001e e e okay this is to advise the general public that in compliance with the open public meetings act that L haror Board of Education meeting was advertised in the Asbury Park Press Atlantic City Press and posted at the office of the Board of Education located at 307 fron Road l Lake haror New Jersey and posted at the office of the municipal clerk of L Lake Harbor I have a roll call please Mr Zak present Mr phello here M Lawrence here Mr Lea here Dr Snyder here miss Martin here m here you have qu okay can we say the FL Allegiance rise [Music] I recommend a motion to approve the agenda [Music] please oh and the attached agendum sorry can I have a motion motion I have a second second are there any questions [Music]
002all in favor any opposed any extensions the motion passes recommend a motion to accept the following minutes I have a motion motion second all in favor sorry again the same way all in favor any oppos no any exensions she is going to be president there you go the motion passes all right public comment number one agenda items only the Board of Education now welcomes the public to comment on the items which are on the agenda tonight it may not always be possible or appropriate for the board to directly answer questions during the public comment period each speaker is allowed a maximum of 3 minutes to make their statement No one may speak more than once on the same topic you're required to give your name and address before speaking please keep your comments respectful and
003non- defamatory and maintain the level of decorum appropriate for a public meeting meeting where minors may be in the audience would anyone like to speak okay seeing none who wants a correspondence informational items that I'm sure everyone looked at and committee reports um I would like to just thank this board and all the chairs of the committee you guys did a great job um putting forward your reports it was just excellent and I hope we all took the time to read each other's reports I think I'll start with the policy committee um on the agenda I know it's a a heavy reading work but we have quite a few for first reading which we reviewed in committee and put them forward for first reading and the ones uh for second reading uh are for adoption
004time and are there any questions on those policies yes I do think that we need to come up with a independent AI policy for the district I just know that what I'm experiencing um it's of a concern I don't know how much homework we're assigning here but students are using AI to complete their homework um and I just think you have to have I realized it's part of the world we live in but the question is at what point are we going to allow incorporation of it and you know hinder it so that we actually see so just some different things that I've seen as you know if you're having students write a paper or something to turn in and I this might apply to sixth graders again it's been a while since so may
005be a little disconnected but you know you have students come in and talk about what they wrote so that you are aware they you know that they wrote it and it's not something they just AI generated so I do think that we have to think of a particular policy for the school and what's allowed what's not allowed um the one on the agenda are you familiar with that one yes first read did you have because that does address that um I I just thought that that's not our we we can have a more specific policy for our school because even also two administrators could be using right I thought i' address that but please offer your suggestions before you have the second reading that'd be great to the Comm okay who would like to go
006next Communications sure so Communications talked about five different things uh what are the goals of communication to inform persuade motivate influence and connect with our community uh some specific things managing expectations uh regarding what's coming up with the budget and where we're going to land on that and just really uh being as open as communicative as possible uh with everything coming up regarding the budget and how are we currently communicating with stakeholders staff parents Guardians caregivers students the PTO and larger little Lake haror Community in general another item that was discussed uh to consider about is just messaging how do we reach different audiences with specific messages that they care about the balance and frequency of communications you know not too many emails not too many texts but enough that people do tune in when
007they do get it and the different channels that we could possibly communicate through any kind of school messenger Facebook Instagram X um which formally is Twitter coffee with the superintendent uh Q&A with Dr a uh things like that maybe a podcast with the superintendent to discuss ongoing issues and then coming up with a communication plan have it a structured and have a framework as possible um other items to consider is communication is not uniform from school to school some of the schools have really good Facebooks others could use some more um reach out to the Sandpaper more reach out to our legislators to let them know what's going on here because a lot of the state funding is going to affect our upcoming budget uh possibly have a phone bank where we reach out directly
008to people um more emphasis on our website and making changes to the website so it's more user friendly have more flyers go out in the different schools and possibly a a podcast again with the superintendent thank you sounds good get out of the box I'll go next okay I the chair of the curriculum committee first time so very excited about that had the pleasure to meet with Dr ANZ um Robert Abby Laura and Mrs Gallagher and just a couple of things that we spoke about um uh really have to do with the piloting programs um and if I get it wrong first time so okay um one of the things we talked about was the amplify mclass bibbles assessment that is something that is going to be implemented this year um in 10 K to
009six classes uh at no cost of the district if the data really proves to be very beneficial um in the future it may be implemented and it will be done so funded through title funds um we also talked a little bit about some other resources that are um available due to this year's current budget U one being stud study sync which is being piloted in the sixth grade ELA programs and also Learning Ally which is a partnership with the um Department of Education that offers additional resources to kids and I think it's particular with lesia if I say that properly and then finally all I have to offer is that the committee approve the renewal of the ISL um which I'm learning about I know we use that in my district um which is the
010online learning program that helps students practice and master the course subjects um and that is being funded also through title funds and that's all I think I have for thank you so much good job [Music] I'll okay um a lot of this will be discussed tonight I'm sure in the budget presentation but just some things that we uh brainstormed about um trying to bridge the budget Gap and the potential of increasing the tax levy to the maximum and using any banked cap in order to um save as uh many positions as possible and to to keep the school running properly um I did request information regarding what our last year's numbers look like compared to this year's numbers would be without any increase in the tax levy and comparative to increase in the tax levy
011I did not receive that information so I do not have that to share with you um I did request it last weekend again but I have not received that information so um hopefully we will receive it um secondly um the two HVAC systems on the roof I guess they're not warm working some of the building's a little cold rooms um I I asked Dr Antunez because I guess apparently there's some roofing issues also and uh Mr Cole said that while one of the hbes on the roof that has an issue those shingles will be replaced before um the HVAC would be the new HVAC would be installed and I the warranty I believe you said three more years October 1st 2018 2028 2028 yes so I just wanted to make sure that that was a
012wise uh decision before bringing it to the boards that we wouldn't be like putting new HBS on the building and then we a new roof um and again um the tax levy I believe we are still waiting information on that and I'm sure you'll hear um the rest of it in the budget presentation this evening okay thank you and now we have Personnel yes so the Personnel Comm committee met this is a new um committee for our board uh we met on March 7th bright and early at 8: a.m. um the committee members uh were Abby myself Dr Snider name um Greg and then we had administrators present of course so Dr Antunez um Mrs Lyon feler and Mrs tresino we talked about the committee Norms to start the meeting Dr Antunez briefly discussed the
013purpose of the committee um and just highlighted roles you know um including the board of education on alignment on strategic goals related to Human Resources ensuring faculty and staff receive necessary support Etc um we discussed the director of special services search and update and timeline um the applications received and the process for interviewing and interviewing candidates um we talked about grievance settlement agreements with the Union um which are presented on the agenda tonight for the board uh to review um and both grievances have been settled we then discussed um a lot about the upcoming budget which is a huge concern for me and I know many of the committee members regarding um staff reductions appointment timelines and whatnot so um we had several questions um about this uh and several questions about the budget but
014of course um it's just the initial budget presented tonight so nothing has been decided and timelines aren't um definitive we talked about the organizational uh repercussions of Staff reductions um as we know you know the impacts and what could happen and what happened last year um in particular certain grade levels where the class sizes would break would uh go up we talked about um culture and morale and how it's important to keep a positive work environment for our staff um with these impacts coming and just how we can support with these transitions so with next steps we're you know of course interviewing for the director of special education um uh we're going to approve the Grievances and then we'll continue to monitor very closely the budget and and around uh staff changes and that's it
015from Personnel thank you so I went out out of order so I did policy School ethics disclosure oh reminder here inserted uh due April 30 if just for those who haven't gotten to it yet and now we're on the superintendent report actually before we close board session um Laura I just wanted to bring up to see how you guys feel um I know we put a lot of working time into the Committees and just wanted to see how you guys felt about uh Board of a whole board as a whole versus committee um we did it originally when we came on uh Abby me and Christine you were there again where it was Board of the whole where basically we would have a meeting prior to the original meeting like let's just say the meeting
016was on Tuesday we would meet as a whole on Thursday the week before and we go line by line with each item that's on the agenda and we discuss it in public for everyone to be on the same page um you kind of get an idea of what's going on on the bigger level um it cuts down on the number of meetings and you really have time at least I remember you have time between Thursday and Tuesday to think about how you're going to vote for things and or ask questions over the weekend and the administration would respond so I just wanted to see what your guys thoughts were um as far as committee versus portal um I I would prefer that also especially um in what we've been dealing with with regards to budget
017discussions I feel like some people have more information than others coming to this table and I think it's very very difficult something that impacts everyone whether you have students in this District um you're a teacher in this District staff anything like that I think it's very very important and I think it's the most beneficial use of everyone's time if we're all here together having a discussion um we can bounce ideas off of everyone um and someone might have a great idea that we never thought about um and so we're missing that opportunity also I know last week um I had we had I had I AB you also did may we all did we had two meetings and so the way the meetings are scheduled we're all in the same week and then the following
018week we have the board meeting it's a lot of meetings and so I think it would be more productive and a better use of people's time as a board of a whole and I like to hear other people's input because it makes me think of something I didn't think of because I think this board is diverse what we bring to the table and we all have different areas of Specialties and I think we could really use those for the greater good of this District that's my opinion so I'm I'm for I'm for it so are you proposing a separate work session prior to the board meeting because I know we we've done that in the past correct where yes all the Committees and everything that we would talk about in committee would go into the
019work session prior to the board meeting and then we would have the board meeting and possibly ad hoc committees if needed yeah I mean there's certain committees probably like Personnel or somewhere where you have to have um a separate meeting but just as many meetings as possible rolled into one so we can just go whatever is on the agenda one by one and have that pre meeting I just found it useful to be able to see what we're going to vote for have a couple days to think about it ask questions and then that actual meeting goes a lot quicker because you kind of already know what what you're going to go for but that's just pertaining to agenda items I kind of think it's less productive and not as efficient because in committee you
020get a lot more done with three people so and you can meet at different times I mean it's hard to get the whole board together yeah you can discuss the agenda and what's on it but you can't discuss homework and research and doing other things there's a lot work that gets done on our committees in my opinion but I'm going to say like we have committees but apparently a chair is just to organize the meeting and to run the meeting based on the recent budget committee I had you know petition to have it postponed because I still had a lot of questions and I was informed that's not the role of a chair yet I'm going to be the one that's saying I think everyone else should do what I recommend and it's it's not
021my style I don't have that kind of ego yeah it's not what you recommend it's what the committee recommends as a whole still I think that everyone individually should have all the information like I have so much more information on the budget and they were yeah they were offered the information they were offered from Robert I don't think it should be offered it should just be given like you shouldn't have to ask for information on the budget anybody could come to a meeting and get that information that's my point but they can't because we can only have three people at a budget meeting and you right and they can have three more people the next day see my point no but it's an inefficient use of people's time I I don't think that want to
022give because most boards function by Committee just because most doesn't mean that it works for us I have to say with this budget process I felt very out of the loop like I needed more information and I think it's probably because I was on the budget committee last year and very much involved and this year I could not do it with my work schedule and my children um so I do see how it could be really beneficial especially during budget season um to just get all of the information that the budget committee gets because I wanted more of that and I I felt like I needed more questions answered you know and remember that's in public when we all get together that has to be a public meeting yeah that's another point right the work
023session would be a quorum the Committees are not public sorry that's yeah I I definitely be in favor of going to board as a whole well I think that the Committees do serve a purpose uh I feel that they lacked information on the minutes I feel like you really can't get a grasp of what really happened in that meeting sometimes those minutes aren't released in a timely manner um it's very hard to be effective in uh select uh committees when you don't have all the information up front and sometimes those little nuances in the discussion really make a big impact on how you would uh go about something in a different committee um like uh she was just talking about in fin I mean um in Personnel so I think there's a huge benefit to
024board as a whole I would love to see you go in that direction feel we'd be able to be more impactful in in in our ability to to operate so especially to give it a trial for the next meeting since our April meeting is so late and that literally is final budget adoption so to review the budget with the whole board especially if it's your first time but um um on the the board to go through the budget line by line look at it and really analyze it is very very beneficial and you're right like Personnel and finance overlapped but you didn't know what happened in finance because we just had the meeting the night before and we're trying to share information and how it works out it just I think at least a certain
025time of year I think Board of a whole meetings and having two board meetings a month is more efficient than having these committees is would have to be voted on what do you think I mean I'm for whatever is going to work for everybody I'm willing to work with everybody on whatever they're comfortable with I mean I'm for it not for it it's like whatever to me um and I'm new to this so again I'm not used to committees and I'm not used to board as a whole I don't know exact detail with each but I mean it's an option and I'm willing to do that working you know as a group and a home yeah how about you Alison I don't know anything otherwise um I just know that last week was because I
026had two meetings and and I have this meeting it's just a lot and that's fine um but I'd be open to maybe just trying it the way Christin is talking Christine is saying for just this budget season just to see how it goes my for me I'm thinking in my head immediately I'm thinking well if we have to meet on a Thursday night I'm I'm already I'm already conflicted well I think we were going to propose next Tuesday as an extra meeting public meeting to discuss the budget we can vote on that or get it on the agenda perhaps for tonight well I mean that's what I asked for this week was to have the discussion before we voted next week and that was denied so I don't understand why we're now going to have
027another meeting if we're discussing the budget next week when that's what what I had originally had requested no I had suggested that we wait until the presentation tonight and then if people have more questions to meet as a whole next Tuesday but unfortunately like we're presenting tonight we don't have the final numbers of what we can really do right but we're voting on the tax levy and that alone tonight that's all I I I wish I would have been given all the information I had requested to make an informed decision on the current budget and I requested it multiple times and I did not receive it from RBA well at some point you have to be reasonable and and Robert talk about I'm just going to say that I did I spoke to Dr tunz
028and I was under the impression I would received the information and I had spoke to other board members who had requested the same information so while I don't think it was unreasonable nor do I think it's your decision to say that it's unreasonable I think it might be Dr an tunz but I don't know that it's the board president's position perhaps it was the way you were asking okay so can I go back to the question of whether or not we should have Board of a or committee sure what what do you guys PR decide right now can we trial this is there something we can do for next month I don't know I mean for me I'll just add one more thing it was a lot of meetings and then I felt like I
029couldn't I I'm a chair of personnel and last minute I'm like oh my goodness I'm so busy at work I got to get these meeting minutes out and you know what you don't that's not a hard fast rule but you're supposed to communicate it so you could do it at the board meeting or you could the courtesy is to let the board know before the meeting and and let them know your notes it's not a hard thing rule but you are responsible to communicate your rep so that's the easiest way for me I write it down right away before I forget what happened at the meeting but I'm not sure we can take a motion now for next week's meeting I think we well you can the board can request notice meeting for next week
030there a regular meeting but you have to make sure you got time right and that everybody can make it and actually get I don't we have time get advertised ums a lot of times a newspaper takes a couple days before they doing okay the obligation of the board is simply to inform the paper that we're going to have a meeting their publication of it does not come into play I think it has to be 48 Hours yes and we have the 48 hours I think dispute about that whether it's informed or and and that's I would agree this gray area I would always say that that's right is Advance it's not tyal that you call additional meeting but you have to and you try to give as much time as possible so the public can
031be aware that there is a meeting but as long as enough time you can have a meeting on Tuesday as long as you can get advertised for 48 hours and Robert saying you can get adver right how does everybody feel yes we get it so my point in bringing that up was really for the monthly meetings this meeting that we're talk about next week what is what is that about the budget specifically Finance okay budget so I was just just to be clear I was saying going forward you know April May June that we have only two meetings a month one's a work session and one's the regular meeting like why would we have another meeting next week why could we discuss the budget questions this evening while we're here we can I just want
032to know if you guys have you have a need to have more information we can meet again I think we're still talking about two different things yes can we can we finish on board ofo first and then move to I'm in favor of board of AO okay I'm in favor and I'm fine if you want to do it the Tuesday prior and make it a week in advance and then this instead of a Thursday like the Tuesday before and then this way everyone also too if they still have additional questions after we meet there's enough time for everyone yeah so yeah so just so we're clear you mean guys obious committee as home right but have to figure schedules out number one so maybe that's yeah yeah and we don't have time and you're going
033to have to advertise and the whole I can just tell you from my experience trial basis um I would agree with Chris like if you're going to do it it shouldn't just be one meeting you should schedule it out and have committee as a whole for at least some period of time I'm going to tell you your first meeting not be great it's going to be tough I mean we've done it before and we've done it I haven't and I want a learning process for something I I want to just interject to the Dr antuna has organized us so well and that's really what boards you know do um that I'm familiar with and I just thank you for doing that because you got us on schedule you got us organized and and it is
034effective and productive but and there's not going to be as much done as Board of a whole so my vote would be no but we're not we're not going to vote on it tonight until we I'll pull the board via email and see what everybody feels is that okay no yeah I don't know can if there's a there's no motion out there right so um UL the board decision to make that call can I make a motion can I make a motion you just ask M president yeah Madam president can I make a motion you can make a motion we have to figure out a schedule too yeah I don't you know we'll work out the details but just the motion would be I motion to have two meetings a month one a work session
035and one a regular board meeting at the availability of board members and administration and maybe you want to it just to say had a month to be [Music] determined yes and a month to be determined soon I would second it thinkk are you first or second second he made the first I'll second I'll second he made the motion you're first they did it correct okay I have a roll call [Music] vote give me a moment here we go Mr Mr Sone uh yes Mr fichel yes Miss Lawrence yes Mr Lea yes Dr Snider yes Miss Martin yes Miss Berber I'm going to be a no the motion passes be in touch to make a schedule we have to affort all our committee schedules yeah okay great and now we come to the superintendent [Music] support
036the G Scout organization Fosters leadership service of community engagement and many of our students actively participate in making a positive impact both within and beyond our school this happens to be Girl Scout week from March 15th through from March 9th through 15th and I know that we've got lots of Girl Scouts who who contribute so much to our community so we wanted to give them a shout out read Across America is a nationwide celebration reading uh of reading that takes place annually on March 2nd I happen to be invited to one of our second grade classrooms and it was the highlight of my week for all of the students in Mrs haunton second grade class thank you for spending time with me and making me feel very welcome and loved thank you also for the
037wonderful card andure it is absolutely hanging in my office this week also happens to be March 9th through 15th is National sleep awareness week this week aims to raise awareness of about the importance of sleep good sleep habits are essential for positive physical and mental health in Youth and for everyone when children have the opportunity to share concerns with a trusted adult it may reduce anxiety making it easier for them to fall asleep we know that worries and stress can keep us up at night and this goes for our children as well and we do have resources available for our students if something's on their minds they can reach out and chat with the professional anytime and it is anonymous confidential and free and available 247 7 and we're happy to share that information finally
038spring parent teacher conferences are scheduled for next week March 18th through 20th and remember that students are on an early dismissal schedule that week and that's Ten's [Music] report move on to presentation student of the month acknowledgements for George J Mitchell Elementary and frog P who would like to go first this is [Music] good evening the treat for the month of February in the nidal school was honesty so all the students who were chosen were chosen based on that tree first abil keing from Miss's class [Applause] M said Abel comes to school every day with a positive attitude and helps fill our classroom with kindness positivity and laughter she exhibits the character trait honesty every single day by telling the truth and doing the right thing without being asked to or when no one is
039looking abigil is a pleasure to teach and is so deserving being recognized as the student of the month congratulations next we have Lily Nelson [Applause] from Mrs Morgan said Lily walks in every day with a smile she tries her best participates and is always honest and kind with both her teachers and fellow classmates Lily is a perfect example of what a dedicated student look like that she is a delight to have in my classroom [Applause] congratulations next we have salur [Applause] ran Mrs Hopman said salur demonstrates honesty each and every day in our classroom he has a positive attitude and is very responsible and always leads with fairness and truthfulness South sets such a wonderful example for his peers and is a very special member of our class family [Applause] congratulations and we have Abel
040Solara from Miss mcin friend [Applause] [Music] Miss mcin said able is a smart boy that loves having a responsibility in the classroom he is always honest he will own up to his mistakes and say sorry when he should you can always trust that he is telling the truth and trying his best he follows all the rules within the school and helps others to do the same our classroom is lucky to have him con [Applause] [Music] ready Robert salur there you go looking down ready all right [Applause] perfect Mr [Music] D all right for the February students of the month at frog we're going to start with one of Miss hex students IM come on up congratulations here's what Miss he had to say about imagin I can't think of a more deserving student for the
041third grade student of the month than iment she is an excellent role model for her peers she exhibits our school's three Behavior expectations of being safe respectful and responsible at all times if I need help with any task I know Imaging will follow through from beginning to end errands are taken seriously and never take longer than need class work and homework are always completed to the best of her abilities and on time she's always helpful in the classroom ready to lend a hand to complete any task that needs assistance she is hardworking diligent cooperative and always smiling she is really just a pleasure to have in class congratulations I'm proud to have you represent our class I am proud to chair of the fourth grade student of the month from Mrs Hansen's room Eli Sprout
042come on now Mr Hanson says that Eli spr is a c student he really cares about his work and strives to do his best he helps R the classroom and is always looking for new ways to help out he uses his time wisely works well with others and is always on task he is really grown this year and I think that comes from driving towards his goals participating in class and checking in to make sure he's always doing his best thank you Eli for caring about your learning your efforts do not go unnoticed congratulations next for Miss cau's class we have Cameron Hamilton come on up Cameron Cameron is an outstanding student who shines both academically and personally she is always attentive in class in eager to help her classmates whether it's explaining a concept
043or lending a hand with supplies Cameron works hard every day and approaches challenges with a positive attitude she's not afraid to ask for help when needed and always accepts constructive criticism with Grace striving to improve as her teacher I'm proud to push her to her very best and I can always count on her to run errands or assist in the classroom Karen is a role model who Stands Strong in the face of peer pressure and sets a wonderful example for others I am incredibly proud of her so [Applause] congratulations from from gr this back's Home Room Caleb liser Caleb is an incredible student he has a positive attitude and outstanding work ethic Caleb is truly invested in his learning he consistently does his best and is never satisfied until he masters of skill he is
044a naturally curious student always ask his thoughtful questions that takes his learning to the next level there is nothing he can't handle he's a great friend to all and invaluable part of the six spe team congratulations all right last but not least from Tron from Miss vos's class we have G Lector come on up [Applause] Sage here's what Miss Bezos has to say about you Sage is an exceptional young man and I could write 10 pages about how wonderful he is however I'm only allowed to provide a few sentences Sage shows up every day ready to learn he works hard to complete all of his assignments to the best of his ability and is excited when I challenge him academically Sage is one of the kindest and most respectful students I have ever taught and
045I often use Sage as an example of what maturity looks like to all my sixth graders congratulations buddy [Applause] [Music] thank you don't forget about the [Music] cookies next up we have the initial adoption public hearing of the 2526 tentative budget [Music] if you guys want to leave you can if you want cookies up here now it's the time to [Music] get we need backs backs I'm [Music] go as I tell my students this is the one place it's the same price for the front row as it is for all the way in the back yeah [Music] see shine [Music] we're gonna start now folks good evening I'm happy to be here to uh present our Ted budget for the 2526 school year I want to just I'm not presenting the whole thing um Robert
046and I are sharing this presentation and what we are asking the board this evening if they desire is to vote on a resolution to increase the tax levy at this point that's the only thing that we're voting on this evening if we we with that vote the budget committee finance committee consists of those you see there pretty pictures Dr Schnider Mrs erber and Mr I'm just going to provide a little bit of background so what is a school budget Theory it's about our students that's exactly where our focus should be right on our students in reality it is about money and the decisions that are made with finances and mine because we are restricted in the money that comes into the district so there's two simple rules that are not so simple to follow through
047on tax revenues must be within cap or cap plus allowances and revenues must equal expenses we must submit a balance budget now throughout the year expenses can do change but the main revenues for schools don't so if an expense increases during the school year we've got to figure that out we can't just add more money to the budget it is what it is so we have to spend less in other areas in order to make that make that payment there is is a budget process that we've we've gone through this will also be on the website so if anybody's interested afterwards we start the budget actually we start begin gathering information in October but actually we start the budget I think I started July 1st and I think that next day we started talking about
048the budget so it happens very quickly sort of like the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade it starts the next day that's what we're doing as well and throughout the throughout the months we we with our administrators our principles our supervisors any other District Personnel to have talk about requests they build a budget and then we talk about what was built in the budget are there any new things that we want to put in the budget or there Innovations or there ideas that we have there're always those things and then we have to review the budget the budgets are reviewed first by the business office then I sit with Mr Green and I sit with every budget manager go through the budget line item by line item after we do that then we need to prepare the
049budget for the board in so doing we need to see what we'll present a balanc budget we start making reductions if we have to on whatever was requested and then by the time we come to the board we need to present a balance budget we have meetings with the finance committee with the board I'll have meetings with the community I'll have meetings with with staff and we'll talk about what we can put in the budget what people want to see in the budget what want what we want to preserve Reserve in the current budget things like that sometimes we can do it sometimes we can't however initial adoption is today it's actually due to the county by the 19th so there is a timeline that we have to follow then it gets reviewed by the
050county office and then we have the final adoption on the 29th of April so some comparative spending information that was interesting and this is all public information taken from the comparative spending guide which is on the department of website right now the latest information they have is from 2324 so what this shows is that our operating type is a k6 district so what we chose to do was compare little like Harbor to other k6 District State Statewide so there's 58 of them and this shows that for the 20 324 budget of the 58 districts the state average spends $1,815 on administrative costs of the per people expenditure on administrative costs little Lake Harbor spends 1,342 so out of 58 districts little Lake Harbor is the fifth from the bottom in administrative costs per people so
051when members of of the community or members of our of our school Community as about administrative costs our administrative costs are Level we are not administratively heavy in terms of just the actual cost per pupil same comparison 58 districts k6 the average is $896 per pupil and Little Harbor spends [Music] $118,800 yet and that's cost per pupil and then we have total classroom instruction so the state average is $1,225 and l l Harbor spends $1,713 so we're above the average there this is a good thing we want to be above the average there what that says is that 62% of the per pupil expenditure goes to the classroom that's a good that's a good writing however we're still only 27 and 58 so we could do better now Mr Green and then I'll be back
052thank you Dr in [Music] Tunis okay what you see on the screen is uh the tax information uh this was discussed at the committee meeting and the committee uh agreed that the bo uh that the committee would like to recommend to the board that they have a 9.9% increase in the tax ly plus banked cap banked cap is something that the district earns when you are below your adequacy level for funding from your local uh fair share we'll get more details about that in the moment so the local tax levy uh would increase to 16, 621 $570 okay we are expecting an announcement by the end of this week uh to see what the actual tax levy cap will be raised to okay we're waiting for the official noce there's only been rumors yet but
053we're waiting for the official broadcast to come from this Department of Education and uh we're very hopeful I okay this is the different uh tax levy increases per household at various assessed property values the 208,000 you see on the first Gray Bar line that is the average assessed value of a home in little L Harbor okay now this is only the portion related to the school budget and the portion related to the little uh to the little like Arbor School District okay and as you can see obviously as the assessed value goes up from 28,000 to 308,000 the annual increase goes up based and this is all based on 99.9% increase plus our bank cap and the bank cap is 75 Robert can I ask a question absolutely uh the 208,000 when was that valued
054that's for 2025 so right now the average home in Little Lake Harbor is 28,000 the assessment yes the assessment the assess value yes okay okay we have a high projected health benefits increase this year if you recall uh last month we had a presentation from the health insurance advisers that work very hard for the district okay and later that month or later last month uh we found out that we will be having an 18% increase in the rates of our health benefits okay at this point in time that projected dollar amount is $ 71,2 something2 and the projected overall cost for the district is 5,873 676 this is the single largest budget line item uh in the budget obviously the salaries are higher but they're spread out over many different line items this is the
055single highest budget line item in the budget and to receive an 18% increase um it hurts it hurts the budget so uh let's just recap what was stated at the um meeting last month there are some reasons that there's an 18% uh increase our rates uh one of the reasons is that there's a High um cost for two particular prescriptions that are being utilized right now across the country and uh people who are a little like already used those prescriptions too so that drives up our healthare claims experience and with your high claims experience or with our high claims experience it drives up the cost of the benefits but we know our advisers have done their due diligence every year for the past 20 years I guess they've been with the district uh to ensure
056that every year we do get the best rates this plan our healthcare plan is shocked through many many Healthcare carriers uh The Benchmark to beat is the state health benefits plan and even with an 18% increase we are still better than if we joined in the state health benefits plan so this is the best deal we can get and our Brokers have Sho that um shopped our plan uh very um very aggressively okay some of the other things that hurt okay here is a listing of the state funding for the state aid funding for the past four years as you can see in 2022 23 the district received 9.2 million in state aid and you can also see that progressively for the next three years the state aid has dropped okay to the current funding
057level of 7.7 million that's a $1.5 million loss of funding over a 4-year period okay this is a very important slide this is called the District local fair share this is a calculation performed uh by the uh State Department of Education and at the top gray box you'll see what is called The District adequacy budget there's something called the thorough and efficient education that is supposed to be provided to all students in the state of New Jersey and if you are if we are providing a thorough and efficient education to the students we should be spending $30 million according to the State Department of Education with that $30 million the state also says that the local fair share or the local or the share that the school district should be contributing to the budget through
058the tax levy should be $24 million that's what the term local fair share means it means that the local the local school district should be spending this much money toward their own school budget okay little Lake Harbor right now has a tax levy of 14 million so little Lake Harbor school district is underfunded by the tax levy by about $10 million and one of the reasons that state aid is declining because the message from the state is that they are no longer going to be funding the districts through state aid at the level that they used to and they're expecting the districts to fund their own budgets through their own tax line so as you see a declining state aid last year the State Department of Education or the state of New Jersey allowed districts
059to increase their tax levy to uh 99.9% normally that number number is only 2% last year they made it 99.9% and they were encouraging districts who were below their local fair share to increase their tax levy higher than the 2% and the little Lake Harbor School District did just that they started working towards uh funding their local fair share so basically Robert you're saying that the state is forcing school districts either to cut or to raise taxes uh a ridiculous amount amount of period that is correct that is correct and I just want to point out we went up to 6% or so 6.2 yeah not full 9.9 but doesn't this have to do with um the assessment of our homes I mean an average home in M Lake Harbor 288 100,000 right yes the
060tax the tax levy that is crazy I don't know any homes that I've seen for that so and I did the calculation based on my calculations and I'm not an accountant by any means is that I think we're only assessed about 3/4 of our value so if we're losing a quarter of our potential School tax because we're not assessed properly that's a big like some of the things that we're doing our bandaid it's that's a more permanent fix and and I I don't want to see taxes raised more than anyone else in the world but I also don't want to see drastic effects on this school district that are going to affect um children and teach teacher experience and everyone's experience here so but that's like my rough average I don't know if that accurately
061like comes out well that's why I asked CU 28,000 maybe you know 15 20 years ago that was the assess value yes so that's the last time we were assess because I was here the last time I was assessed um it has to been at least 15 years ago we've been here for 20 years and one time we were reassessed because we bought at the height of the market the market fell right out literally right out afterwards and then a few years later that's when they came around and assessed everyone's house my house is only 12 years old and I did have a reassessment so it had to have been in the last 10 years but we've a couple of us have asked our Municipal Representatives about this and they said it was County controlled
062and it had to be every so many years and I don't know we didn't get a clear answer but it it's you know it just sounds like we leave money on the table if we don't reassess our current houses that's that's a question for the township I mean I asked this question last year and that's when they we were told that it was the county last year I did not realize that there was such a thing that we could go to over 2% I thought that's what 2% cap meant I thought that it meant that 2% was the maximum now realize this year we're going to 2% no 99.9% potentially if it's approved plus bank account that means next year there is no Bank Camp it's only what they authorize so we're literally like it's
063like you're acting you're piggy back in pretty dire situations that's what you have to do and I only bring that up just because we're trying to figure out when we talk more about the budget where you know how are we where we're at today and it seems like it's a mix of issues coming to a head right now and just trying to find Solutions long term of how we can not just put Band-Aids on it but Solve IT long term well that's that's in honestly that's the reason that I asked for the information that I did it was because for me to process this and to understand it I need to know where we were and how we're getting to where we are so that we're not back here again next year because that's my
064fear okay let's finish the presentation okay thank you okay on this slide right now the be uh recommended budget is 27 million and change okay and this P chart breaks out uh each area each major area of the budget by percentage and on the left side by Dollar Mill as to where the money is spent I'm sorry this is the revenue screen I'm ahead of myself this is this is the money that comes into the district okay so here as you see as we're just talking about the tax levy the tax levy is already 61% of the budget state aid is the next in line with 28.3 million 28.3% of the budget and that that is probably not going to grow much in the future so if you want to continue to keep this pie
065at the same size that it is it'll have to be the tax study that uh the carries okay on that you know what let me go back okay if you look down one two three on the fourth line down we have other general fund Revenue 86,000 uh which composes um about 3% of the revenues this is a detail of what those revenues are okay so just uh I'll just explain a few uh the first one Transportation revenue is that one of our bus drivers drives a route for the Pilon School District uh our driver is already on staff already being paid uh but they drive a route after their regular routes are done with the L Lake Harbor school district and the pyland school district pays us for that so it helps our transportation budget
066without increasing any expenses we also have shared services we have a physical therapist that is shared by uh one two three uh four other districts besides hours Tuckerton eagleswood Beach Haven and Long Beach Island and we receive funding for that and it helps us keep a full-time physical therapist for ourselves uh the next item now I'll bring your attention to is extraordinary Aid of 242,000 uh extraordinary Aid uh goes for special ed students who are very costly to the district to educate and so we out uh an application to the state based on our costs and we will receive aid from the state based on those costs question is that extraordinary Aid consistent from year to year uh not necessarily it depends on how many students are in uh qualifi for the high costs so
067if you have a lot of special ed students that are high costing then then your amount will be high and if you few those so we can lose in that area well yes yes we actually could but um but usually when a student leaves another student comes in so we seem to have no a steady stream of of of special AED students coming to our district okay the other one I want to bring your attention to is the Medicaid reimbursement also called semi so students who receive uh certain Services uh in our special he Department qualified for Medicaid reimbursement this is required for the district to apply for these uh funds unfortunately well and the state is the one who dictates how much money you need to budget uh for this amount unfortunately uh this
068year the funding or for next year the funding is changing dramatically this year uh we currently budgeted $114,000 in this area and the state uh is cutting the um or the federal government I should say is cutting the uh funding for this and we were told that we could only budget 2,677 and that would most likely be our um our funding rate okay now here are the expenses the Appropriations so that's a pie chart of our Appropriations okay now as you can see over on the right side the salaries are 56% and the health benefits are 21% when and those two together salaries and benefits it comes to 78% of the budget so this is obviously a Personnel driven budget and that's just not normal for little life armor that is normal for school districts
069across the state school districts public school districts are driven in cost by personnel okay take note that there is other spending listed on this form okay here are some of the examples of the other spending we have plant from supplies which is one of the most important things that the school district can spend money on contracted nursing services staff tuition reimbursement professional development staff training mileage travel reimbursement legal fees okay and the this goes on and see if the botom there cleaning supplies okay that's that's something necessary to have in the school district paper towels in the bathrooms things like that I have one more question sure um where would substitutes fall in and how much that's that's part of Staffing that's part of Staffing yeah that's part of Staffing now if we look at
070the revenues our state aid again it's only 23% 28% of the of the revenues that come in the balance of that is 71% so just to drive the point home with only 28% being funded by the state and the prediction that that will probably be becoming less and less each year the district is going to have to find alternative funding to keep up with itself and all districts in the state of New Jersey are going to be facing the same problem or the same challenge okay so this is a breakdown of our federal funds that we reive and this is actually projected to be a lot less than in the current year um we were given guidance by the Department of Education to budget at only 75% of the current funding level we have decided
071that we wanted to go even more conservative just to be safe and we are budgeting at 70% of the current funding level and this is also an important area when we talk about special education idea funds go directly towards the cost of special education students and with an Ever growing population of special education St special education students in the district we truly do need more money in that area and we are just hoping that we do not lose funding in the idda area Robert when it comes to that um you know I know there's a lot going on in Washington these days with the Department of Education will any of that trickle down to affect us that what we know right now I personally believe it will I personally believe it will um we just
072reading something today um about about the staff layoffs uh at the United States Department of Education Mass lab layoffs and I have to really believe that after reading that yes we really believe that there's going to be less funding from federal from the federal government and it's again it's going to be a challenge to the district especially in the area of special education okay here's another detail side by side of a comparison from last year to this year regarding the revenue okay and overall the district is down 34 349 M uh $349,000 however the tax levy at a 99.9% increase plus the bank Gap is carrying a lot of this budget is the supplemental Aid also stabilization Aid uh okay so in in in the same vein yes um stabilization Aid was something we received
073I believe three years ago two years ago and then last year we or the current year we receiv received what's called supplemental Aid it's along the same idea just extra aid from the state and it was it was very clear from the state that that was going to be a one-time uh funding source and we don't we don't uh we don't predict or sense that we're going to be receiving any supplemental Aid or stabilization Aid or whatever they changed the name to this year um we just don't believe we're going receiving that that extra Aid and the Vass river is based on projections the Vass River attendance no not attendance students um registration okay so one of the major budgetary impacts that that 9 99.9% tax ly will will get us significant staff reductions more
074than more staff reductions than you had last year which results in increased class sizes shorten School days and we have compliance considerations we will be out of compliance with certain programmatic me when we say staff reductions across the board staff reductions not just teaching staff across the board all staff and those are the major budgetary impacts which will have a triple effect on everything else I'm sorry did you say that was with going to bank cap or without um 9.9 with bank so with bank still good say more than l last year more staff reductions than last year yes and I have a question about short school days um W how do we do that when you have to have certain amount of hours for the students I have count well takes 4 hours but
075you know we're not we're probably uh it could be maybe 40 minutes less okay okay um the 9.9 though that has not been approved that's what you guys are looking at today by County oh it has not been approved by the state yet the reason why we went with 9.9 is because when we had a discussion with the executive County Superintendent trying to figure out what to do especially because at 2% it was just not doable it was unsafe she said it it was reasonable for us to go 9.9 because that's what the state approved last year now we we got some conflicting information from the same people in the same office indicating that perhaps it would be a little bit lower however we got some more conflicting information saying well there might be some
076hope somewhere not just for us for the whole for the whole state we just don't know the reason why we went with 9.9 is because they indicated to us that was a reasonable amount to go based upon last year as the and can we go higher I would but right now but we still don't know that right we don't know that for a fact and I'm just I'm very perplexed because I don't understand how we have more staff reductions than last year but we received 6% more and we're going higher in Bank cap and percentage like I just and I and I'm sorry I'm an analytical person I just genuinely need to see the numbers okay so there's a couple of reasons for that uh money got money has to be right across this budget
077you only get a certain amount you do the revenues this is all the money you're going to take in other areas of the budget are eating up that portion of the pond so for example health insurance when up 18 the rates are going up 18% and then also the that means the cost is going up at an exponential rate uh you know what let me go to the next slide because actually that's a good question you just L into this okay so what's contributing to that um no one um we have a surging Healthcare benefit cost okay this year it's it's exponentially High okay uh we have a local fair share shortage okay we're not bringing in as much revenue as we as we could there's Rising Transportation costs each year the transportation costs go
078up each year the energy costs go up each year their salary increases and each year there's a general liability insurance cost that goes up never goes down okay but when you couple that over the past four years of all of those areas except for the local fair share um but all those costs Rising every year continuously and yet over that four-year period you have a loss in state aid over the last four years even trying to balance the budget with funds uh with budgeted with budgeted fund balance okay eventually you run out of fund balance it's it's uh it's it's just a compounding problem over time I think the superintendent mentioned that earlier over time you mentioned that too correct you just stated over time oh yeah everything is converging at once and it seems
079like the state is trying to wean school districts off of their support by forcing them either to cut significantly or to raise taxes taxes significantly and both are bad options or to consolidate or to tax at the current like market value are close to it that's the other issue like I have family lives in raising taxes is everyone else will have to raise their taxes the school whoever lives in Little Lake Harbor if their house is no longer assessed at $28,000 now it's a $400,000 house they're going to have to pay more taxes right right right but I'm just saying that and then if we add the option for the tax levy we might not be do you know I mean it might is it cheaper for people if we just raise taxes incrementally now
0809% next year a couple percent as opposed to a full evaluation reevaluation both will help the school district yeah but the the balance the homeowners you know they're going to have to feel it too because isn't it right isn't it that if you we increase by going to 9.9 and Bank cap this year that increases what our 9.9 will be next year because it increases our tax so yeah so let me that's a good point what happens when you increase your tax levy by 9.9 that new tax levy becomes your base for the next tax levy increase and and you're right Chris and this is only half of Billy car protects homeowners bill so to speak Pilots is also 50% of that we're notm right and so remember that for many years if you only
081went to the 2% cap you only Built your base by that 2% cap and 2% increasing the tax levy by 2% is $292,000 so each year if you only if you add less than $300,000 to your to your budget through the tax levy you're not even covering the cost of the increment droping the bucket but yeah right you're not covering the cost of just your health benefits alone and that's when it was only about an 8 or 9% uh rate increase it's kind of Pennywise and pound foolish right everybody was trying to be cral and uh physically responsible but yeah then we hit a cliff yes expenditures went up and the income is flat okay that does not mean that taxpayers should not fight a good fight to have the state still fund the District
082as much as the you know as at the same level or increasing so we have provided information here to our local Senator and assemblyman and you have the and this will be posted to our website so you'll have this link and you can message them yourself and ask them to support restoring state aid at a higher level to school districts can even put in a shop for specifically little like laa because we need the money yeah especially because we're a poor district and we have ratables and I did for one reach out to um Mr Amato and he sent me a lengthy letter back saying what they've tried to do in in the legisl and that they were very um proactive last year and keeping them from reducing us too much um to less you
083know no more than 3% but they were they proposed that legislation but they have a whole you know committee to deal with legislature so it's a little bit outnumbered to yeah we we do have a lot in part to thank them for the 700 3,000 that we received last year U of the supplemental Aid so Robert I know this doesn't solve the problem this year but this year is a Governor's race next year theoretically if we had we're going to have a different Governor could the formula change and could that be beneficial to us if the right person was it it is possible yes anything's possible um especially in elction year um however we just want to remain hopeful because the state has not given guidance yet we expect it any day now uh but
084the state just having hasn't given guidance yet as to what the tax cap will be uh we are we are very hopeful and somewhat confident uh that it will be more than 2% okay how much about 2% we really don't know at this time but we're dis hopeful and as soon as we have that information we will share that with the with the full School Board um I have a question so I know that last year was a negotiations year and based upon the P chart our salaries are the biggest part of our budget yes but that's that's not just last year or this year that's that's well yeah that's for many years and and that's that's just not little like Hara that's every school district across the state it's a Personnel driven buet the
085teachers are the backbone of your school district so are we able to to ask the union for a salary a salary um raise freeze yes to save their fellow colleagues yes you can do that yes want go back to slide okay I guess what I want to look at here and I know you say that and I just want someone to help me understand that's all I'm asking is shouldn't be the purpose okay we we took a hit in 2324 where are we now guess 2324 and I realized that the 2425 hit was much larger so I can see mentally and this is what I'm trying to figure out and understand how that hit was so difficult and I understand how and 20 2026 we have an increase and I understand there's inflation increase energy
086costs and things like that my question is is there a way to plan for this so that in Another Year we're not looking at potentially more Cuts or be in a dire situation again like how can we plan and like is there a general rule of fun do you plan for flat funding do you plan for reduced funding when you're building this budget to protect next year's budget it's a great question so last year uh we projected at the initial start that we would receive flat funding and we felt that that was pretty safe because uh we just just felt that that was a safe go okay however last year we were completely by surprise when we got the state aid figures that we were we were reduced by 17% it was it was devastating
087absolutely devastating um and so what are we going to plan for next year it's very difficult to tell uh this year this year in light of what we had to face last year the initial projections for us for for state aid we decided on a 15% decrease that we would we didn't expect we said if last year they cut us 177% they could probably cut us that much again and so we went very safe with 15% uh luckily when it all came out we ended up with a 6% increase now 6% increase is only $634,000 again at a 2% Levy and the um and $634,000 in increased state aid barely even covers the cost of the um health benefits increase so right there with with your 2% black tax levy uh contribution plus the increase
088in state aid you've covered just one part of the many costs of this District just a healthcare increase so in planning next year uh you never really you just we never at least in the past few years the state has never given any indication as to how much state aid is going to be in years years and years ago we used to get a little hint from the county office that used to come to a meeting and say we don't know for sure but you could rule of thumb to budget 2% and sure enough 2% would be the increase uh the next year they say bu you 42% and well behold there would be 42% but they're not giving that indication to us anymore at all and and they never gave any indication that there
089was going to be a massive decrease last year so that was completely by surprise found out the last day of February and budgets are due in midm March yeah and I'm thinking too I'm not a real numbers person but the obvious numbers are 78% health benefits and salaries and the other hard cost of insurances and electric and lights that we can't control that that adds up to a lot I know I guess and I know you don't understand why I'm requesting it but I want to see where it goes to see how the healthare impacted the overall budget from if we did not go to bank cap into 99.9% what would our numbers look like and try to get a whole story because if you look look at the numbers and get a whole story
090I believe it's going to tell a lot give us a lot of information if we put the the pieces of the puzzle together so that at the end of this we're not sitting here next year again going okay we're in the same position and cutting and so I I truly believe looking at that we'll tell a story and see was it completely out of the district's Hands by the healthcare because all I'm seeing are the numbers with regards to if we go to 9.9 and with cuts to make a balanced budget I need to see what comes in the middle if you can't like I'm solving for a variable that I don't know how to solve for and so that's why I need that line I know so I can analyze it because I am
091a ma and numbers person well one of the variables is that our tax ly did not go up for nearly I I I know but there are hardcore numbers that we can look at so I don't understand why I can't look at them I think part of the problem is to figure out part of the problem is just as a school district and Robert you've been doing this a long time and you can tell me if this is accurate that we don't sound very self- sustaining like there's too many outside Revenue sources that are go up and down up and down up and down whereas we don't we can't fund our school district with our current tax levy to a way where it's stable where we know people aren't going to lose their jobs the
092next year because we can afford it is there school districts right now that are stable and can fund themselves self- sustaining or is everybody in the same boat of relying on the state for a handout basically the entire State and most most hard hit districts were right here in Ocean County Tom river is having a devastating problem Lakewood Jackson uh Lac it's it's not just little Lake armor and so we're actually a lot better off than quite a few districts in in in this County but across the state people have feel absolutely and I found interesting on one of our sheets that our Municipal Taxes or the tax base is 2 billion something so there's there's a lot of money there but not quite enough I mean we have 11 20,000 residents and like 11,000
093home units so and we don't have a lot of commercial as you know so we don't Rak in as much as other richer towns might um I agree with Christine in just seeing the full picture I think when I first heard about things in Personnel I wanted to know historically how high have have we raise taxes what's happened historically so we can understand that and understand that gap between the balanced budget last year and then now our 4.5 or $6.8 million Appropriations difference um because then that will help us to forecast strategically for the future I hope so I think that full picture and that full story will be really helpful for for me to just to kind of see it and digest it and really understand the numbers and not to pick out just
094one thing but you said about the health care costs there was a certain type of prescription drug that has really uh increased our claims is that something that's like necessary it's none of our business actually I want to say was one of them listed last week and I'm only saying because um I was I have a family member and um not covered by insurance it's like $6,000 or $20,000 a month and it helps with Cron's disease so there are some there I mean it's um you know I think if the state allows it then we you have to compare we have to be comp our plan has to be comparable to a state plan so the state plans allow coverage so then by law we have to offer coverage I think well I don't no
095that's what the health person may seem like last time chapter 44 that has to be so offer for chapter 44 anybody in chapter 44 plans it would have to be I thought it was chapter 78 now that's what he said last time chapter 78 is there's no chapter 78 oh it's chapter 44 now well there's two different contribution chapter 44 Crees health insurance PL 44 is a Prett contribution okay um they're both they both have preum contribution components but CH 44 AG certain PL all new employees for the last I don't six or seven years four years five f um have to be enrolled um so everyone else you can't negotiate that until January 1st 2028 um so for that yes for the other plans it's a whole separate negotiation issue that is pretty complex
096we have discuss that um Chris it's in the auditor's report from last month okay what one are the other things uh to point out if you recall over the last couple of years the district has has been uh fully funded not fully funded but very flushy funded through Esser funds and that came about because of Co well those those those funds are gone they've been that's it there's no more stream of money coming in and all of those funds have been used up so that's been a calm down problem for the past few years or two years and I just want to add one thing uh with regards to back to to healthcare I just remember from our previous VA and our previous budget meetings I don't remember if you remember Laura but healthc care
097has always been an issue because we have a lot of people I I guess you're charged based on how many claims and uh exper that's experience I would not consider it my Healthcare experience ratings but okay I get it experience ratings and we've always had a high one and that's why we've always jumped back and forth is because of that so I think it's that's a historical Little Egg problem you know I mean I guess that could be anywhere from people having diabetes um anything like that I was Point earlier ones are affecting everyone that I mean you may be your experience rating as well but that is an issue throughout that's out of our control largely now here is uh Transportation at 2.1 million is there any kind of savings we can have there
098I think any cut that we can have outside of the classroom experience would be the most beneficial um what are we I'm thank you um do we know if we're legally uh required to offer transportation to um are there any grants out there to kind of help us identify ways that we can make Transportation more efficient and impactful save money on that line item um and like Christine and Abby said I think it's impared that we see the whole scope of the numbers um I think any Cuts we can possibly make outside of that classroom experience is going to be the best we can do for the district so yes we are legally obligated to transport any student uh that lives within with outside the two- mile limit to the school district okay uh we're
099also required to uh bus any student whoes free and reduce lunch okay and when we we've been looking at this for about the past year and a half and and the whole District as a whole there's there was an ad hoc committee last year uh to look into what we can do and um basically uh it came down to about 81 students who received what's called courtesy bossing and with that courtesy bsing if you eliminated those 81 students you would be able to reduce still reduce any rots would the 81 uh be different year-over year so would this year be 200 versus last year's 81 is this something that we should look at every single year or is there outside professionals that we can utilize to try to see how we can make this more
100efficient actually we have an in-house professional name is Michael kofer right here and he has been fantastic um with coming up with these numbers and analyzing and researching ways to do that and um so remember that with those 81 students it's spread out about through about I think 48 routs we have so if you took two kids off each route rough you a couple of kids off each route you'd still have to bust the other kid students so now we we've we've we research that and and uh there's just no there's just no way we can get rid of any of the roots that we have I also just wanted to be very clear we have cut every single item from this budget that is possible that does not touch students every single item everything
101everything one thing that I think is uh probably the highest level of importance that we do here is providing a safe uh environment for our children to learn in um with this budget are we still retaining the money to have in school police officers we're still working on those lists okay thank you um around the transportation do we have to have a seat because all right back up the parent drop offline and pickup line is astronomical so obviously the buses are 25% full some of them you know like is there a way to have parents sign off and say just hey I'm going to give you my bus seat I drive every day I never putting my kid on the bus to help us save Transportation costs yes there that can be done but keep
102in mind we also receive state aid funding it's it's specifically called Transportation Aid and that's based on the number of students you have in a seat so if those parents sign off that they're not going to uh they're going to drive their children to school we'd lose the funding for that student how much is it per student sorry um I just did this calculation about two weeks ago think I remember a million dollar though don't they give us million and8 that I can tell you so they give us extra aid for transportation based upon the volume correct correct so by reducing the number of students they drive to the drop off officially reducing that number of students we lose eight okay it's about $650 per student 650 how many kids are on the bus a
103bus seats 54 students a large a large bus obviously students and we usually over subscribe those kind of like the uh airplanes because we know we have some students that don't if don't take that's $35,100 per bu yeah it' be nice to we out the benefits of saving the seat and doing the sign off versus the aid what we've we've looked at into that and it's and it's not cost feasable one of the things that has to be taken into consideration sorry what was not cost feasable NE toid for transportation you going to say it's also be like cut down on traffic and more environmentally friendly I just think it would make we think about it we had less buses at dismissal that would help some of that some of that traffic also the other
104thing we have to remember is that if a parent decides that he or she cannot drive their child we need to have a seat for that child so we always have to have a seat for that child but how is it any different if we had a new student join the district and we do that that's exactly what we do that's why we over subscribe and we know how many uh we know that there are staff members I'm sorry parents who drive their students and that's through the the program that helps us determine that it's through the uh the the routes the way the routes are scheduled I don't know the ins and outs of it but that's that's what helps us to do that so those are just things we have to consider that's
105all anybody have any more questions before we move on i' just like to like to reinforce the fact that tonight's tonight's resolution for the budget for the most part is simply to approve the tax Ley there really nothing more than that improves the tax levy and then allows us to go send it down to the county office for review um but this is not the final budget this is just a tenative budget and all you're doing is approving for the most part you look at the resolution it's just the amount to be raised in taxes towards the school budget okay the final adoption will come on April 29th and a lot can happen between now and then so we uh we can't we can't give up hope that the state's going to come through for
106us schools we have to hold on to that and as soon as this Administration gets that memo it'll be what's called a broadcast from the State Department of Education we will let all board we will let the board know yeah just like supporting our school that cap is 568 th000 that's possibly five teaching positions so just a recap this is more of a revenue problem than a spending problem because we've cut and cut and cut but it's still not enough Revenue coming in to cover our costs that that would be a a state that would be a fair statement but it's we have cut costs that we can cut there's costs that are outside of our our our our uh our control um the energy costs are outside our control uh again in healthcare that's
107outside our control um the transportation costs we have looked into that extensively there was committee that was formed I think in December of 23 and it's been looked at very closely um general liability insurance that's that's another cost that goes up every year we can't control that cost so there's so many costs that are uncontrollable to the school district um it's part that that you are correct in what you say but it's on both sides lack of Revenue and increasing costs and and I I just want to say something I understand that we're approving the tax levy and the bank cap and for me it's it's it's not not approving that because obviously I want to keep everyone my reason I want to see everything is because I want to see how this happened that
108that we're here where we are secondly I think I would really like some more information on a referendum if that's feasible if it's not feasible the ins and outs of it what what what can we do to not have this happen a second year like it's devastating to me and last time I went out for referendum was relocatees during sh so um I know there's an expense in that and I guess I just for me I just need more information and that's what I'm looking for I'm looking for the numbers and to make sure that we've explored every option because if we send this to this to the county saying that we're doing tax levy in Bank cap are we locked into that no we are not no we are not um you can uh
109you can change anything between now and April well some said there's a there is some point where there's a cut off in April I can't remember the date but um there's a lot of time between the tenative budget and the last day you can change and so there is there is time and so there is hope so if the state were to say to come out and say you can you can raise your taxes higher than 9.9 and and the and the b c or some sort of a hybrid of the two we'll know and we can come back to the table and the board can discuss that this is not the end oral this is just the initial adoption the final adoption will come at the end of April there's plenty of time in
110between to make the adjustments and it'll be based we can make adjustments based on what the state um State memo comes out and we over see [Music] shortly thank you there any other [Music] questions all right moving on to our action items recommend a motion to approve Finance items a through F and I have a motion motion I have a second second are there any questions you have the roll call Mr Sone yes Mr fichel yes M Lawrence yes Mr Lea yes Dr Snider Yes except for Jay I abstain I really needed that information and I'm disappointed but I'm sorry which which one Jay I think we're doing a through F oh sorry i'me see okay Finance items a through F just to be clear any questions we're voting okay sorry so so your vote
111then oh so 1 a through F that's why confused 13 1 a through f are you abstaining what's your vote no no I'm saying you're saying you're on one okay yes that's the motion [Music] I miss Martin yes Miss Berber yes motion passes okay I recommend the motion to approve facilities items a A can I have a [Music] motion motion I have a second second are there any questions yeah is there reason we haven't been in this prior I didn't get I know you but I don't think it was compl answers like why we haven't been in this if it was um right the savings purchasing Savings Program it is um there's only one particular item that's offered through this U savings program that we're looking to purchase okay and so we're going to join
112it we are already in a purch but we're in many actually many purchasing consortiums around the state this one happens to be in Texas so it's not really not not that beneficial except pay to ship in here but yes it's actually an electronic item so there's to be no shipping thing with that as far as I know but we are in many many different um consortiums throughout the state for the best pricing for anything we purchase thank you okay any other questions roll call please Mr Z yes Mr phell yes Miss Lawrence yes Mr leer yes Dr Snider yes Miss Martin yes Miss Berber yes motion carries recommend a motion to approve School business administrators non Personnel items a through J I have a motion motion and have a second are there any questions [Music]
113see okay yeah roll call please Mr Sone yes Mr phello yes Miss Lawrence yes and thank you for those [Music] donation Mr Lea yes Dr Snider yes but I abstained from J thank you Miss Martin yes but I also abstained from J thank you m Berber yes all motions uh all items in the motion [Music] pass okay I recommend the motion to approve Personnel items a through f with the added addendum that we had in the from executive okay can I have a motion and a second second okay are there any [Music] questions roll call please Mr s yes Mr phello yes M Lawrence yes yes excuse Mr ler yes Dr Snider what it supposed to St until um sorry a through F A through F yes yes M Martin yes Miss Berber yes the
114motion carries okay I recommend a motion to approve superintendent of school's non-personnel items a through J can I have a motion motion I have a second second any questions uh I would just ask that we do have a discussion as a board for I might laptop I I you can't add my comments for the AI policy I know it's a first reading but maybe we could all uh discuss do we have time to discuss it at the next meeting before we um pass it yeah and our next work session that's not happening until after the next or before the next meeting yeah we could do that just want to note to the board we're going all the way through that week now so the snow days right June 19th and 20th um piland's calendar is
115a little bit different they are going to use the Good Friday the April 18th just something to throw out there but as a parent of someone in both schools do you have a preference I mean yes but it's a does I mean I'm personally not one for school on Good Friday but that's just me but um what a lot of students I think what yeah I think that would affect a lot of students so I don't know what the um like what our calendar originally said does it I think we had those days designated theal the way which you moved it Forward was the way the calendar was any other questions discussion we have a roll call please Mr SEI yes Mr fichel yes M lawence yes Mr Lea yes Dr Snider yes Miss Martin
116yes M Berber yes motion carries okay moving on to new business is there any new business yes so I'd like to uh talk about an idea that I had I was actually brainstorming one night with uh everything we have going on with Revenue um and all that and the idea that I came up with and I wanted to talk to the board about and discuss um was oh microphone sorry was basically um local companies in the community right local businesses we know the traditional way of advertisement is through a banner something like that that they would put up my my thoughts on that is let's take it to another level right so we have these board meetings people are tuned in right now watching us we have a live feed so I was thinking about
117what would it be like to offer somebody in the community that option to come up here and you know talk about their business and maybe work with work with them to get a community thing going so you have your business and you may want to go live and talk about that and you would have that exposure here since we're live and that's something that just came to my mind and I'm like that may work to bring in more revenue and I don't know if anybody else has done it yet so it was just something that just popped up and I figured I'd mention it again everybody's thoughts on that you said for fee right for fee yes I to ask where does the revenue come in so so yeah sorry so for a fee so
118whatever we agree upon as far as fee structure goes um if they don't want to go live we can talk about a presentation you know something like that we could offer a fee for a presentation fee uh we could do a booklet possibly but the live exposure may be something they want to do to show a product maybe you're new in town you just started started up a business in town and maybe nobody know knows about what you got to offer so that's what I was thinking about I don't know what everybody else thinks I like that idea but my only question is is it we have any legal things with honest I'll give you credit for for novelty uh I have never heard of Bo to do that I I've never T I just
119wanted to think outside the box you know we have to look at how you structure it whether it I mean I don't know that not saying no I to look into it we were talking about we talked offline about this yeah 3 to five minutes maybe yeah whatever $100 a minute yeah how much minute 100 for for a business for them to have you take a large dealership for example let's say it's a large car dealership they want to reach into our community they may be outside the community you know maybe they're within the community the point is is they have the money to do that and maybe they want to also help contribute to the school system by doing that you know so it's an option uh I'm not saying that would be you
120know the only option we could have other options too with the price structure but that's for us to determine as a board where we want to structure that pricing at you know we have to figure it out yeah I I guess we'd have to go through legal first right I mean yeah we have to look you have to propose a plan have no I can look at it generally but I think you have to yeah have more of a formulated plan but look now you got me thinking there's a lot of different ways [Music] yeah advertising s correct sell ad space um good point you know with sports right my gut reaction probably can't do it I want my okay I was thinking outside the box that's all I could do I mean I'm thinking
121hey what could we do to help bring more money in and possibly save jobs with that money that we're bringing in right so at least provides supplies for the students at least you provide something it's it's it's not going out it's coming in John's on our finance committees maybe they just want to donate to maybe they just want to donate bus in the area maybe we should just go ask that's what I was going to say like the Rotary Club have we check in with them or Ed Foundation I don't I don't even hear about the Educational Foundation in this District I'd like to hear a little bit more about what they're doing in in the chamber you can fill that whole thing up with about 100 businesses so like what we do no lie
122my kids are in C school we will give sponsorships like if you put their name on something like a piece of paper or a flyer that's going home it's very simple and they you know for a donation and that's you know oh you look at it and you think to you know Patron them since they support your school absolutely that's another that's another Avenue like I said I was thinking of three options and one was live one was like you know possibly where you could have a presentation you know so they they want they can't make it or whatever the the situation is there whatever they whatever they want to do put that presentation up we do that for them at a set fee but we could also have them booklets in place like you're
123saying maybe a booklet that we could you know have them you know put into you know their their ad or whatever they want to talk about well like let's say the um it's not graduation promotion ceremony you know those flyers that go out you know sell ads on the back of them that would at least cover the printing cost of that or something like that you know what I mean so that's it trying to think of ways to bring in Revenue right that's it thank you John you that was in the committee meetings he's like brainstorming so a little bit more time to brainstorm during this things just FYI okay where are we public comment the floor is now open to members of the public the Board of Education recognizes the value of public comment
124on educational issues the board request that each statement made by a participant participant is limited to 3 minutes as cited in policy 0176 there's a sign in sheet located at the podium please sign in before you speak hello my name is nor I live in town at 865 newent toown Road I've been a teacher here for 17 years my two children have one has gone through one is here I'm very passionate about our town and our district I am by Nature a problem solver I do not know what the solution is to our problems we have many and thank you for explaining them so well tonight but I do feel very strongly that the solution is is not to ask us to work harder and receive less nor is it fair to pull on our
125heart strings by looking out here at this small sample of our teachers we have non- tene teachers getting married we have non- tenar teachers starting families we have older non-gender teachers with older children with more expenses to put that on us on top of everything else that's not your fault that we have to deal with is not fair or responsible [Music] would anyone else like to speak I just want to say thank you for doing your due diligence and looking on every line item in this whole budget we have been last year we had cuts that were extraordinary and you all most of you were here for that now we're at that same situation again and it's a big problem our state is a problem I will agree but I'm also a taxpayer and a
126teacher my taxes are not cheap I don't know if yours are but mine certainly are and I want to say to every one of these teachers because we are under sft but looking into everything is very important and I just want to thank you for being physically responsible and looking into [Music] that anyone else thank you um now we'll move on to board forum who would like to go first first M Maloney you said it's not fair and I agree it's not fair of the position every single one of us has put it whether you're a board member whether this is your sixth year on the board or the first year in the board whether you're a teacher here for 17 years or you're brand new excited about coming to our district and we welcome
127you with open arms it's not fair that decisions in the past are now coming to a head now and the music is going to stop and we're all in the same boat some people are going to lose jobs we're going to lose sleep over the decisions we have to make our children that go to school here I have three children in the district they're going to be affected it's not fair you're right we I grew up here I went to school here I chose to live here with my family you know none of us signed up for this experience and we as a board and we as a community need to find a long-term solution this year this budget is going to be even tougher than last year last year was extraordinary this is going
128to be even more unfortunately and we just cannot keep doing this we need to find a way to be self- sustaining where we're not depending on the state we're not depending on Health Care going up and down we need to find a solution long term for our kids and our future of this town that solves this problem so we don't keep coming back to this situation there's teachers that just want to teach their passion in life is to teach they shouldn't have to be worried about if they're going to lose their job because the tax levy isn't high enough nobody signed up for that you don't go to college to be an educator and and have to worry about that but unfortunately we're in that position now where we have to work with the administration
129and make those decisions cuz the music stopped and unfortunately there's going to be new teachers and there's going to be Cuts not just teachers all across the district people were're friends with people that have given everything they've had to this District because that's their passion in life but because the music is stopping and the revenues are not there we're going to have to make tough decisions but I just want to say I hope that we can work with the community at large to find a long-term solution so that this does not keep happening last year was very very rough we lost a lot of good teachers we had to reconfigure a lot of things this year is going to be probably even worse but it has to stop we have to find a solution I
130don't have a solution we have ideas we want to keep as many people as possible we want our district to be self- sustaining but there's so many variables right now that are outside of our control that we need to find a solution we need to get our state legislators on board and do what we can to fight for little Lake Harbor as a district and as a community because this cannot keep happening we cannot be having this conversation every single year CU we keep losing great people and it's really our kids that are missing out on the experiences that we had here either if you went to school here or if you've been teaching here for a long time so this is just a problem that we need to figure out a solution to long
131term it's going to be very tough very difficult this year but as a board I know we're committed to doing whatever we can to save as many jobs as possible to keep the experience of going to Little Lake Harbor School District as positive and as memorable for the kids our kids that are go here now and then for our kids in the future you know one day they'll grow up and hopefully want to have kids and stay here as well and just continue that and we have to deal with the reality of increasing costs and less Revenue so we need to find Revenue whatever way we can and really the bigger issues of re-evaluations and things like that we just need to come up to the reality of 2025 where the state is not giving
132out handouts anymore health care costs are astronomical other costs are going through the roof and we just can't afford it anymore we don't want to put teachers in positions where they sign up for a job and they're excited and they want to be part of the district and the community and within a year they have to be laid off because thex tax levy isn't what it's supposed to be so I just want to say I'm committed to try to find a long-term solution it may not happen this year unfortunately but as a community and someone who's lived here grown up here graduated high school here you know I want to see us as a self- sustaining District so we don't have to rely on anybody else outside of our community goe um I just wanted
133to talk I know we're talking about Doom and Gloom and and just some really difficult things but I did want to talk about something positive that I was able to go to last month I was able to being the help and physical educator that I am I went to the bring your family to PE night and um that was just amazing the PE teachers here they are such rock stars you guys are so lucky to have such wonderful Educators um they had so much going on they had uh oh my gosh I got to get a hold of those scooter things those for scooterville I got to get me those things motor um there was jump roping I tried that I'm not as good as it used to be um but I did try it
134uh Mr I cannot remember the gentleman's name begins of the yeah I always get confused on the pronunciation of that he was on the wireless mic running the show um they had rhythm with drumming and and and stability balls and just the kids were having an absolute blast so it was a really a great event and when we're talking about um the struggles that we're going through these are teachers these are the example of not just the small group of teach all of these teachers the things that they do day in and day out so I do think we deserve or they deserve for us to figure this out and find a solution to this I just had a thought can we send home um maybe a mass emailing and a blast with all of
135that information of who to write who to contact um I know many years ago when you used to have to vote for budgets way back in the day I remember doing that um we at Pinelands in our Education Association and whoever wanted to volunteer we got on back when you also had hard mindes and got on the phones maybe we could do something like that and you know get the word out and collectively maybe even our own our association is can work together and do something like that not that we have a whole ton of time that just came to mind when you came up with your cool idea too so big props to all the fizet teachers uh it was just an amazing day I was glad I was able to get to see
136it thanks Alison thanks for going with that I I almost don't have words because I don't think you understand how I'm trying not to cry like how much this budget has hurt me uh or caused me pain knowing what it will do to this District when they say it takes a village to raise a family or children you guys were in my Village for many many years and I couldn't have done it there's so many things I couldn't have done or my kids wouldn't have had opportunities for um so please know like I don't have any kids here but I was like I how high can we go what can we do can we do a referendum and I I want you to know the reason I think that we suggest a pay freeze is
137not to like say we want you to do more with less we want to save people we want it across the board it's not like just teachers we want to say we want to keep this community intact as a whole at least until we can try to figure something out we can't figure it out but you know reassessing the entire town that's going to take time if we're able to get that done like we need like time to try to come to a permanent solution and I think that that's what we're trying to think of and I mean when I say I mean I have notes I I made spreadsheets you name it I did whatever I could think of to try to come up with some answers here and I I know personally why
138I would suggest like oh can we do this can we do a pay freeze because when Co happened at Stockton every single person took a twoe Furlow so that we could protect everyone's job until we got through Co and no one was let go and we didn't get our raises we did all of that so that we could protect everyone because we cared about everyone as a community and I think that's what we're trying to do here until we can figure out a solution and I don't know that a good enough solution for me will happen by April and that's I think that's my thought I don't know if that's but I I can't talk because it's too personal for me so that's all I have to say and I'm just going to say too
139that to be clear we don't we don't vote on staff Cuts we have no control over that we vote on providing as much money can for the budget I think all of us agree that we want to provide as much as we can you know referendum discussions came up but it's a little scary if that goes down that doesn't pass in the community so we can talk about that further um but a letter from the board to the state our state representatives I think would be pretty powerful um again a long-term solution I I look over as this how this happen over the long term I see it as the the tax levy was not enough a lot of boards ER us included but last year we we were smart enough to raise it we
140could have raised it to 9.9 but we didn't raise it to six so that all has impact cumulative impact and I just I want to keep as many teachers and staff as we can I want to start off by saying thank you to everybody that came from the public and being engaged right now this is a critical point where we all Stand Together everybody in this room everybody watching uh virtually we all have to stand up together and contact our assembly men um our representatives from the state every single parent every single taxpayer in this community we have to stand United that's the only way we're going to get more funding by shouting from the the top of the hill and really letting them know that we need every dollar that's owed to us so
141please get the word out thank you for being here we are going to continue to fight we're your neighbors we're taxpayers I have two kids in these schools it's very important to me um I just think it's very important we need the energy now we have to get everybody United un let's just really drive that message home thank you yeah I I agree with you on that Greg I think we uh we're giv it our all I mean that's all we can do we're trying to to look at every single Avenue that we have uh we going down every road even if it's a wrong turn turn back around go back the other way I mean at the end of the day that's what we got to do we got to reach out to the
142higher higher levels and hopefully the state works with us and does something miraculous for us at this point all we can do is you know to me for me I pray about it that's it but thank you everybody else okay our next meeting then is April 29th right no that's APR 30 no 28 is ours is9 so is that the regular meeting it is and we're potentially having a meeting before that yeah we have to you get email schedule [Music] thata I can't that for next month I just can't I can't promise you we can get that together I'm just going to say this I think next month's the most important because we're going to have the budget have a special meeting but I cannot I cannot promise that we're going to move to this
143in one month I just I just can't promise I can try but I can't promise we can have a special meeting to work with I I guess I was a special meeting different than just if we did it as a work session I can't do what you were asking us to do earlier but board vter I cannot do that in a moment I I would be happy with the special budget meeting I think that's very reasonable thank you okay we'll talk about implementing four positions again it's we have to see if it works for everybody it's going to be a lot different I know we did two the last time we tried it and then we decided to go back to the original committee form I'm just going to say this I think this week
144meeting we talked a lot and we asked a lot of questions and my years of coming to board meetings and not knowing that everyone a lot of people ask their questions prior to coming into meeting and so that that's why they voted I think it's good to see us ask our questions especially during these difficult times I think it's very important that they show that we I mean we're not just saying you really care that you know and I do think it will be more productive I I sent spent 10 hours in budget meetings and that was for me but I think if everyone else had half of that information um they would be helpful okay thank you all right we have a motion to adjourn motion second all in favor any opposed