001one. Good evening everyone. Adequate notice of this meeting was provided by sending such notice to the Asbury Park Press, the Middletown patch, and the Middletown Township Public School District website, and the posting of such notice at the August T minor administrative office offices in each elementary, middle, and secondary school in the district. Roll over. Mrs. She's here. What you say? Say you're going to roll. Mrs. Camdi here. Mr. Fitzgerald here. Mrs. Min here. Mrs. Golski here. Mr. S here. Mr. T here. Mrs. Ray here. This is tobacco here. Mr. Here, please stand for the pledgece to the flag of the United States of America standy and justice for all. Okay, we're now going to open up the microphone for public comment. [Music] We don't need to unless there something you want to speak about. Anything
002you need to speak about? We can do contract. I don't know if there's anything that a board member needs to speak about. Okay. And then we were If you want to make a motion depends I think that's a function of the program you use for your uh agenda automatically post that but there was no as far as I know there was no planning session just once again we're going to open the microphone up for public comment if you wish to make a public comment please step forward state your name and address for the record. So, [Music] I would make a motion that we delay until 7:30. How about you? [Applause] One. Good evening everyone. Okay, before we get to public comment, I'm just going to pass over the microphone to Mr. Thor to speak about
003an agenda item that we just added. It's for number seven. Mr. D, you can speak about it. Thank you, Mr. Pone. Uh we are going to be uh having on the agenda tonight a resolution to approve the acceptance of a proposal from our stock loss insure uh for the policy that would be in effect July 1st 2025 from Zurich American Insurance Company uh accepting their proposal as a stop-loss carrier for their medical and prescription drug plans per proposal that was submitted. U we're putting it on the agenda because of uh the due date of the of the renewal into foreign export meeting. Thank you, Mr. D. Okay. Now, we're now we're now going to open the microphone up for public comment. If anyone wishes to make a comment, please step to say your name and
004address for the record. [Music] Hi everyone, Kristen Nie. Um one Oakdale on Atlantic Highlands. I don't think I've ever given me that one before. Um, I just wanted to start um by saying thank you. Um, I think we've come a long way since March 18th and we asked for transparency and communication that day and to be part of the conversation of what Middletown is going to look like and our schools going forward. And um, I think this is a step in that direction. Um, and we're just we're looking forward to basic a resolution now and in the future continuing to be a part of this. So, I'll hand it over to others who have more things to say than I do, but thank you. Thank you. Good evening. Dan 39. Hi, I'm Norard Doss, 44
005Onita Avenue. So, I think we're here to talk about yet another tax increase or tax adjustment. I think there was going back to the drawing board as requested from what I've heard is that we need to reassess what our tax uh levy is going to be for this next year and digging into kind of the numbers and and what I've been seeing, right? I'm part of the budget and data group and historically what I've been looking at and seeing is missed opportunities of tax increases as a drip fee, right? Is slowly increasing year-over-year which also has an exponential increase on your actual operating budget. You miss it one year, you don't recoup it by the same value next year. So I think what we've seen and what we've calculated out is if we had about
006an average of a 3% increase over the last 10 years or even 6 years is we would have had a much better solveny situation. We wouldn't have depleted our reserves. We would have enough budget to operate at the at the ask today. And you know, I'm still digging into the the requirements from the state for ad adequacy and I think part of that also is penalized because we are below where our adequacy should be. So we are being punished which also adds to our deficit. So we are we by keeping our taxes artificially low. If you look at inflation, we in the last 6 years we've only had increases of anywhere from 1 to 3%. inflation has gone as high as 7%. You cannot operate by being 4% under inflation. So I think one of
007the things that we need to do and take away from this is we shouldn't be faced with this 10% increase because there is a a precipice that we're on because of mismanagement or or missed opportunities over the last 10 years. I think that's that's something that is is very clearly stated or seen when you look at the numbers. But I know when you're trying to present it to Middletown and to everybody out in the general public, it's hard to say we need to increase your taxes a little bit every year. But that's a lot easier pill to swallow than a really big pill in one year. [Applause] So, property tax calculations are tricky and interlated with a lot of factors, but you know, in good faith, I'm going to try and represent the the best,
008you know, and based on best data available, you know, the max budget increase that this board has an opportunity to go to would be a shock. Um, but it nets out to an effective 6% property tax increase assuming the other municipal increases stay the same. So, you know, and this is in a year where we found that, you know, home values are going to be reappraised for 11% more. So essentially what the max budget increase that you could actually you know deploy would still decrease the tax rate because basically you know you're you're char home values are outpacing the tax or budget increases that are available to you right so no matter what even if you maximize the budget you're still compressing the tax rate so I think that's important to to get across And
009if anybody wants to chat after the meeting, we can kind of dive into those numbers. Um, again, the best available information, you know, Tony Curry would, you know, floated to 5.8%. And 10.1 has been, you know, a budget increase of 10.1. You know, that would cost, you know, that jump from like, let's just say 5 to 10 would cost the average Middletown homeowner about $294 a year. So going from a 5% increase on this school budget to a 10% increase on this school budget is real dollars for for you know every household in Middletown which we're sensitive to. But going back to Dan's point, if we had just raised taxes 3% incrementally going back even 5 years, we wouldn't be in this situation. So with the maximum budget increase that is available to you today,
010I'm optimistic that you know state funding can start to match with adequacy and you might be on a path towards normaly without holding schools you know enclosures hostage here. So you know my my my plea is to just you know let's not stop making let's stop making the same mistakes. We have an opportunity here to get things on track for real. Um, and I hope that the board can do that. All right. Thank you. Hi, Julie Armstrong at 206 Walnut Street. Um, so we are in a position where our district is bleeding out. No matter what got us here, the decisions, the missteps, we are now at the point where we need to stop the bleeding. And we've been handed a tourniquet in the form of of a proposed tax levy. And right now, it
011appears to be the only concrete solution on the table to keep our school district alive. And we need to be clear that this levy is not a cure. It's not healing the wound. It's just stopping us from immediately losing more. More staff, more programs, more students, and more trust. But once you apply a tourniquet, you don't walk away and say, "Job done." You act fast, carefully, and strategically to address what caused the injury in the first place. And that's where we need to go next. So, let's ask the real questions. What happens after the levy? What is our plan to make this district financially sustainable long term? Are there additional cuts planned? If so, to what? To programs, to people, to schools. And most importantly, how will we protect what matters most, the quality of
012education and the strength of our community? The answer has to be strategy, not just emergency measures. We need a forward-looking plan, one that builds a stronger foundation. And this means full transparency, means real, meaningful community involvement. And by that I mean true representation. Parents, educators from every school in the district. Senior citizens who've shown up and spoken out. New families who are just joining our community in addition to legacy families who built their lives here. We need the taxpayers representing what they want, which is both excellent schools and responsible spending. And we want seats at the table, not just for final decisions, but for the process, the data analysis, the RFPs, the walkthroughs, the top tradeoffs. We are engaged, informed, and passionate community. Let's use that. Invite us in. Let's build a real plan, one
013rooted in smart budgeting, efficient operations, and a shared commitment to our kids and their future. The levy buys us time, but what we do with that time is up to us. Let's make sure we use it wisely. Joanne Altis, Thousand Oaks Drive, Atlantic Highlands. Hello, my name is Joan Altis. I'm the mother of a third grader at Neasync Elementary and the treasurer for fundraising for Save Our Schools. When my ex-husband and I were trying to decide where to raise our daughter, we agreed on Mammoth County. We both grew up here, but in different towns, he constantly praised his education from Beij and convinced me middle town schools were the way to go. And I did not agree easily or quietly. Do you know how annoying it is to tell your ex-husband who's right? I And
014that is exactly what happened after only a few months at NBC. This school quickly became our village, our community, and it truly feels like home. So, we want to do everything we can to keep our community alive. As I said earlier, I'm treasurer of Save Our Schools, but I've also been an operations professional for over 10 years, managing budgets of over $und00 million. That being said, budget transparency is not hard. The lack of transparency and the level of difficulty to get answers from this board is concerning. Please work with us and be transparent about how much money is used. work with us and be transparent about how much money is needed under each proposed plan and where we can help fill the gaps. You have a motivated, passionate, and hardworking community ready to do the
015work to keep our schools open. In only a few weeks, Save Our Schools mobilized and put together multiple events, showed up to every forum, held a rally, basically made a clothing line, and raised all of the funds and more to bring visibility to both what has been happening to Middletown. Don't even get me started on how much our individual PTAs fund raise every year. Imagine what we could do together as a community with a long-term thoughtout fundraising plan to help bridge the gap to what the district receives in funding and what is actually needed. We've already had conversations with Rumson and Fair Haven about their gap funds and can get this up and running quickly and work with you to raise money to provide for our schools. There are also opportunities for grants that can
016take on some of the costs for maintaining and improving our buildings. Let's start a grant committee focused on finding money for our schools. For example, Navasync is eligible for a grant from the New Jersey Historic Preservation Trust for capital improvements such as roof repair, ADA accessibility, HVAC, electrical upgrades, and more. I urge you to use the resources, the people in this room, so we aren't standing in these same positions this time next year. Thank you. Good evening, Josh Grley, 305 Park Avenue dancing. As discussed, this budget shortfall has been known and projected for the last 5 years. We have not kept up with inflation during our budgeting process. Cutting programs, downsizing staff, closing our beloved schools cannot be and should not be the only solution to this shortfall. Why is no one on this board
017or administration move for a referendum to raise a portion of our property taxes that go to schools to be more in line with similarly situated towns in Mama County? Putting forth a referendum to properly allocate funds across all of Middletown will help to create a sustainable future for a better Middletown where our kids are supported, educated, and kept safe. A referendum will allow the good nature conversations to continue and will work in tandem with a factual and datadriven strategic planning. The referendum will provide a runway to create sustainable success and can be a plan that all of Middletown can get behind and be brought into the long long-term strategic planning procedure. Thank you very [Applause] much to Middletown Avenue. So I had what uh is fair to call screed prepared for this meeting. Uh it
018talked about things like arrogance, deception, contempt for transparency and proper communication about the costly and embarrassing politicization of our school board by people who clearly don't have eyes for office. and of course and of course about the years of financial negligence. But since I wrote that screed, uh the incredible ground swell of community activism and engagement and frankly a whole lot of damning press coverage has had an effect. We now have some reason to believe that this board, you will change course and will not close our top rated schools at the end of this year, will not overcrowd our middle schools next year, will not rip the hearts from our local communities, and will not decimate the ranks of our teachers. But the current proposal of a 5.88% school levy increase, which is about a
0193.6% 6% overall tax hike in the town. A property sale and a non-eing staff cut is not enough, as others have pointed out, to address the root cause that brought us to this place. The simple fact is that Middletown hasn't been putting enough money towards these schools. This is well known. For many years, we've been raising our school levies slower than the rate of inflation. And in some years, not even at the automatically approved 2%. This has made for good headlines and easy votes for you all and for us not having to vote. But it also means that we've been slowly but surely starving our school district. Tens of millions of dollars in potential school funding has been left on the table, has been lost as a result. Our reserves have been drained. Our buffers
020are gone. Part of the problem, too, is that the tax split, as Josh pointed out, between our town and our schools is we're decidedly below average as compared to our economic peers in the county and how much of our overall taxes we put towards our school system. And I concur. I think uh a referendum on that is absolutely in order. So even if the board shortly approves a proposed 5.88% levy increase, our school will still be 7 12% lower than if it had simply kept pace with inflation since the 2019 2020 year. So that is $13 million lower in real spending power than we gave our schools in 2019, 2020. and we will face a dire situation next year once again. Now, in just 3 weeks, many of my fellow towns folk have already come
021up with novel and creative ways to reduce expenses and increase revenue. And I have no doubt that we will discover even more across this coming year. But this may not be enough to set our school system back on the path of financial stability and sustainability. The prudent move would instead be to take advantage of the singular opportunity that we have this year according to the recently discovered uh state opportunities that superintendent alone uh communicated to us and raise 11 10.1% or about 6% overall tax increase. Even this hike would not put our school budget back to the level it was in the 2019 2020 year in terms of real dollars. But it would be far better than this half measure that you were considering today. Ultimately, it comes down to a question of what sort
022of town we want to live in. a a town with mediocre and slowly diminishing schools or town with schools of the caliber and excellence that we can most certainly afford and which our children deserve. On a separate note, I'd like to I'd like the uh board to address the issue of why the township is at least according to the data that I saw reported in the newspapers. Why the township is preparing to pay just 1/3 per acre to our school district and it agreed to pay for the matter day property. Did we get impartial appraisals in these properties? Did we get second opinions? I know they're not exactly equal, but that gap is profound. And I would love some answers on that in terms of transparency. Would anybody else wish to take a hold of
023it? Uh, my name's Eric Dowel, two Maxon Avenue. The post office says I live in Romson, but I don't. I live in. Um, I'd just like to reiterate uh Christ Rooney's comments uh in the beginning. A thank you. Um, this was a we saw a community speak and we saw our elected representatives listen. That doesn't always happen. That's very meaningful. We we've come a long way in a few weeks. Um, I'm I'm not an elder person, but clearly some of my colleagues are and I listen to them. Best we can tell, we we do not have a spending problem in this district. We can nibble around the edges. We can quibble with things like like scoreboards. Uh, but fundamentally, we have a revenue problem, and it's one that's built up over time. The tax revenue
024increase averaged something like 1.89% from 2011 through 2023, and in 2024, it wasn't much higher. And as I understand it, teachers in this district are contractually entitled to a 3% annual raise. So again, we don't have a spending problem. We have a revenue problem. We also have an opportunity. Um this state benefit, if we want to call it that, it doesn't sound like it's guaranteed to be available next year. Um, so you have an opportunity to remedy with the benefit of hindsight what we see was historic under taxation. Um, and and catch up and more importantly gain some flexibility in the years to come so we're not all back here next year with a new hole. Uh, the opportunity to get a runway as a district. uh the opportunity to have meaningful conversations to get,
025you know, community steering committees up and running in consultation with the board and the administration, the opportunity to think meaningfully about referendums to to really finance um what what needs to happen with respect to our secondary schools, the opportunity for these community fundraising efforts to get really ramped up. Um and you you've heard we've already gotten a fresh start. Um, so it's it's rare that you're going to have a bunch of homeowners say, "Please tax us more." Uh, but what we're saying is, "Please take advantage of this opportunity that presents itself this year to put this this budget pole, not only not only close it, but but at us and give us that multi-year run. It's something that I think the community and I suspect many folks up on the stage would really appreciate. Thank
026you. Hi, I'm Erin Tuarez. I live at 170 Grand. I'm a lady with a baby, but the baby's sleeping. Um, I wanted to just really quickly say, um, obviously I'm a mom. I'm a teacher. My daughter's in kindergarten. And I really got to know Davis Bank in the community because I was on maternity leave for the first half of the year. And one of the things I got to do was to go into the school for one of uh the activities. And I heard two teachers that didn't know me. They were in the hallway talking. And there were two things that they said. One about a fifth grader and they had an idea for the whole fifth grade and talked about an exciting thing that they could do with them um to talk about the
027things they missed in kindergarten during co. The second thing they did was talk about uh PD, something that they had learned in a class the night before and they were going to go to a meeting and I'm so ready to present this to my colleagues and I was like, "Oh my god, these people love their job." And it was so refreshing. And I went home and I talked to my husband and I said, "Um, we're really lucky that we're here." I said, "These people love their job." We're talking about money. We're talking about salaries. We're talking about benefits. And yes, our salaries are contracted. And yes, they're open to certain amount. Um benefits are going up, but we have no control of that. They're going to go up more because of CO, because of inflation,
028because of everything else going on in this state and in this country. But we need to really tap into our staff. They know our buildings. They know our kids. They know our community. And we rely on them. And we support you. and we hope that you do what you can and that you support them in supporting us. Thank you. Would anyone else wish to make a public comment? Seeing no one else coming forward, I wish to close a public comment. Sure. [Music] [Applause] spur of the moment. Demography of Leonardo. Um I guess I think I think we've all pretty much had a crash course in this. But to the extent that we haven't, maybe we should just do like a little wonkish how school budgeting actually operates. Your budget has to come up with something
029known as an adequate budget. The way you do that is you calculate a baseline figure basically what it's going to cost for each student to be educated. You weight that by middle school or high school etc. Right? You add it all up. That's the cost of actually educating the district. You call that an adequate budget. Am I correct? Okay. Now, what then gets split up is the local fair share, which is what the town can provide. If I'm not mistaken, the median income, the median, middle number of Middletown is $141,000 a year. Hooray. We're a rich town. Our property values on average, I believe, are $765,000. [Music] Good. Okay. Now, when it comes to our local fair share, what I seem to understand over looking through reams of spreadsheets and data and find out is
030that we don't actually provide our local fair share that is in line with what we can provide. The two things that go into determining the two things that go into determining your local fair share contribution is your income level and your home values. That gets divided by two. The local fair share comes out. Okay. The rest of that is then filled by the state with equalization aid. Basically, this year we got called out by the state for saying you're a rich community with high property values and historically you haven't actually funded your school system at a basic adequate level. The whole thing with New York getting aid. Come on, that's race baiting. Let's grow up. Okay. Move to Newark. Okay. So, which obviously has much higher levels of uh much higher rates of poverty. So,
031we don't want. Okay. So, where does that leave us? Well, sure, we could worry about a one-time increase and fill a gap or something like that, but at the end of the day, I have bad news for you. You have been defunding effectively your school system for a very long time. It is up to us collectively as a community to get ourselves out of it by funding our local fair share. And I'm sorry, this is a Tina eventually. There is no alternative to that. It will have to happen. Okay, we can afford it. We should in line with that seem to be having this debate of 5.88% versus 10.1% versus Okay, if it's my understanding the board of education's job is to provide an excellent education administratively and financially for the students of this district.
032I can't imagine if somebody said to me, "Hey, Beon, you have the opportunity to get a 3% increase or a 10% increase or a five and then you sign off and say, "Yep, I'll go with the low the lower one, right? I mean, that's effectively what you would be doing by not asking for not asking by not voting for the max. It would make no financial sense whatsoever." And as I broke down at the last meeting, it's effectively the cost of two appetizers at the Outback per month to the Outback. So, I guess in closing, I don't particularly know what's on the agenda for tonight necessarily, but the fact that we are actually talking about maybe not going for the max and adequately funding the local fair share, which we will have to do at
033some point no matter what, is economically ludicrous. podium is over here. Thank you for your time. [Applause] Hi everybody, Melissa Mir 168. I wanted to thank you all. I did not speak at any of the other meetings because we have so many really really dedicated people who are digging in and looking at everything that's going on and making alternative suggestions. And I have I wanted to thank you because I feel like I've been asleep for a little while since I moved to Middletown. I spent a lot of time in another district um actually meeting some of you there and having a lot of passionate discussions and a lot of um you know difficult discussions. And when I moved to Middletown, I felt like, you know, I can relax. Everybody is in good hands. This is
034a great community. You know, we can kind of just sort of pull pull back and enjoy life. And I feel like a little bit of mistake because clearly while we're, you know, enjoying our homes and our schools and our communities, there are things that are happening, you know, that we're not really aware of or that we're not being um made aware of. So, I wanted to be really clear that throughout all of this discussion today in terms of your ability to raise taxes and our willingness to engage in that conversation. At the same time, I feel like I at least personally will be watching really closely every single We're not going to be asleep. We're going to be in every meeting and we're going to be digging into the activities, the contracts, the deals, and
035whatever else is going on. Because if we're going to say yes, tax uses more, I want to know exactly where that money is [Music] going. Remember, the time is going to be for you to acknowledge what you guys have been doing. So, this isn't just because today, you know, there's going to be a positive vote and we're all just going to go home on our way. I think this is going to be a very long relationship. Thank you. Hi, you're safety ash drive. Um I'm not one to like to get tax more. Um but I would like to propose that um as we go through this process, we look at amending policy. Um I believe it's 5117. um assignment of students and attendance areas. Um I think that needs to be an operational um decision
036of the administration. The board can certainly um put parameters around it. For example, the board can approve if there be if it ends up requiring a school to be closed. But I think we are getting hampered by not being able to do little things like put some relief or give new moms relief because of the weird zoning that we gave port. Um, and I think that the administration needs to be able to manage that. Also, having gone through this in 2014, 2019, and now here we go again. Um what tends to happen is um school um class sizes seem to increase in certain schools that have more classes. So the smaller schools like Navasync, which is beautiful, I I would love for my kids to have gone to a school like Navync. Um when you
037only have two classes, it's very hard to combine and and and to cut things. So, I really think that we need to look at this policy and we need to make sure that um that the administration can work effectively with it so that we can make sure that the class sizes are fair across the district as we move forward. Thank you. or Acts 16. I wasn't planning on speaking tonight. Um but I just kind of want to echo what um Yura had just said. Um I feel like this is becoming a very north versus south um debate. And as a parent of children who go to Nutswamp and Thompson, um I don't feel like there is equitable education being given to the students. Um my son is at Thompson with over 900 kids. He has
038classes with 27 and 30. He's got 30 in his social studies class and 27 in his social studies class. He's now living in a class of less than 23 people since kindergarten. Um, my daughter is now a nut swamp. She has usually about 22 in her class. And while I appreciate, you know, what everyone's here, I think I think really what the big issue was this the surprise of this um the lack of planning and transparency of this. I think this is a bigger issue and you know I hear how much these people love their schools, how much they love Madison, how much they love Behore. We don't have that sense of community on the other side of town where everyone thinks, you know, we get so much more. And I'm really getting frustrated hearing
039that. I'm going to see my taxes raise by 10%. What are my kids getting? More kids. That's what they're getting. So my taxes are going up 10%. My kids are going to have more kids. They don'tact. [Music] I understand that. But my kids have 960 kids in their school and they have classes with 30 and 27. What I'm saying is that we need to come up with an idea that works for all in [Applause] Middletown. I should say I should have sent my sister to the Beayshore. There was a girl who talked about how she was did the transfer program to engage her in Thompson and how overwhelmed and like scared she was to be in Thompson. That's where my kids are every day. So I just think it's really important that we come up
040with a solution that is equitable for all of middle not happening right now. The class sizes in Thompson aren't going to go down. Whether or not whatever decision gets made tonight, class sizes in Thompson, they're not changing it. my kids are going to have 30 kids in their classes regardless. So, I just really hope that we need to come together as a community, right? And there needs to be equitable education for all of our students. Thompson has been an issue for years. Why does Thompson have 960 kids and there's less than 600 at Beayshore and Thor? Like, how is that equitable? It's all Why does my kid have to There's not enough room in the cafeteria. The kids are bumping into each other in in the hallways. Like, I feel for everybody. This stinks. Like,
041nobody wants to be in this situation. But I really think you need to think about all of Middletown and not just a small part of it. We're all taxpayers. And if we're going to increase our taxes 10%. I want to know like how is that benefiting my kids and 75% 80% of middle 10 I feel everyone here but we have to think about everyone we have to think about everyone and I think that I understand that we're saying like the 5.8% is a band-aid and maybe and I agree that it is but I think that we've been banding let's take that I think it's and then we will come together come up with a strategic plan which we should have done 10 years ago I remember sitting when we dropped the ball we're going to
042redistrict and let's come up with a plan that works for every one of the 8500 students in this town. I want the best for everyone in this town. But the reason you don't have more people from Thompson and all the other schools is because of the backlash and it's not fair. So let's come up with a solution that works for everyone. We can come up with a strategic plan. There's going to be changes. I hate change. I hate change more than anyone. But you know what? It has to happen. And it had it should have happened 12 years ago. I remember sitting in this auditorium probably at least 10 years ago and they were talking about redistricting and everyone freaked out and we pushed the can down the road. Now we're in between a rock
043and a fireplace. But honestly, I really I I really struggle with the 10%. I really do because I don't see how my kids and how 80% of this town is going to benefit from it. I really I just I think we need to fix this year family this year. And I think we can come up with a strategic plan. There's going to be major changes. If you It's not realistic, guys. They're they're going to keep 11 elementary schools open long term. I'm telling you, it's not it's not going to happen. So Mike, once you increase taxes, you're never going to come down. And I'm speaking for the seniors in this in this town that don't have the disposable income. I know some people talk about advertisers at Hoolands, but you know what? Our taxes are
044going up. Electricity in this state is going up. And I think we need to be mindful like we need we as a board need to be mindful of everyone in the town. If there's a way to fix this year and then come up with a plan for next year, it it's without a doubt something's going to change. It should have changed 10 years ago drastically. We're too big of a school to be operating without synergies and shared services. It doesn't make sense. It just doesn't. So, I know that's not the popular opinion, but it's how I feel and my kids are being affected in a negative way. [Applause] Hi, I'm Catherine 144 Chestnut Sing. Um, I want to respond since you all really are not responding to anything that's been said tonight. Um, I want
045to respond to the woman that just spoke and say that number one, we hear you. We wish that this movement had more representation from other parts of Middletown. We want something that works for all of Middletown as well. I think the Yes, there was a problem with the lack of transparency and yes, a lot of people feel emotionally connected to their schools. My kids are little. They're not in the school yet, so I can't speak. I've heard wonderful stories about MedSwap, about Naplesync, about Thompson. I hear you on the overcrowding. But when I started to hear that we were going to close these schools and take what you just aptly described as a very overcrowded middle school and shove even more kids in it, that [Music] high Totally agree. Yes, I think it's but I
046also hear what some of the folks involved are saying. I can work in human resources. I am not an economist, but fortunately we have some of them here. If we have been effectively defunding our school system for years and years and years, it's coming for you too. It's not something that 10% increase to keep one tiny schools open, right? There's an increase to get our school back on budget and on track with inflation. Step two of that is absolutely a strategic plan that needs to have the involvement of the entire community because I think it's clear um and I think you know to tie things together with what was said earlier we're going to be watching. I don't understand I think like logically it's hard for me to wrap my head around how some of
047these decisions or lack thereof have been made. So either there's somebody getting an incentive somewhere that we don't know about and we're going to have eye or facing a political career if you don't want to be the person that says you leave taxes. Look at our peers, look at the rest of Mammoth County and get our school system back where it needs to be. Nobody is saying raise it 10% just keep Nasync open. But if raising it 10% is going to get us on the and Leonardo. I'm sorry. everybody here. Um, if it's going to get us back on track with where we should be based on the rest of the county, based on the rest of the state, based on the rest of the country, you can't go on forever just being the guys
048that don't raise taxes. It's going to catch up with you eventually. And unfortunately, we're here on the precipice of a recession trying to figure it out. So, I don't know what the solution is, but it needs to be a strategic plan. It needs to involve everybody, including the senior citizens that don't have it in your school system. But you make no attempt thus far to have that conversation authentically and thoroughly. And that's what we'd like to see as a next step. Thank you. Hi everyone, Park Avenue. Um just a quick clarification about issue. Main issue is capacity. As we prove the capacity numbers are actually very different from what was presented. We cannot and I completely agree. We have to actually increase our actually building capacity. So strategic planning is the main goal for the
049future. If Thompson is overcrowded, maybe that's where we need to build an addition. Um without why currently someone said, "Okay, Thompson has 900 something students versus Basher on Thor left." The main reason is actually special education kids we numbers that's why they differ Thompson has zero self-contained special education kids. We can't compare apples to oranges. When we comparing numbers, we need to look at overall. Everyone needs to be involved. Redos kids, I don't care if they go to Thompson to Bashure. There are special education kids at Bashure and Torm. We need to include everyone in making strategic planning. So if Thompson is overcrowded in three years, our bonds are off. Let's actually plan ahead and actually maybe do an addition because the numbers that you provided that you're willing to spend 750 million that's just
050bob numbers then if we build a new municipal building brand new scratch huge half empty for 60 million how are you planning to build 10 new schools I mean I'm not quite sure how you get around to 750 million for renovations you can build you can scratch everything and build Everything brand new top t top whatever you I don't know what you imagine you have in there but you can do whatever you want. So the first issue is capacity. We proved the numbers are not reflecting reality. We cannot afford to close schools. Second inflation is running high and now I don't know if you're aware but we put the 10 1 104% target from China the inflation probably is going to be higher so you need to be proactive instead of reactive um thirdly we
051did come up with alternative plan you can sell land make sure you get fair price for it you can actually we have very dedicated motivated outstanding teachers supposedly we have the best teachers in New Jersey why don't we use them to actually bring in-house training for other other teachers. I know amazing teachers that will be great mentors to young teachers and bring that whatever training the teachers get in house and save money that way. [Applause] I think municipality can actually take the full cost of policeman instead of sharing half I wasn't planning to talk today. So, I'm on a sixth now. Actually, actually one more thing. Actually, I remember what I wanted to say. Um so to operate NASA thing it cost around 170k per year similar to Leonardo. Uh and I'm assuming average salaries
052on admin is around 150k per year. So I'm I'm not quite sure what why do we need 26 admin where are the cutting admin because that I would like to actually have a in in a normal job you do have performance reviews I'm assuming that's being done at admin. Yes. Okay. Great. So when you sit down and review your head count I'm assuming we're going to get some count. Yes or no? Maybe are you going to are you planning to have to cut head content admin administration from the top? So how many are you assuming to that? We don't know that. We don't know. Okay. I would suggest So Middletown used to have admin to student ratio around above 2002 10 years ago five to 10 years ago. Now we now we are at 182.
053So I would suggest so that implies we have more admin versus students. I would suggest bring that ratio back up. So we have less argument for the number of students we have. Lastly about our demographics and stuff. So I moved to 308 Park Avenue 12 years ago. We were out of the 14 households on that street, we were the only family with little kids. Now the same street has over 50% of households with kids actually that I are already in in elementary school or middle school or the little ones that are even entered the school district here. So I don't buy this whole oh we our enrolling is going going to go down. Actually I think it's going to have to be opposite. our enrollment is going up because of the babies that actually were
054born after poverty which we do. So I would just suggest look at your spending, make smart decisions that actually and plan ahead because many schools may be overtraveled for different reasons and we need to also take care of our special education kids. do your job well and if you need help, we are happy to help. [Applause] Hi, my name is Ashley. I am from One Forest Rise. I am a new mom and mom. I have three kids currently in the school district. one who is in daycare. So, we're going to have another one going into the school district shortly. Um, my oldest is in fifth grade. He actually spoke to you guys at the first public forum, which I was very, very proud of him to stand up and start fighting. Um, but I want
055I I want I kind of want to talk about my middle son. My middle son, his name is Nathan. He goes to radio. He has ADHD. He has a developmental delay. And he is in a secluded class. He needs to be in a small class size, no bigger right now than 10 kids. Um, so when we moved here back in 2021, he we we didn't know that you guys separate families when it comes to their needs. So imagine my surprise. Two days before school starts, I get a letter from uh my oldest's ch school teacher at New Mama. Then I get one from a teacher in Bay View. Me thinking it's a mixup. I try calling a school. No comments whatsoever. It goes to voicemail and I try emailing. Emails always bounce back because you
056can't get a person. So you are leaving these pleading voicemails 2 days before school. We have fallen in love with the baby community. Go to Bayore and he talks about them every day. If you walk the schools, you have seen my son because he is probably the one kid in Bayu that all these kids know. which is hilarious because he is his in his own little world and that kid can make anyone in this room smile. When I told him what was happening, his first thought was what's happening to my friends. Not what's happening to him, not what's happening to his teacher, but what's happening to his friends. And it broke him. He started crying and I go, "Nothing's in stone yet. We have to fight." and he is so scared for his friends. They
057don't He doesn't know what's going to happen to them next year. He doesn't know if he's ever going to see them again because of where the where the middle schools are going to go. For these kids who are in special needs, there needs to be a better guide for them. These kids who are in Bayshore need to know last year what was going to happen. Not today. They're very oriented in the fact that they have routines. You're going to disrupt their routines. Again, these fifth graders with special needs have already had their world shaken. The fourth graders have already had their world shaken when they had to start school virtually. Now, I don't know how many other special ed parents are out there, but virtual with special ed with special need kids were the liquor
058store knew me by name. Okay? Because you were you couldn't work. I don't know any parent who had a special needs parent where both parents were working at the end of CO because you couldn't. I'm begging you, please do not make these kids class size any bigger. They can't handle it yet. Eventually, I'm hoping they can. I'm hoping they build the skills through their teachers. But I also wanted to say one more thing that um kind of mind boggled me. When I was at back to school night, I went to go meet his therapy teachers. My son Nathan, he has speech therapy, physical therapy, and occupational therapy. To my surprise, I couldn't find one of his therapists at back to school night to find out that they're all contracted. So, what is the cost between
059the contracting programs versus actually hiring to have someone in house? That much of a money savings. If anything, I would think it's more expensive. And then because you're having kids who cannot go to their zoned schools, they qualify for busing. that costs money. I know that there's kids that are closer to Harmony being bust across 35 ply to go to village. That makes no sense to me whatsoever. If it's a numbers thing, then you know, maybe trying to take the schools and drawing a 2-m radius around each elementary school might help you figure out where you can get numbers at home and save money. Just food for thought. But in the end, please for these kids who need the therapies and everything like that and need those small classrooms, don't don't don't mess with them.
060They are already they're already freaking out as it is. And you know, they get very loud too when they're upset. So, Would anyone else wish to make public comment? Hi. Uh John Converse. I'm in 12th Maxon. Um, my neighbor mentioned earlier that uh, Napsink Elementary is eligible for grants from the Historic Preservation Trust. Um, I just want to point out that the deadline for that is April 24th. So, [Applause] Anyone else wish to make a public comment? [Applause] Scott McN Leonardo. I wasn't planning on speaking to but the parents who had spoken so eloquently about the issues that you're faced with got me to come up here and speak to you know part of my job a big part of my job is risk management and I understand that you as a board have to
061take that in consideration as well regarding the issues that you're faced with. So we understand that and we acknowledge them. One of the big things that in family law that they talk about is the best interest of the child. Now I don't practice in family law. I'm glad that I don't. But when you as a board when when you're you're talking about this uh propo this what you know the issue that's on the agenda tonight. We want you to take into account the best interest of our children throughout all of Middletown. And to the parent that got up here from Swamp and Thompson, we hear you. We really do. And we want to engage with you. And we want parents from all across Middletown here with us. We also want to hear from the board.
062We want to know what you're thinking. So, we ask that tonight before you vote on the issues on the agenda, we want to know from our board members that were elected by this town, what are your thoughts regarding these issues? Because we haven't heard any of them. See, no one else coming forward to make public comment. I wish to close the public comment and move on with our agenda. Dr. Yes. Um, I just want to thank everybody for coming out. Um, over the last several weeks, I agree with many of the speakers who have talked about the fact that we've come a long way. Um, I think the conversations have been extremely productive. Um, I'm just going to take the elephant out of the room right now. There is no plan for school closure for
063next year. Hi, I'm glad that you're all [Applause] clapping. So, you know, we've heard you loud and clear. I think we're all recognizing of the fact that we all in this room are passionate and want what's best for our kids collectively from every corner of the district and I think we have a captive audience. I think that's important. You know, Mrs. Rooney, I think last meeting talked about silver linings. I'm a silver lining kind of girl myself and I think this is an opportunity. I think it's an opportunity that doesn't come often um in general just in organizations that are this big. It's a challenge to engage people and have them see something this big through. Um you know, I came back to Middletown 3 years ago because I believed in Middletown. Um it was
064by choice because I believe there's something unique and special here and I really mean that. So, um I think it's a rare opportunity that we have here to continue to maintain what we what we have always known to be here. And I think that's really important. Um two things I just want to let you know have already happened is we have partnered with um a consultant that will help lead us through strategic planning. Um that will be a four to five month process where we will have full community engagement. anybody can fluidly come in and out of those meetings, forums. Um, you know, they're not going to bind anybody because they know everybody's busy, but um, they will lead that charge and a lot of the work we've already started. Um, I know we've have
065a survey going out, which we're appreciative that the parents had a hand in developing and we've gotten the highest response rate we've ever had for a survey and we will we were able to get that out to our community at large through partnership with the township. That's number one. The second piece of this which is an arm of strategic planning is getting good data. So we partnered with a consultant who will do a large scale efficiency study of the district. Um not only looking at infrastructure but looking at um lines. We talked a lot about the sending zones and who goes where and you know we're not immune uh you know oblivious to the fact that there are some some odd send and receives across the district that certainly create inequities as some parents spoke
066about um in not only numericics of class sizes but also demographics. I mean you name it it exists. So, I I truly believe this is our one unique opportunity to get this right once and for all. Um, and and I'm happy to be a part of it. I'm happy that all of you want to be a part of it. So, you know, I think we're committed to seeing this through on the whole. Um, we do want to develop a steering committee kind of to anchor the ship, so to speak, with representatives from each school. Um, but then everybody becomes what part of the larger strategic planning process. So, I know I've sat with many of you and listen, we want you in the room with us talking about these things and analyzing the data and
067really looking at what's good for everybody. So, um you know, I wanted to put that out there tonight. I want to give you more than hope. I want to give you something tangible and know that, you know, you have a partner in us in in moving the needle on this because this is our opportunity. We've seen it fail multiple times before. So, we need to get it right because of our kids. So, thank you. I just going to start with I will make a motion to approve number six, recommendation of the superintendent of schools. Whereas, this will increase the taxes by 1% over our tentative 4.88% expenditures of $1.685 685 million and a one-time incentive aid in the amount of $80,238. Point of clarification, please. So, what I'm not seeing here is well, first of
068all, let me back up because I was not part of this meeting with the township that made this deal and I don't think several other board members were either. She had service. I'm sorry. I'm speaking now. And we were also not sure Like I said, I'm getting to that. Okay. I would also like to make it known that we were not given an opportunity as a board to discuss this before tonight. Emergency meetings could have been called, which I made clear both to this board and also the mayor and that was not taken up. The mayor could have come tonight. We could have actually had a session tonight and that wasn't taken up. So now we're going to have this in public. What I want to know is several things. First of all, on March
06918th, we had to come up with a temporary budget number to be sent to the county superintendent. We had not yet received an answer is my understanding when this deal was made last week. Have we received an answer from the county superintendent? The county superintendent has told us that they will not approve our budget without committing to um providing 2% of fund balance um for our next year's budget. And we do have to commit to that in a letter to the Department of Education. And what amount is that? Uh approximately $760,000 to be added on top of what we're already facing. Correct. Correct. Okay. So, and also part of this deal is what the mayor announced in a press conference to be 40 positions of teachers, if I'm understanding this correctly, teachers not in a
070classroom, administrative positions and duplicate positions now, because I actually have a full-time job and can't just drop my work schedule and my responsibilities to my job when I am summoned in a cryptic message to go to city hall on Thursday morning. Not be told why a meaningful chance to discuss whatever deal was made without our knowledge that then and there we find out that there's 40 administrative positions and duplicate positions which to my knowledge don't exist. So I would like to know before any vote is taken what those positions are. It is my that part of those positions are actually staff qualified staff that reach our students who are struggling every single day. It's also other staff that make this district run. I have a problem with that. I had a problem since day one.
071I have a problem with the fact that we are now being forced into a position to now accept 5.88 which I am going to say and I don't know what any other board member feels about this but is going to lead us right to the same position we are today one year from now. It's very process that should have finished five years ago. Like I said, March [Applause] 18 as a district because we have done our district a disservice. We have done our kids a disservice because it wasn't sexy enough to get on Fox [Applause] News. And I understand that the mayor, as he tried to tell us, is trying to help. He could have helped on March 18th. He could have helped on March 19th. He could have come and he could have talked
072to us as elected officials to elected officials to figure this out. But instead, we get back into a corner where we bought and know that this is not a good deal. We look like the bad guys when all we are trying to do is save this district. And all I'm trying to do is save the town that I love. [Applause] How do you feel? [Music] [Applause] I'd like to move to amend levy to go up to 10.1. There's already a motion on the floor. Joe, but what did you want to do? I'm sorry. It's been moved, but no one's been second. Seconded, so it needs to be seconded. And then you wait I have discussion. We do discussion. Okay, Joe, you want to make a motion also? I do. Yes. Which is I'd like to
073move to amend the proposed levy to go up to 10.1%. We have two motions a discussion now. Joe, um second I want to discuss the motion that's on the agenda. I was I was all for it. Um, I thought you would help us, but being that we have not gotten our tenative budget approved and we need more funds, I don't see where that's feasible right now. I think we have to explore other options. Um, but I do have to say I I was really disappointed tonight that we did not have a close session because we have not discussed as a board any of this budget stuff. And in my 23 years, I've never seen anything like that. I've never been a part. So, that kind of granted, I'm telling you, I truly truly feel I
074was all for the 5.88. Then we get told last night or the night before that the state is saying we need more money. 5.88 isn't going to help us. So, I I can't go through with a yes vote on that. And I do think that um So you want to raise taxes and more you saying I think that is what I think wait this is what I think I think we have to have a resolution into the state by the 14th on whether or not we could take advantage of this one time deal. So I would like to say we propose the 10.1 so that we have an opportunity to take advantage of any kind of an increase other than what we have and that this board seriously start meeting together as a board and
075come up with a budget but I have never seen us budget. So you I think we give her the resolution. She doesn't have to go to 10.1%. She has the opportunity to work out a budget that's going to help us with the numbers that the state is telling us we now have to add in. And anything else that could help us get up to adequacy. Now let me ask everybody a question. Where's the cost savings going to be? Whether you raise it 5.88, 6.88, 88 or 10.1, where's the cost savings year over year going to come in? Well, that's what I'm telling everybody is just by raising taxes is always going to be a band-aid. Taxation. Taxation, I'm speaking right now. One second. Taxation is great as a word, but taxation on the whole entire
076district is not the proper thing to do in [Applause] exact we can't this meeting cannot be productive if everyone's yelling out from the audience. like like I'm asking administration as well. What is our way to get down our cost? Because as everybody spoke eloquently, which we listen to, yes, I understand what everyone's saying. If you don't cut down your cost, you're always going to have that cost there. So, if it's 10.1%, that's about $16.5 million. That only fills last year's gap. So now next year you're going to be in this problem again with either one of these problems. [Applause] If we had actually taxed in the way that we should have went up to the cap of 2% every year, we would not have less accumulated bank of approximately 60 to80 million. You have a
077little base going forward to be able to then have cost. Then you have a strategic planning process that looks and answers the question you're saying. What efficiencies, what redundancies do we have? You don't do that by closing three schools in two months. Hey De, I just had a question. I believe it was last meeting you said, "Stop kicking the can down the road. This is necessary to close these schools." I never said it was necessary to close the schools. That was not my quote. what I said was leading the town to the fact that five years ago is when we dropped the blah and not actually finished the strategic planning process then because what it had given us would have been time in maybe 3 years if we had to have gotten to this painful
078point we would have had three years to plan. So you weren't for closing the schools. I was for a temporary budget number. No, I as you were for closing the schools when when Dr. [Applause] presented budget number to get us to where we are now to be able to do this. So, we have a motion on the floor to approve 5.88% total with the 100 I'm sorry, the 1,685,000 and the $80,000 incentive 8. And there was a motion to amend. And there was a motion to amend it which was seconded also up to 10.1 if needed. Okay. So that that's a secondary motion. So we're going to vote for a 10.1% increase right now temporarily. If needed if needed, just to clarify, I want to clarify what the 10.1 means. The 10.1 means that that's
079the max we can take advantage of. We do not have to eventually in the end use all 10.1. But if we don't approve the 10.1, we can't utilize it. So that's all we're voting on right now. So you want to vote for a 10.1% increase possibly? [Applause] Excuse me. Excuse me. Everybody wants to hear us talk. We want to talk right now. Okay. So the 5.88% 5 guys we can't hear up here. [Music] [Applause] [Music] If everybody can be respectful cuz we used to listen to everything everyone had to say in every form and we actually came back to the table to find a [Applause] resolution. Can I speak? Okay. silver nicely. Excuse me. Sure. You can speak more. I had I had no knowledge of this budget until Amy and Jess spent several hours
080sitting down with me and several other groups of board members to try to come up with some solutions that were not knee-jerk reactions. And when I found out that that a lot of this budget was done uh I guess in secrecy because I found out from members of the finance committee that it wasn't even discussed in finance. I'm just learning this whole process and I'm hoping going forward that we are all included in this because I think when you get nine heads together that also listen to the community and are in the community and hear what they want, we have a better chance of getting this done in a in a more thoughtful process so that it doesn't come to this again. And I'm not for a 10.1% increase. I own a business in town,
081so I pay commercial property tax and residential property tax. But I also saw the numbers and how this school district has been decimated over the last five years for somebody's piggy bank. I don't know whose if it's the township's piggy bank or whatever, but we need to get more. Excuse me. We need to get the we need to get this budget back in order. If we need to do the 10.1% to get there, I'm in favor of that. I'd like I'd like to speak now and ask you a question mark. On February 26th, you sent an email about future planning, future vision and budgetary planning thanking Dr. Alone for her thoughtful budget and the closure of schools which was necessary. Is was that not you who really was Frank but let's reason I'm speaking now.
082The whole reason why We are here right now is because of your the quorum of this board wants this and the people who are speaking out right now Mark should be speaking at you because you were the biggest advocate for this my friend. You wrote the email on February 26th and I hope people look for that. That's fine and I'll I'll take ownership of that. I sure did. And then when I then when I got into it and I was in a facilities committee meeting and Miss Dy shared some some bids and I started looking at the bids and seeing campaign donations, I started getting Why don't you look at the shared services committee and the people that are on that and campaign donations with some of these? I'm going to be respectful to everybody.
083We want to we want to speak here and come to our resolution on the board. If everybody can please stop just speaking while we're speaking just so we can get this through. Okay. Okay. So the motion to amend has been moved and seconded. So that's before the board right now and this board is okay with the up to 10 more.1%. Well, I have a Frank, I have questions about that. If can I I'm not interrupting a minute. I don't know if Dr. Alone can explain what Can you explain the this news we got about not being approved because of that dollar amount? What is that dollar amount? Sure. You are so you can have up to 2% in your fund balance, which is basically your savings, right? It's whatever drops down after you've paid out
084all your expenditures for the year. Um, we last year used a piece of that fund balance to prop up our budget. Um, knowing full well that it was going to drop us below the 2%. The state did approve it. Um, but we were not able for all the reasons that we've already spoken about um, not able to recoup that money to a place of 2%. So, the state is at this point requiring us to have a plan to recoup and put back our fund balance at 2%. So, that is where that the 2% on our budget is about $3.6 6 million and the fund balance that we need to generate to get back to that 3.6 is that 762,000 and change figure that was told to us yesterday. They're willing to take a letter written
085by myself and Mrs. Doerty committing to that in our budget for next school year so that at the end of the year when we paid out all our expenditures we would have that to drop down into the fund balance. Thank you. So and then just followup question. So that $762,000 that's that's obviously not the the gap between 5.88% tax rate correct 1% right. How did that would equate to about a 6.15 it's about $1.65 million per 1%. So procedurally then is the question really all or nothing 5.88 88 or 10.1 or is there a dollar? Remember, you're only voting for the ability to go up to 10.1. You are not voting for the actual tax increase at this moment. That would come on April 30th when our final budget gets approved. But if this is
086on the table and the board is debating that, by not doing it, you're limiting yourself into not being able to go up to that amount if the board chooses to do so. So, you get this one moment because we have to submit that application on April 14th with a resolution stating what the board has committed to as the max. That doesn't mean you have to use the max and that's what you know people are alluding to just to clarify for everybody. So, if we voted for 5.88%. What stops what what what comes next in terms of how you make up the 762,000? Well, that would be through either raising more revenue, which the tax increase could potentially do, um, or making more cuts, which obviously, listen, I think it would be an egregious thing to
087decimate this district instructionally for our kids. Like, I just can't in good faith think of a world where that's okay because if we are putting children first, that can't happen. So my like it would be very challenging I think to be able to find at this point another $760,000 to be able to do that because in order to have our budget approved we have to commit to that and that is 100% from the state. We have to put it in writing. So that wasn't accounted for when we started to figure out our initial budget figures. And I know many of you have asked, you know, what are we cutting, where it's hard for us right now because it's a moving target. So we are I have lists upon lists upon lists upon scenarios upon scenarios
088and all we do is go back and revisit them. I mean, my admin team can tell you every day because we're like, what can we consolidate or what can we create a better efficiency for that doesn't impact our classrooms, but we are in the territory of like it could impact our classrooms and that to me is not something that I'm okay with. Can I ask question please? I want to ask this to Amy. Amy, going to the 10.1 or below the 10.1. What kind of benefits do we see from that? I'm sorry. You said going below the 10.1. No, going to the 10.1 or somewhere between where we are and let's say the 10.1 cuz we don't know where we're going. We're just giving you the rights to go up to there if you had
089to. What benefits does it do for the district? Well, when you raise your your tax levy, that is recurring revenue that you'll have every year. So instead of putting revenue in that's only available for one year that you have to recreate the next year you know that will there that would be there in your base to build upon for subsequent years which would be a huge benefit because the last few years we have had quite a bit of revenue that was one shot revenue where it would not come back the next year and we would have to dig out of that hole before we start doing budget. So that would be a huge benefit to the district to have revenue that would actually be there for subsequent years. Do you have an idea of what
090kind of revenue it is as far? Yeah, we projected today if we went to the 10.1 because we were kind of vetting this out. We've had questions obviously and we're trying to do our due diligence in giving people good information. Um, if you look at how we were planning on efficient, creating efficiencies, consolidating some positions, doing that type of thing without impact in the classroom, we were looking at potentially having an overage next year of about $2.5 million, which is important because that allows us to save money and to drop things down into our fund balance and our capital reserves. Um, we also get the incentive aid from the 10.1 which is another important piece even though we should not use that towards our operating budget that has to drop down into some type of
091reserve as well. So there are over and above benefits that don't we all also get an additional 400,000. That's the money I was referring to but that remember is dependent upon the rate that you choose to tax at. So it's proportional. So that is why when you see on the agenda the 5.88 88 that I believe it was 80,000 coincides with that. Obviously the more you use the most we could get for that incentive aid is the 414 and I think there's a little bit more like 200 300 something like that. But um there we did that calculation today just to see in case we did get a question tonight what that would look like in practice and and that's about where we stand financially with that. And then obviously anything lower than that dwindles
092down that excess 2.5 that we would have if we kept everything in line with the the um reductions and the things that we were planning on making um but not willing to also sacrifice the important things in the district either. Can you explain to us what happens if we just take 5.88? Well, that remains to be seen because next year well I mean obviously we can't rectify our budget at the 5.88 without other things happening which is where the land sale and the other pieces came into play. So obviously the 10.1 would circumvent the need for some of for particularly the land sale or you know a full cost sharing with the or you know the cost savings on the officers. So we're looking that tax increase would replace those other things in essence. So
093without them we have to do something because I do not think it's proper and I don't think anybody up here or anybody in the audience thinks that we should be cutting 120 people and decimating education for our kids. I don't think that's where anybody here up here or out there wants to be. I have a question. I I have a question. Why? Wait, the public comment public comments over. The board's discussing no public comments over. The board is discussing the motion to amend the 10.1%. Sir, you're out of order. Sir, you're the board is discussing. There was an hour of public comment. Sir, you're out of order. I'll I'll answer the question right after we finish here. I will. [Applause] I have a question, Amy. So, you guys, who came up with the 5.88 that
094is on a resolution tonight? If the administration is now saying they want to go to 10.1, I'm just confused. Like, where did the 5.88 come from? And are you guys not saying that that's what your recommendation is anymore? We were told it was 5.88 told by who? In our shared services meeting, Amy and I sat there and we were told because we said we were putting 7.37 on the agenda. I don't I have no idea. Go say 5.8. So, I'm sorry. Can I Can I just clarify? Can I just get some clarification? So, I guess was it back and I'm not I'm not accusing anything. I'm just trying to clarify. But was that the back end of if we accepted the 600 and we accepted the sale at 2 million? That's where those numbers came
095that it made the budget made sense. Then when I was at the shared services meeting, this is what was laid out to us by the mayor and the others who were there. [Applause] services. Sorry. So my question is at the 5.8, are we covering the new information we got yesterday that the state won't won't approve our 4.8? Are they going to approve us at 5.8? Well, we don't know yet. We could, as Miss Dr. Alone already explained, that was not factored into that original scenario. So, we would have to find a way to either you would have to cut more expenses. You'd have to eliminate more things from the budget to make that up in order to create that 762,000. Um, there's no without raising revenue, that's what you would have to do. You would
096have to cut more expenses out of your budget. Okay. So, what what is the percentage increase in taxes that covers that $762,000? It's about 48%. I just figure out real quick. I'm sorry. What? I can't It's about 46%. another another cover. There's $1.65 million per each percent approximately. So it's approximately 045 approximately 4.8% 8% 48% correct. So 5.88 plus another what? 48%. [Music] Correct. 6.35 6.35. So I'm sorry, just clarify. So 6.35 would put that money in to cover our fund balance or would our fund balance then go up? That that would be the amount that would be increased to add $762,000. Okay. And at 6.35, is that also an increase in the incentive payment from 5.88? Does every increment we go up give us more of an incentive payment? Yeah. But we don't know
097how much. I mean it's it's it's roughly 5% of whatever you go up in the tax. So I mean it's not exactly roughly 5% of that 762. So [Music] okay the motion to amend 10.5. We all know that [Applause] [Music] [Applause] you have to vote on the motion to amend the original motion up to 10.1%. So discussion is currently open open. No other motions can be taken. No, you have to resolve that one. So if you have a different proposal, you can discuss that during the debate on this motion and then you can decide whether you want to approve the up 10.1 or go with some alternative. So if this one is voted down, then you can make another motion to amend the Okay. Thank you. Thank you. Wait a minute. Wait a minute. They
098we're talking about this motion of up to 10 record. That means then the other motion is off the table. The what's it the land and the 5.88 the just to clarify the say the 5 the original motion's on the table and and Mr. Gerald made a motion to amend it. So now you're debating the motion to amend it. If that passes, you're then voting on the original motion as amended up to 10.1%. That includes the land and the class the No, no, it doesn't. So, what we're what we're But what we're approving today is just the tax. It's just a tax. But the first Wait, Leonora. Leora, the five, this motion that we have right now does not include land at all. It's just what we have the 4.88 plus 1%. If if I could
099just clarify Mrs. Camini, this motion that is on the agenda is to authorize me to submit an application to the NJ DOE% to increase our tax levy by 1% to 5.88 and qualify for the aid that is related to that. All that's all it does. It just authorizes me to put an application into the DOE to increase our tax levy to 5 million. Right. But if but let me but I think I can add to her to the to to answer her question. If we do that then we would have to do other things that would have to be approved on the April 30th agenda to be able to meet our operating expenses. Correct. So that's where the land and the police officer contract comes into play. So that is contingent with I guess the
1005.88 and then after we get the response back from the state on this application whatever however it gets put in if it's approved then the next step besides what Dr. our phone just said is we would have to introduce our final budget that would reflect whatever changes that we're making to the tendant budget and then that is what we present at our public hearing and then that is what the vote the board has to vote on on April 30th [Music] thank you okay any more discussion yeah so and I want to kind of go through uh I think how we got here Um, so originally we were looking at a a 7.3 um, levy. Um, and that number, it's not just like we're we're just throwing spaghetti at the wall, right? And, you know, trying
101to figure out it's 5.8, it's 7.3. Those numbers actually mean something, right? And we're trying to play catch-up here to actually what the number that we're trying to get to. Um and I when going through this kind of plan um we were looking at that actual you know brass tax number um and that brass tax number is is around 11.6 million right that that's what we're looking at we're looking at that number um and uh at that time I think I called up uh Mr. on on Friday um and we talked about the factory officers and such, you know, um I I was actually going to try to reach out to the mayor and talk about possibly him taking over, giving us a temporary reprieve on those class three officers. Um during that time, I
102had a good discussion with the mayor and we kind of brought up different things and he he agreed at that point if we put together a good plan, he would take over, you know, half the um half the class 3s. Um, at that point there was no discussion about land and you know what was going to happen going forward. He he agreed. He said you come up with a good plan. That's what was going to happen. Um, so that 7.3 as we discussed I I told him I said we're just we're trying to get down to the 6.3 number. That's that's the overall number that we're trying to get to. But the actual dollar amount was 11.6. So if he threw in the 800 or the 600,000 for the officers, then we can walk that
103number down so we get it to 6.9 and eventually do some more cuts and get us to 6.3 where we all agreed. Um then I wake up, you know, or at Wednesday I'm having dinner and then I see an email from Mr. Capone saying that we're going to go see the mayor the next day and the 5.88 came about. Um the 5.88 88 puts us right back where we are right now. It it it it it just it prolongs it. It doesn't give us a strategic plan. Um you know when when we talk about you know strategic plan have it set we we want to get to that. It it's we need to get a to a place where we're financially, you know, in in a in a financial trajectory way where we hit the
104points of administration, you know, being up on contract, where we hit the teacher contracts being up, the bonds that are hitting up in 27, 28. And that's what we need to get to to get to financial health, right? Because we have to have enough money to get there. The 5.88 gets us to next year. And we don't even get to that point, right? We're collapsing before that and it just gets worse and worse from there, right? Because next year we're not just talking about Navasank and Leonardo, you know, we're bringing up, you know, River Plaza and and Fairview and everything else and then we just keep collapsing. I don't think collapsing these schools and and judging by the numbers, they didn't work either. It doesn't get us to where we need to be financially. So,
105um, unfortunately, I don't like raising taxes and I'll be the first one to say that, you know, no, you know, I don't want to do that. But this is the future for our kids, you [Applause] know, correct me. What is our operating budget this year versus last? You mean the proposed budget or our current budget? The proposed, correct? You proposed a budget of $19 is $187 million. No, 197. No, the tenative budget that we approved is $187 million. Okay. So, what's our proposed budget for next year? That is the proposed budget that we approved. Where did the $197 million come from? Well, that was before we we were going through all the cuts that had to come into play and it included the school consolidation savings. You missed my point. Okay. Last year we were
106at two years ago at 180. We went up 1% in that budget. Correct. Last year 1.2. So I'll take your This year we were told it's going up 1617 million. I I don't I don't have all these budgets lined up in front of me. I know that our tended budget was $187 million for this year, but I will say um it our operating expenses were projected at about $197 million. And then in that budget that we submitted as the tenative budget included the consolidation plan, which was approximately $4 million, and then another $6 million for reductions we were making. So when you look at our operating costs, we were projected to be at about 197 million. We got it down to the number that Amy has just or Mrs. Doerty just said because of those
107things we were doing as part of the tenative budget. Obviously, we have to take that now and reconfigure that because the consolidation, you know, isn't happening and there's other things on the table for how to rectify that $10 million gap that we were left with after all the other pieces came into play. Does that clarify? Right. That's just want to make sure that that's what I was seeing. Yeah. Is there any more discussion? Any role? What's the motion right now? This is for the amended up to 10. Correct. So, this is for the amended motion. This is just to amend the motion. This is to amend the motion. Okay. Not motion. No, this passes. You will then have to vote on the amendment. Please state that again. This is just for the up to 10.1%.
108This is this is to amend the motion to up to 10.1. If this passes, we then have to vote on the resolution as amended. Thank you. Mrs. Wright. Yes. Mr. Tull, this is to have a motion on the table. This is to amend the motion that's on the agenda to reflect an increase of 10.1% versus I'll And then and then that will have its own discussion. That'll have it own, right? We just discuss we just Yes. Mr. Sarowski. Yes. Mrs. Gowasi. Yes. Mrs. Minuise. Yes. Mr. Fitzgerald. Yes. Mrs. Camini. Yes. Mrs. Tobacco. Yes. Mr. Capone. Up to 10.1%. [Applause] [Music] Americans. You said yes. Now before the board is the actual motion that's on the agenda, but it's amended direct reflect up to 10%. [Music] So I don't know if there's any discussion right now
109questions just so now with this on the table Dr. You mentioned it earlier. Could you just What's the procedure for um was there a was a deadline for the resolution or something? That's different from our budget deadline. Yes, the resolution for the deadline is April 14th, which is why we're voting on this tonight cuz Mrs. already has to submit the application in order for us to be able to even consider utilizing that 10.1% in our budget, which again will be reflected, whatever number the board eventually lands on for the tax increase will be reflected in our final budget at the April 30th board meeting where we will outline the reductions and the tax increase and all the specifics of the budget. So we have quite a bit of work to do between you know tonight
110and then but that's the only this is just allowing us to utilize as much as we can in formulating the final version of our budget. And could I can I also add the board will be included in this process. Yes. Is that um so between so say this were to pass tonight and then Amy can Mr. authority can submit the application to let us talk about how far we want to go to cover what we need to cover. Yes. And you know certainly we'll entertain discussion with the board in regards to you know where we all feel com or where they all feel comfortable landing in regards to that tax increase and the reductions that would have to offset potentially not going to that 10.1%. So we would we would have ongoing conversations then about
111truly you know balancing all these interests and everything about what number actually gets us to what we need or just I think we can all agree that if this process has shown us anything is that we're picking among trying to find the least horrible of a lot of horrible options and what what I've I think a lot of us have been angling for is something that gets us not only the money to get us where we need to have some breathing room to do this but more importantly the time and the process to to think it through the right way and I don't know that just saying just saying you know of course 10 point whatever the highest number is of course it's going to give us more money it's going to but I don't
112I mean I don't as I sit here today I don't like the idea that this and maybe I misunderstood it but it sounds like we're talking about raising taxes as high as we can and forgetting about that we shouldn't be paying the full cost of the class 3s in the first place still part of the conversation I Yeah, I think that there are many things that are still up for discussion and kind of outliers. I know the property has been up for discussion and potentially getting a second appraisal. Like there's a lot of other things that have been brought to our attention. So, I think that between now and the time when our finalized budget is due, there's a lot of discussion that needs to be had about all these pieces and how they fit
113together to be responsible to the taxpayer, pay attention to what our kids need, and um give us breathing room to be able to put together a plan that really works and is viable for the long term, not something very short term. And just to add on to what Gary is saying, you know, I I think just because we're we're saying we're proposing to go up to 10.1%. We still need to make the cuts that that we said. I still stand by what I said in the beginning about cutting the fat. We really need to look at it and cut it as much as possible. Um, but also on top of that, shared services, we really need to work on the mayor as well and and make sure or or see if he can help with,
114you know, still paying for, you know, our [Music] officers. Also, we need to take the land off the table. We can't sell when we're desperate to get by. It doesn't work. And just to add on to Miss Kennedy's, I think leasing the land is the way to go. So I I would rather not sell the land. I'd rather lease it if we could our different land. How does help? It's reoccurring revenue. How much? It's $1,000 a month. Like what's reoccurring revenue versus $2 million? It's better than zero. It's a coach. It's a stipen. Like $10,000 you have to go over 20 years to get that $2 million back. I'm not saying to a seller or not sell it. I'm just saying leasing is not money generator for a district. We're not real estate. No, I
115understand that. But we have we have real estate just sitting there not doing anything. I mean, if it's making $500, 10 cents, doesn't matter. We're still making We want more development here. We want less development here. I would definitely say to do with the developer. It has to do with revenue for the school board. Like for instance, with with the Kings Highway, right, where there's there's a farm that actually is looking to lease that. They've been looking to lease that for a while. We can lease it to a farm. I know nothing about it. Could you tell me about it? Uh yeah, it's it's what the mayor told us. He said there was there was a cross from the other side in the If that is a possibility, I'd recommend not talking about [Applause] it.
116All right, we're going to move on now to the next [Applause] [Music] [Applause] roll call. Okay, roll call for the application for the additional expenditures as amended. Mrs. Wright. Yes. Mr. Tull, yes. Mr. Sakarowski, yes. Mrs. Golaski, yes. Mrs. Manuise, yes. Mr. Fitzgerald, yes. Mrs. Camdi, yes. Mrs. Tobacco, I know this isn't going to be popular, but I cannot go on the record in good conscience voting to 101. I I listen you guys, I we've heard you. We have heard you at the forums. We have listened and you have asked for transparency. You've asked her what our thoughts are and then every time I go to say something, you guys say something over me and I'm I'm disinterested. I actually had eye surgery and that's why I haven't been looking over there. But thank you
117for calling that out. That's great. But I'm going to Can I continue? Hippa. I have supported our superintendent's proposal from the beginning. I thought that she proposed a plan that was fiscally responsible. I thought it protected our teachers. I did not want to see our education get decimated, the quality of our education get decimated. I did not want to see our kids be hurt. Um I understand the the uh need for time for transitioning. Um, and I think that we have had some decent proposals and we've come to some kind of a middle ground. I think there's still room to come to a middle ground with our tax base. But I also have to consider that I represent the entire town of Middletown, not just the parents who are in this room tonight and the
118senior citizens count to you and people who have written to us and advocated and begged us not to go up to 10.1. With that being said, I cannot in good conscience, even though my vote at this point doesn't matter. The motion will pass. My vote doesn't matter. But I will make a statement that I will not support for this town being on the record that I would ever go up to 10.1% in this economy and with people struggling. That is my vote. Thank you, Mr. Capone. I will echo those sentiments and I will be a no up to 10%. I said no. That motion carries me. There's one more motion when we add. I got it. Motion number seven, business office business office consent agenda award of stop loss carrier for medical and prescription drug
119plans. Motion to approve. So moved. Second. You want to do a roll call or roll? Okay. Roll. Mrs. Wright. Yes. Mr. T. Yes. Mr. Sarasa. Yes. Mrs. Scholastic. Yes. Mrs. Finley. Yes. Mr. Fitzgerald. Yes. Mrs. Cami. Yes. Mrs. Tobacco. Yes. Mr. Kapone. Yes. [Music] Uh, old business. Is there any old business to discuss? New business. Any new business to discuss? All righty. I wish to make a motion to adjourn the meeting. Discussion. All in favor? I object. Have a great