. >> So, we'll continue to do that. That was just I wanted to kind of just bring that to I think you also mentioned in the finance was that it's a 61 billion budget but only about a million dollars gets put into state aid. Is that >> Yeah. So this year if you look at the budget it's $60.7 billion for the state. The full detailed analysis has not been broken out. However, when you do look at how much money was put into just prepaid 12, it was in the millions. So it winds up being around 1% of the total budget for an increase. >> Thank you for that. >> That was all I had. >> Kim, you have any question? >> No, I'm still have a question. Um, we also when we got the
01835% increase just for the benefits, we did not anticipate the jack utility bills as well. Did that and that went up double digits as well? >> It did. So, every July, uh, there is an option for what your utility cost will take. It went from about $2 a kilowatt to $219 a kilowatt and it takes about a year for of a delay. And the reason why is they thought that solar would take off and that would cover the difference when they closed a power plant. It has not. So, they need to reopen a power plant, but to reopen one takes a lot longer than it does to turn off a power plant. So until they do that, we will probably see that range stay around the same threshold. We do actually utilize a company called
019ASUS where we go out to bid for those so that we can try to save as much as we can with gas and electric and um I will have for the budget presentation I've showing the savings that we have utilizing that program. >> Thank you. Any other questions? All right. So at this time uh executive session there will be none. Uh we'll now open up to any questions or comments related to the board agenda items only. So feel free to come up state your name and address if you have any questions. See you no one. We'll close that portion. We will not again we will not have executive session. >> I'm going to need approval minutes. I please have a motion. >> I'll make that motion. >> Second. >> Mrs. >> Yes. >> Mr. Mask.
020>> Yes. >> Mr. Kitchen. >> Yes. >> Mr. Cook. Yes, >> Mr. H. >> Yes, >> Mr. >> M. Right. >> Superintendent of schools recommends positive action on the following items under personnel. One, retirement. Two, leave of absence medical. Three, leave of absence maternity child care. Four, leave of absence maternity childare inclusion. Five, substitute teachers and pair professionals for the district. Six, substitute computer technician for the district. Seven, internship. Eight, adolescent pregnancy prevention initiative coordinator replacement revisions for Psburg High School. Nine, employment qualifi employee qualified to carry a firearm revision. 10, preschool evening registration staff. 11, Psburg after school program teacher assistance. 12, approval of additional instructional time. 13, computer science course professional development. Oh, sorry. and 14 professional development costing $150 or above. >> I please get a motion. Please have a second. >>
021Thank you. Any questions? >> Question number 12 instructional. >> She's she's willing to go above the contract announcement. >> Mrs. Mr. >> Yes. >> Mr. Man. Yes, >> Mr. Kitchen. >> Yes, >> Mr. >> Yes. And >> Mr. Hoff. >> Yes, >> M. >> Yes, >> Mr. >> Under policy and regulation number 15, policy first reading alert 234. 16, regulation first reading alert 234. 17, policy second reading alert 202. 18 policy second reading alert 234. >> I please have a motion. >> I'll motion. >> Please have a second. >> I'll second. >> Any questions? >> Sir, Mrs. >> Yes. >> Miss Kelly. >> Yes. >> Mr. Mc. >> Yes. >> Mr. Cook. >> Yes. >> Mr. H. >> Yes. >> M. >> Yes. >> M. >> Yes. Under general number 19, district HIV report 20,
022Kingsburg School District annual calendar revision. Just to note for that, we did use one additional emergency day this year with the inclement weather. So now the students will be in session on April 3rd for a half day. April 2nd will remain a half day. Number 21, Kingsburg School District annual calendar for next academic year 2627. Number 22, acceptance of donation, Kingsburg Early Learning Center. Number 23, acceptance of donation, Kingsburg High School. Number 24, instate class trips. Number 25, out of state class trips. >> Please get a motion. >> I please have a second. >> Second. >> Any questions? I have some questions, please. >> For number 20. Are we going to um start blasting that out? >> Yeah, put it on the website and we'll do talking points and letters and phone calls. >> Outstanding.
023Number 21. I'd like to thank my board of education members and central office for working to have veterans pay off. Um, it means a lot. A lot of school districts are getting away from that, but again, it needs something for those who serve. So, I appreciate that. Number 22 and 23. Can you please say thank you? Thank you, sir. >> Mrs. P. >> Yes. >> M. Kelly. >> Yes. >> Mr. Mask. >> Yes. >> Mr. Kitchen. >> Yes. >> Mr. Cook. Yes, >> Mr. Hoff. >> Yes, >> Mr. Ro. >> Yes, >> Miss >> Yes. >> School business administrator board secretary report. Superintendent schools recommends positive action on the following items. Board secretary secretar's monthly certification for February 2026. Certifies that no line item has no line item has been overpended in February 2026 and
024that sufficient funds are available to meet the district's financial obligations for the remainder of the fiscal year. Federal certifications for February 13th and February 27th. One, receipt and acceptance of February 2026 board secretaries report. Two, approve appropriation transfers. Three, approve bills list. Four, approve McKenna tuition 2526. Five, approve resolution for member participation in the cooperative pricing system. That's MOS. Number six, approve approval for ED data member participation in the educational cooperative pricing system for 2627. Seven, approve the fiscal year 2627 tenative budget. Number eight, approve the preschool expansion. Nine, approve the Whole Foods Market Foundation school garden grant 26. Number 10, approve the uh 26 a grant amendment. Number 11, approve the lift grant amendment. 12 to approve the impact grant amendment. And 13, approve attendance at the 43rd Avenue NJSANJSA spring leadership conference. >>
025All right, I get a motion. >> I please have a second. >> Thank you. >> Any questions? have a question, please. On number nine, can you please explain that? >> Oh, we have two people here that can speak to it. >> Yes. >> All right. So, uh Craig and some of the um teachers at the high school uh brought this grant uh to our attention. Um and I think the the idea behind it, what we would like to do is have a garden for our special education courses. um to go out and work in the garden uh with the kids and then also the environmental club will support that. We eventually would like to get the middle schools and staff involved uh where they would actually grow food and then we hope to run a
026community um restaurant at some point uh and invite like 10 families a month and the students would be responsible for actually making the reservations um setting up everything and then doing the menu, the cooking and things like that. So, um, and then Craig, you're looking to use some of the food for the daily lunches. >> Yeah, we're going to use it as, um, all the let lettuce, tomatoes, cucumbers, um, strawberries, herbs, anything really. uh utilizing all the kitchens for the salads, uh for all the dishes in the middle school, for the dish, for the herbs, for the dishes in the middle school, the dishes in the high school, uh strawberries all all around district. >> Yes. So, what you're saying is that vacant lot where you put the buses, it's got to be a farm.
027>> A garden and too, right? We use tax break >> lots of green houses that but all seriousness sir in reference to the garden the bur with shed services they have heavy equipment so if you need a hold up or if you need dirt or something like that Mr. James Delich does an awesome job if you need like that. >> So again congratulations on the new farm. Yeah, it >> smell. >> Yes, >> Mr. >> Yes. Sorry, I recuse myself. I'm the guest office. Thank you, >> Mr. Kitchen. >> Yes. >> Mr. Cook, >> yes. >> Mr. Hoff, >> yes. >> Miss Aurora, >> yes. >> Miss Ron, >> yes. >> All right. At this time, we'll open up to the public for any comments and questions related to additional concerns. Please come up, state
028your name and address. Seeing no one, we'll close that portion. Do we have any uh new or old communications from my board members? Uh we're going to start this side. Sorry you first, Matt. >> Yeah, I got nothing. >> Yes, you do. We're going to see you at the parade on Saturday. >> The parade? Yes. What's the pirates? >> The pirates. I don't know. Did you see the I saw one of them comment on Facebook just wanted to comment about it. >> Okay. M congratulations to Miss Gomez. And I also want to congratulate all the students that were inducted into the honor society in the Bulger School and Ava Flores were participating in the NJSB 8th grade dialogue in Oceanport and They had an open mic in the high school. All the stu students did
029a great job there. And a happy retirement to Miss Davis. And congratulations to all the athletes in the high school. You just took my own. >> Well, it usually goes this way. >> Yeah. like she said. >> Um, congratulations to Miss Davis on her retirement and um, I'm excited for spring sports. Um, it's quite cold out there. The girls were freezing today at flag football, but um, and we have the parade on Saturday. I'll be driving the bus. Whoever does not want to warm can come. >> You throwing candy? >> I will be throwing candy. I will be throwing candy. Uh, thank you. You know, I just want to touch again on the budget. I mean, I want to thank the space, the administration, Kathleen, Mr. Si, all of you for really working hard on
030this. I mean, I know it's a tenative budget, but those are a lot of facts and figures that are thrown out, but they come from a very good place and they come from a lot of diligent work and, you know, it's always supplemented by those grants that we see every single budget, every single month we see on our agenda. Those grants really do go a long way. So, thank you again to your team. um to Ava Flores for the eighth grade dialogue. It was great. Um to all the spring athletics, to everybody that is a part of the Kingsburg school district, you know, thank you for making it such a great place to be, to live, to teach. It's really a great district when you think about it. Um happy spring and I hope to
031see everybody at the parade. >> Okay. >> Sure. >> Is that you? >> See you next month. I guess you don't, but I have to thank these guys for budget was was tough. Um, what you guys just see is us putting numbers and and asking for approval, but the background this year was probably the worst we've ever had to do. And um, sometimes I can get a little feisty in the way that uh, I talk to admin in our meetings and I want to apologize for that, but thank you all for the hard work because it it was difficult, but we got to where we needed to be and we wouldn't have it if it wasn't for them. So, I really appreciate that. And then also when we're talking about the winter sports, um I
032just want to acknowledge Jimmy Ferrara. Um he got the coach of the year not only from from the typical one that we get with our district, but then he also got from Shore Sports Network who did like a larger short conference and he was the short conference coach of the year also. So we want to congratulate him for that. Repeat, congratulate Mr. on her retirement. Um, Miss Gomez on her. It's great to see that our teachers work has been recognized. Looking forward to St. Patrick's Day parade. Um, all our high school sport success. Sean Ra with an amazing year. 124 wins, division champion, regional champion, and down city went two for two. Um, I do want to thank the admin team. Again, it is a lot of work. For anybody who reads the NJ.com or
033Asbury Park West Press or not, um, all we're reading about all the districts that are coming up in the news threatening to cut schools, double digit budget increases, threatening to cut staff, got districts that are completely threatening to cut all sports from their entire district. Um, I mean, we made some pretty difficult decisions years ago when we knew S2 was coming. Um, it was a very difficult time at that point for us, but we didn't we didn't just wait. Um, I know it was a lot to put this together and you know the thing that that comes up in all those articles is it's health cost, reduced enrollment, utility costs and the health is just outrageous. I mean, if we're capped at 2% and health costs can go up 35%, how can we possibly balance
034a budget when the when the fees that we have to pay can vastly out uh out out spend basically the amount of money that we're allowed to raise? So, did an amazing job putting this together. Again, I realize that there's a an increase in taxes, but ultimately there's a reduction in our rates. And so, as more success happens in the burrow, if the rates stay the same, we'll hopefully at some point see that balance out, especially more and more development. So, um, for those people in the public who have questions, presentation is April 28th. Have a chance to come here, ask all your questions if you want about detail information about the budget. Thank you. >> Okay, again, couple repeats. Uh, we're talking about the budget and talking about central office maybe sternly talking to
035the principles and and everything else, but at the end of the day when we're looking at you, you're looking at us, but look at their success that we talk about. So, a couple things is again, Miss Gomez gets an award. Incredible. We can do this. I hope we get awards every every meeting. It just makes my team look good. Miss Davis is going to retire. So, I always talk about sports, but education comes first. And I was with uh several of my board members when we saw Ava Flores talk. It was pretty cool to see eighth graders talking about themselves as an eighth grader and then go back to what they could be as a sixth grader. Some of them were very surprising in reference to uh maybe I would have more time to play
036instead of just grades, grades, grades and budget in my time. Some of them were actually it was very very enlightening. Um the Bulger Honor Society was incredible. It's incredible. We have to step up guys because there was a lot. There's only one. So the guys have to step up this year. Did I beat the high schools this week? >> Yes, >> Thursday would be there. Um, we had a young gentleman um in the environmental club present a presentation to mayor and council in reference to put a sign up for horseshoe grabs and was it's going to prove assigned several hundred dollars and they're going to put in I don't want to me who mention Kieran Hawin great presentation the mayor and u superintendent superintendent that's crazy administrator Mr. hair is like we got it. We
037got this. So that's how um this presentation will pull that. Well, one of my favorite things to do with my fellow board members and teachers is read across America. I I truly enjoy that. I love the families coming together. Dr. Seuss. Um it's it's a great day. Again, thank you for my board members for Veterans Day. It goes a long way. Um again there same meeting there was two students who were received award from mayor and council in reference to calling in a fire that uh saved the lives of I think three of her other students that they didn't even know. It's unfortunately the young lady didn't know where she was but uh they did they got recognized by mayor and council. Um I do owe Ber sorry that I do oweing an apology because
038I did not see a max this year. I'm sorry. I won't I I I will make it up to him next year. I promise. Uh spring sports, we talked about girls basketball, we talked about boys basketball, we talked about Mr. Ferraro. This is amazing. Again, it only goes from education to sports and our little tiny town is put on the map. When you see Mr. referral and the girls and boys basketball all over Facebook being shared being shared in the A huge article in reference to um Gabby again huge huge um the wrestling yes we're going to talk about Frank the tank but there was also so many other wrestlers who made it to the states as well so that was a huge accomplishment for us you know what uh last week I got to
039make a candle so for class of 2026 so I am a professional candle maker I couldn't put that stem straight in, but anyways. No way. Uh, this Saturday is going to be 85 and sunny. The Kingsburg annual St. Patrick's Day parade will start at 1:00. Um, you guys are all invited. We do have floats. If you don't want to log, it is. >> So, again, we look forward to that. With that being said, um again, I wouldn't be here without my board of members staff and I wouldn't be here, we wouldn't be here without central office and my principles and staff that I'm looking at. You guys do an amazing job and I think we just read the list of what we can do. So when you go home tonight, Pat, I'll give you the
040data of boys and dad girls because it's a true honor to sit up here. Say what you want any day of the week and twice on Sunday. I'll defend you any any I'll go where we go. I go to I go to the governor's office to challenge them. We'll put a book out on how to deal with the poor people in central office. Again, look at all these schools that are crying missing $15 million. Um Miss Clinton and I just had a discussion about we're not going to mention schools, but in South Jersey who they're looking at almost like 15% increase because they don't know how to manage their books. Every nickel and dime we have, we spend and we spend it well for education and our students. So, with that being said, I have
041entertain a motion. >> Second. All in favor? >> I >> thank you again. We'll see you on the 28th.