001Special meeting of the King Jamesburg Board of Education will be held in Walter Middle School. Ad has been mailed to Edbury Park Press. NJ Park Press followed the municipal clerk of Kingsburg and post it on the district web page to post it inside the office of the Kingsburg Board of Education 100 common place New Jersey on April 10th 202 Mrs. B here Mrs. Friselle here here Mr. Mc here Mr. Kitchen here Mr. Cook here Mr. here. Miss Flora here. Miss Ryan here. Please stand for the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, liberty and justice for all. Thank you, Mr. President. I want to first welcome everybody here this evening. It's nice to see so many people from our community that have been
002come out uh also those who are watching online. There have been two financial committee meetings. One being earlier this evening just prior to this meeting tonight and another on April 4th. In both meetings, we discussed an unexpected and deeply challenging financial blow. A promise of $3.26 million in federal funding approved and allocated for the current HVAC infrastructure project was rescended without warning. This decision affects a small number of districts in New Jersey. Kingsburg is the only one impacted in the county. The district's plan responsibly, followed every regulation and met every deadline. The district has been conservative in it spending for years following the harsh cuts from the S2 funding formula that negatively impacted the district few years ago. In response, the administration has put forward proposals to reduce cost and protect the core of what
003makes Keith a thriv options being discussed. The current recommendation put forward tonight includes the following amendments of the already approved tenant budget. Utilizing $431,134 in surplus funds for next year's budget. Carefully reducing select areas including supplies, preschool busing, and reduction of summer school hours. withdrawing 1,943,863 from capital reserve. For those of you who are unaware what capital reserve is, it's sort of an emergency fund that's approved and uh just recently we had a word breaking through. So that will take care of those funds. So utilizing that money is kind of important for the district for unforeseen circumstances. Uh next they would be applying 1 million of the 2024 2025 SDA capital emerging projects grant to reduce the overall shortfall and lastly an additional tax increase from the previous tenure budget for any group of 1.47%.
004These steps will allow the district to maintain essential student support staffing and programs while limiting the tax impact. The administration is also actively pursuing every possible path to recover the federal funds. Communication with state and federal officials have continued with the goal of holding decision makers accountable. The district may be small but is strong, resilient, guided by shared purpose. Thank you. Any other committees? So, prior to opening up for public comments, there was some misconceptions or frequently asked questions that we wanted to touch on. So the first one is why did we require a special meeting and why wasn't this done at our normal meeting and why wasn't there an early agenda posted? Well, the board did approve a tenative budget on May 18th, 2025. That budget was balanced and complete with minimum of impact
005and then on March 31st, a Monday, we received a copy of a letter from the federal government informing us that we were to lose about $1.3 million and that was effective the previous Friday. So, in order to have the budget approved at our regular April 29th meeting as necessary by statutes, we have to reopen the previously approved tenative budget and account for the loss of $3.3 million that came overnight. Number two, how is the district accounting for that 3.3 million? Mr. Cook just explained most of that. So, we're including that within our budget because we now know as of this moment, we are not going to see that money in the federal government that we cost. So, the $1 million from the SDA merchant grant, that money was earmarked to remove the current uh Fort
006Athro trailers that are out there that used to be the preschool and pave that for a kiss and go lot for preschool use only. Unfortunately, we have to reallocate that now to this area. um preschool courtesy busing will be removed, some supplies, uh summer school shortage options for the high school and capital reserves which have no tax impact the surplus and the tax increase is only an additional 1.47% which is $3 on the average. The next question was staff cuts. There's a lot of talk about staff cuts. There was not a lot of letters given out today cuts that happened across the district. Unfortunately, we did lose two staff members. Two staff members across the um those will not impact class sizes. That was another question or any extra. Why wasn't the money spend earlier
007on? People are saying it's been over for years. Why did you say that? That's not what happened at all. I thought I outlined in that sent to clarify. We couldn't receive our reimbursement until the program was 100% completed. So the entire project, everything they were working on was 100% completed. There was supply chain issues. Because of that, the government was allowing for lateation, which meant that you had to apply pretty much jump through hoops to get it extended to pay when the product is completed. We did everything we needed to do. We got approved. They told us that the money could be withdrawn as late as late 2026. December 2026. So we still had plenty of time until we received that notice. Um, what have you done since notification to advocate for our district and
008to the budget? And is there a formal appeal? There is a formal appeal. We did every appeal we could. We did it at the county level, the state level, the federal level. There also is a lawsuit that New Jersey has entered into with in several other states that are also affected. That's the other clarification. Isn't just New Jersey. It's states everywhere that are affected by this. How did previous years of financial planning like building our surplus and capital revenues and reserves help us navigate this crisis better? As of June 22nd of 22, we had no capital reserves in place. So that means that if there was an emergency or we had a project that we needed to complete the burden to the taxpayers. So since then we've been building up tax the the capital reserves
009in order to lessen the tax impact. So that is how we were preparing to do projects that now will have to go to the side if we do have to make the H traffic. That would include things like I had identified the preschool um fixing the Caruso playground. They have some holes there that we that we need to fix. We did want to do some football field upgrades and some pract. So now that we know we're not going to be able to fund that program because we did have to hold any of those things. We will try to do shared services with the town as well as with the parking lot, things like that. So, we'll look for other ways to do it. Other districts um posted or spoke of a tax incentive program. So,
010some some questions why we're not doing that. So, to explain what that was, in order to get the tax incentive program and get approved for it, you have to use every penny of your surplus. So, for us, that was roughly $2 million. That is that would go to taxes. So, the taxers would be covering that $2 million. And the way this incentive worked is that if you put a million dollars forward, you get 50,000 from the federal government. So we would have to ask the taxpayers to pick up an additional million dollars in order to get five 50,000. So it's one 5 cents for every dollar is what they were offering. But to get it to a 10, you have to spend your surplus, which would have been an additional $2 million. Um, majority of
011taxes collected go to the schools. This was another thing that that we've been asked and told in Kesburg roughly 35% of taxes that are collected go to the schools. The rest does not. So it's about 35% that go to the schools. Property values are going up. Doesn't that mean that we get more money automatically in the school budget? No, that's not how it works at all. How it works is that we create our budget and we say this is what we need and then we hand that in. We don't really impact if the house values well. How that gets spread out more and why last year we have a negative impact is because I said it's like the simplest and I know it sounds silly thing is let's say you went to dinner with six
012people the bill's $300 and you're each paying $50. You go to dinner there's two people and the bill is $300 you're each paying $150. So the tax impact on homeowners is less when the renewals go up but it doesn't affect what we budget for. Another question was why didn't we share this loss previously? There was no previously. We were told after that. So there was no way to inform anybody that there was a possibility of losing money cuz no one expected this. Like there there's no way anyone could have planned for known this was coming or dying but reacted. You can't be proactive to something that there is no chance of ever happening and then suddenly overnight it happened. Um, this is this is just a clarification one too. So, we get questions like, well,
013how did you afford the furniture? How did you get a new scoreboard? We just got a grant for pickle ball courts. They are completely and totally different funding sources and we cannot intertwine the two. It's completely illegal. So, we apply for a grant like we just got the local recreation grant and they're going to give us $91,000 if the board approved the acceptance of it at our next meeting. And it's specifically for pickle ball courts. We can't then say, "Well, we don't want pickle ball courts anymore. We're going to take that money. We're going to use it here." You're not allowed to do that. If there's grants for specific programs and anything, you cannot change it to something else. So, that's what that's for. And the furniture was all grant also cuz there was comments
014about like how do you have all the furniture? That's all also. And believe me, we look for grants for staffing, for mental health, for everything else. Unfortunately, the things that many are able to get grants for are not the things that are top prior, but we will take what we get. Obviously, not saying no, we don't want new furniture even though we need this more, but we only take what is available to us. Um, this was one, two, what would happen if we don't pay for the rest of the project? Because that is what we need to do. So, we wasted the 2 million that we already spent because what we're waiting on is kind of like is literally called the switch and it makes everything work. And that's what this the supply chain issue
015was for for this switch. And if we don't pay, first of all, they're going to sue us and then we're going to have astronomical lawyer fees because we're going to be sued for not paying it. And everything that we have already spent is completely useless and we're back to where we started. What happens if we do receive the money? So if this lawsuit or somehow this is reinstated. So it would replenish our capital reserves and also offset future costs that would affect future house increases. And then this one like what can what can anybody do? Everything that we're trying to do like you can just be heard. That's really all you can do. You can you can reach out to legislature, senate, um the anybody. There's the the county and kill me for saying that,
016but any anybody that you could call and just try to be heard because we are a technical town and we are the only one in Ma County that was affected by this. And if we can't be heard, then nothing's going to happen. He was who's really fighting for us if we're not fighting for ourselves. So just any way that we can advocate for ourselves, please do. We can put out phone numbers. Um I've been in contact with actually they they've been very responsive called back. Um Senator Moal called back. They have been responsive, but we just need to keep it going and make sure that we're All right, we'll now open the meeting for any public comments for agenda items only. Please welcome and state your name again. Anyone would like to speak on public
017agenda items, please come up. [Music] Hi. Should be on. Okay. How much do we have that the school has? I heard something about that's what I'm saying. I didn't hear right. 1.9 1.9 um also that clear something for me. Um I understood from you if I understood correctly that 35% of the town's budget goes to the school, right? Um I did ask in previous years at the council meetings and I was told that the budget for the town is separate from the budget from the school but then from what you're saying from the tax that are collected from the citizens 35% goes to the established budget from the school. Correct. So at our regular budget presentation or if you look at previous ones, there's a pie chart and that pie chart would say like let's
018say the average home is more than the average. But if it's just for the numbers, if a home pays $10,000 in taxes a year, 35% of that goes to school. I'm only asking you this because I didn't see in the budget, the town budget, I didn't see a lot of this. So maybe that's why. So it's separate. We consider it all tax rate seven work that way. The the superintendent said you think I would have to buy the burrow only collects the money. They collect all the taxes but they don't have anything to say about the county rate or by the school library act or the open space or the school. each of them have their budgets dropped and then they notify the county what the rates have to be and then the county comes
019back and tells the town, okay, you have to collect this much money and distribute it this way. So there's no line item is collected $10 for seven because the rest are going to the school. So now we are $4 million let's say about on the downside, right? And this from what you're saying is going to reflect in an increase in our taxes cuz I've seen something like a,000 or something 300. Oh no, no, no. That was the worst case scenario. That's and then you said it's supposed to be less, right? Yeah. No. So that was if we were not able to use our capital reserves and use a million dollars that was your mark for the preschool. So now we were able to offset everything except for 125,000 125,000 over the entire town that increase
020from the previous and if these two budgets are separate and we have capital reserves. I understand that the town will have food that's after for like exceptional circumstances. Does the budget and the town get to work together? So that casual reserves there gets to be used for this. Okay. Except for shared services. So we'll do some shared services with the town to assist shared services because I think every said something that courtesy of blessing will be taken out preschool courtesy blessing will no longer be so this cannot be addressed by the town. Thank you. Anybody else please come forward say your name. Seeing that there's no other question. Oh wait I got one. Please take your answer. Uh, yes. 10 for the record. It's what I for. No, I'm good. Um, I have a question.
021Um, so you're saying about 120,000. Okay. That's going to come out of our taxes. What does that mean dollar per household? $3 additional. Okay. So, $3 addition for an average home, which I believe was 300. Is that certain or is that kind of That's what they gave us when they gave us three. Is there any way for that to go up? Not from our budget, but from the town or whoever's budget would not adopt. Not from us. So that can go up. Not from us. Okay. So where you're not going to raise it? Is there any chance that anybody else going to raise it? I can't. So there's a chance. There's a chance. There's a chance they can't. Chances are we've had some sufficient races in our past over the past couple years. So um
022But I'm just trying to say you have to go like to find out how much there I'm not trying like all I'm saying is all that we can control is our budget and what we do and we worked really hard like this came out of no so people to say like you should have been prepared be prepared in the way that we made our capital research if we didn't have that right now that's what the state told us to do is go raise taxes 24% $1,300 on every and and all of that. They say that we are $7.5 million below our fair share. That means that they're saying that the town has contributed $7.5 million less than they are supposed to do school taxes. Obviously, we don't we we would never be like we're going
023to raise taxes like that. So, we look to other records such as 10. No, we should. Um I just want to make sure. So, there is there is possibility there is possibility. Well, I don't know that honestly. budget I believe. Yeah. It's not there still. Thank you. Thank you. Anybody else please? Good evening. Uh Tom Brennan, 35 Shady Side Avenue. I want to uh give everyone on the board uh it's good to hear that feedback and see if we can get the capital reserves build up. Um I would it would be probably best to put those FAQs on the website this way people who don't have can't attend the meeting or are not watching now watching on YouTube uh can do that because we don't know how things can spread to have a source of
024that information. Um, I just want to speak to the fact that, uh, it's been said from a couple of folks that we didn't see this coming. And I think we did see this coming. And I think that when uh, certain administrations get put in place with the promise of gutting the federal government and in in our case, all politics is local, right? This is the result of that voting. Thank you. All right. Anybody else? Please raise your hand. Come forward. All right. See no other people who would like to speak and now close that part of the meeting. Sir, school business administrator report secretary's report. The superintendent of schools recommends positive action on the following item. One, the fiscal year 25 26 tenative budget approve. I have a motion. I'll make that motion. You have
025a second. I'll second. Thank you. Discussion. Any discussion? Thank you. I have a question for the property that we own on there. What are we doing? We're sitting on it. We're taxy and we've been sitting on it for a while. if we can sell it, find out what we need to do and then we wouldn't have to do any. Well, it's not that simple and quick. At first, we were not to sell it and then because it was so we paid $1 for it. I don't know if anyone knows the whole story of of the law that's over here. So, we paid $1 for it with the idea that was supposed to be the site of the school. Unfortunately, then there was some testing that was done and it cannot be sight of the school.
026So then we were told that we could only sell it for educational purposes and not for more of the purchase price. But honestly, we would give it away because we are paying taxes. So we're we're paying taxes. But just was it this week or last week? Last week. So uh last week we actually had conversations with Middletown and we are going to have a meeting on the books with them soon so that we can start figuring out if we can utilize it for an educational purpose or use it for an open space or a green space with Middletown. So, more information to come as we're pulling out resources and contracts and going through uh what qualifications would be, but we have a couple different options coming up. Thank you. Mrs. Friselle, yes. Miss, yes. Mr.
027Mask, yes. Mr. Kitchen. Yes. Mr. Cook. Yes. Mr. Hoff. Yes. Moro. Yes. Miss Ry. Yes. All right, we'll now open the meeting for any public comments. Please uh come forward, state your name and address. See no uh people on the floor. Hello. Good evening. Hi. Um I came late so everything is great. I I missed a comment portion. Um but I guess just a general question. So it sounds like there is I missed the number of the amount that we still have to pay for the project. 33 $3.3 million is what we Okay. But then you had mentioned I think we with all the work around it's going to be about $125,000 left for tax increase for tax increase. Okay. Has there been any other discussion on how we could possibly come up with that
028$125,000 besides just working with the line items and stuff like any fundraising or any ideas of how we can call upon our community and the resources that we have here and really think through how can we raise some money because I did hear the portion about how other um initiatives are going to be cut as well and that doesn't sound great either. I appreciate as a taxpayer not having more on us. Um but it doesn't sound like a best case scenario either. So I was just wondering if there's been any discussion or any plan for discussion on how we really come together as a community. Um maybe think through some good fundraising and really see how we can keep the school thriving or at least trying to thriving. So miss we have to have the
029budget due by certain deadlines. So we wouldn't have the opportunity to even try to do that because we this is an emergency meeting because we have to have set up public deadlines. What the future? So we're definitely open to all suggestions especially that being one of them. Um we were supposed to have a tenant budget. We did have a tenant budget approved to the state by the 19th. Um however they have to have budget approved back to us so that we can improve the line of adoption. So it becomes a timing issue. Um but if we were able to then raise those funds, we could take what we had to increase this year and offset future. Okay. So a decision has to be made whether we're choosing to increase or not. Correct. Whether where the
030state will not approve our budget. Okay. Well, I will say now that if there's any fundraising or community um you know brainstorming sessions or anything where we're asking people to come together, I would definitely love to be a part of that and think anybody else before we adjourn Do you have anything? I mean, unfortunately to do this, um, it's not easy. I just thank everybody for coming out and showing support. We are trying to do our best. Thank you, Mr. President. I just want to reiterate a little bit what's transpired. This did come as a surprise. I mean in a very short window and thankfully the administration here has been working diligently not just within that short window of time but the last couple years utilizing things like Kathleen and Lindsay have said brand based
031services shared services um any type of minimization to taxpayers is the most important thing and and the young lady that just showed up and talked about a community fundraiser that's another great aspect to maybe include because we would want the community to come You know, it's nice to see that everybody came out here today. Uh these are difficult decisions, but together we are one. We are all living in the same town in Kingsburg. We all have to take on this burden and we all have to stand together. And thankfully, because of the grants, uh you know, and the shared services, that's 1.9 million in capital reserve. That's that's a lot of hard work on the administration. So, it's nice to see that that's come along. Thank you. Okay. So, for people that aren't familiar with
032the town and the dynamics of what went on, um Park High School was built in 1968. So, when we're talking about 57 years later, you know, we have to have repairs. We've been trying to get money and we got money, right? They gave us money to get repairs. We went and worked on the ACA and our system was going out. We had problems with our plumbing and windows. We needed everything in that school. So to be given that money, we were leaving, right? It's about time. So then to have it pulled out from under us, we're like, what the hell? But then when you think back, the Caruso school used to be the Francis School, right? It took us forever and ever and ever. 20 years. A lot of people have been on this board
033for 20 years. We went to Trenton. We fought the fight. We had a letterw writing campaign. We did videos. They got orange and blue um letters that our kids wrote too. Why we needed a school, the environment, okay? We called every congress person. We flooded the phones. We did everything. We bought the fight and that's who we are and that's what we're going to continue to do cuz that is our money. Okay. Our first priority is giving our kids education. We give free breakfast and lunch for food and security. We give them technology. We try to give things to enhance and make them won't work better. And then we give them opportunities. We have the so many new programs that we've given to these children. We have clubs. So, we get a lot of bad
034press, but there's a lot of great things going on. And people fester on the negativity or spread the rumors. So, we heard we let off so many people. If you have a question, please come to these meetings. Call the superintendent, follow the chain of command, call your building principles, but come to your the meetings. We want to work as a community. We're here for the right reason. The kids grow. Our community grow. Okay. Born and raised here. I care. Many people were born and raised there. We care. Right? My daughters old and gone and so am I. Okay? But I do it for the love of the community and the love of the kids. So they're your kids, your grandkids, or whatever. And that's why everyone's sitting up here. So instead of people sometimes criticizing
035saying what we don't do, I wanted to share what we do do. Thank you. Yes. First, I just want to thank everybody for coming. We've had in years. I think it's important to come to the local school board meetings. As you can see, come ask questions. Those that has questions that you would clarify to the public. Um, first I just want to say it was over credit that I voted yes. I do not as a parent, a homeowner, taxpayer. Um, I do not want to see taxes increased and services lost. I don't think anybody on board wants to see this, but this was a last minute thing. I think it's a disgrace for one government to government value when they feel already settled with another. I think if we can, Kathy, could you please send
036out everybody maybe um do some type of phone blast school post on Congress contact information if we could get a list or maybe continuously reached out to them. Of course, this was from the federal level. So, of course, Congressman would be the best option to go to. But perhaps we try to get this funding back and use it for more projects and bring back better services for our children. I think that would be the best bet. Thank you, Mr. April 29:5. Hope to see everyone there. Yeah, just want to thank everybody for coming. Um, you know, as board members, it's frustrating for us because we have a code of ethics that says that none of us are allowed to act on our own. So, we can't really go out there and talk to you about
037things where, you know, as opposed to a councilman or or say a congressman or something like that, they can go out and hold these coffee talks and meetings and stuff. We're not allowed to do that. We can only act as a board when we're together as a whole in these meetings. So, you have to be able to come here and ask those questions and see if you do have questions. Unfortunately, you sustain the board members, you can go to the central office and ask those questions. Those people are the ones that can ask those. And if you don't get resolution, that's when you can come to the board and you can ask and bring that information to us. But unfortunately, we're we're bound by those ethic rules that we're not allowed to act independently. We're
038not allowed to put public information out there. We're not allowed to basically um try to advocate during those times when we're not acting as a former. So, um there is some frustration with that. Um, as Mr. Far said, you know, we have on April 29th, we we have our full presentation. Um, during that time, you'll see, and again, there's lots of information that's out there. I think I saw somebody said that each of us made $139,000 a year coming to Google. We are volunteers. Every one of us makes zero dollars this year. And we will make zero dollars. We come here in our own time. We stay at sometimes. We do our work. Um, and some things about teachers starting at $40,000. You won't have to look for a car to see our minutes. They're
039online. Our teachers make $4,000 a year. We don't start looking. So, this information is available. It's public. You know, if you come in and ask us here, we can point you to those directions. Again, please go to the administration table on their own. Um, but during that presentation, you're going to hear talks about administrative costs, how we have all the small offices and some of the lowest administration costs in all the head school district. Uh, you're going to see about what our teacher costs are, what c things are healthare where our money goes to. There's no secret. There's, you know, sorry, I get a little offended when I hear about how, you know, I'm corrupt. I'm volunteering and and I'm not. I promise. So, if anybody wants to call my audience, please, you know, I'll
040be here wants to come. We are here volunteering to do our best, right? And I don't want to raise taxes. Mr. Ken said, I'm a homeowner. I'm tax kids in the school district. I'm investing, but I'm not here just to raise everybody's taxes. It doesn't just come from you. whether we're thank you very much everyone for coming to thank you again all for coming um I'm at a law school again and I got the phone calls and I got the phone all that we're losing funding I stood there with my girlfriend because tonight we're basically we put forth the project has to eliminate jobs and that's not really what I signed up for, but as a board of education stops with me. Uh, a couple things. All the Facebook brothers out there, it's springtime. You
041know how your mom wash your sheets, get out there, get some fresh air. You want to attack somebody, attack me. Don't attack my board members. Don't attack my um, superintendent and we'll wrap the egg. Attack me. Make fun of me. Make fun of my colleagues. I don't care. They get a world that you can say it's going to hurt my feelings at 20 years in prison. didn't know what he did. So, moving forward, he was not an Indian. He worked moving forward. I lost my $3.9 million. So, what I was going to do tomorrow, I was going to try to see it and walk right up the education. What's that going to get? I'm going to get something told by someone lacking. I have all my receipts. What did the Burl King do wrong? We
042did nothing wrong. We advocate for our kids every day and teach them not to do wrong. So you're telling us that we did everything right punishments. What's going to happen there? I'll probably end up in the hell snack or prison and without my check. I was thinking about going tomorrow. What's going to happen there? Some trooper is going to say, "What do you want to get after?" And I'll end up back in the street with my $3.9 million. So what I'm going to do is I'm going to look at my parent say, "Governor, Bill, I want my $3 million." Board of Education did nothing wrong. You live for 23 minutes for the police. You can come here tomorrow. If you leave your desk at 3:30, you can be here at 4:30. We have our wonderful
043state. We have some of the best teachers in the country. We have one history teacher right behind that count. Come meet us. Bring my check and tell me what I did wrong. And then when you take that paperwork to DC, we're going to have a conversation. There's no T, there's no R behind the board of education. E stands for education. But again, I don't understand why the only district in M County did everything right. I have to ask you to move on. That's not what I do. With that being said, make a movement. Judy second. All in favor? I. Thank you again. Thank you.