Wall Township Board of Education Meeting 4-28-2026

001Good evening and welcome to the Tuesday, April 28th, 2026 business meeting of the Wall Township public school Board of Education. Please stand for the Pledge of Allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Mr. Smythe, sunshine announcement and roll call, please. Yes, this is the Wall Township Board of Education meeting for which adequate notice under the Open Public Meeting Act was provided by a notice to the Coastar as per the park press, Township Clerk's office, all Wall Township public schools and the Board of Administration office on January 8th, 2026. Take a roll call. Ms. Adams. Here. Ms. Barbieri. Here. Ms. Bibby. Here. Mr. Buffer. Here. Ms. DiGiovanni. Here. Ms. Lawler. Here.

002Mr. Smith. Here. Mr. Wandrak. Mr. Maliff. Here. At this time, I'm going to ask for a motion to go into executive session for those items indicated on the agenda. Ms. DiGiovanni. Mr. Buffer second. Uh all in favor? We anticipate returning to public session at 7:00 p.m. Okay, returning to public session. Mr. Smythe, may we have a roll call, please? Take a roll call. Ms. Adams. Here. Ms. Barbieri. Here. Ms. Bibby. Here. Mr. Buffer. Here. Ms. DiGiovanni. Here. Ms. Lawler. Here. Mr. Smith. Here. Mr. Wandrak. Here. Ms. Kepping. Here. Mr. Maliff. Here. Thank you, Mr. Smythe. At this time, I'm going to call on Sophia Kepping to give our student representative report. Okay, good evening. So, April has been another exciting and productive month for Wall High School with continued success and involvement across academics, guidance,

003student activities, and athletics. In academics, our juniors successfully completed the NJGPA during the week of March 16th, an important milestone as they continue progressing towards graduation requirements. Students approached the assessment with focus and determination and we are proud of their efforts. Looking ahead, advanced placement exams will begin next week and many students have been preparing through review sessions, practice exams, and extra help from their teachers. Additionally, both juniors and seniors recently took the Seal of Biliteracy exam across a wide range of languages, including Spanish, French, Latin, and more. This opportunity highlights the district's commitment to global education and recognizes students who have worked hard to develop proficiency in multiple languages. This month, students were also excited to meet and welcome our new superintendent. It was a great opportunity for students to feel connected to district

004leadership and we look forward to building a strong relationship moving forward. In guidance news, the class of 2026 is preparing for an important milestone as decision day will be celebrated this Friday, May 1st. This day allows seniors to proudly share and celebrate their post-secondary plans, whether that includes attending college, entering the workforce, or pursuing other opportunities. It is always a meaningful event that brings the senior class together as they look ahead to their futures. The senior class has also been enjoying a series of memorable trips. On April 16th, seniors traveled to Yankee Stadium for the third of four senior trips, creating lasting memories together. Looking ahead, we are excited for our final trip in May to Six Flags Great Adventure. Clubs and activities have remained very active throughout April. The class of 2027 hosted their

005junior prom on April 17th, which was very well attended and a great success. Our class of 2027 prom queen was Cali Woodside and king was Justin Cannon. Students enjoyed a memorable evening and it was clear that a great deal of planning went into making the event so special. In addition, our annual Volley for Autism took place on April 23rd at Wall Intermediate School. This is one of our most meaningful school-wide events and student council worked hard to organize donations, including gift baskets from clubs, teams, and local businesses. The event continues to bring the community together in support of a great cause. Our ROTC Our ROTC students also had a valuable opportunity this month, traveling to New York City on April 22nd to tour the Intrepid Museum. This experience allowed students to learn more about history,

006leadership, and service in an engaging hands-on environment. Sorry, this is really wordy. In athletics, spring sports are now in full swing and many teams are off to a strong start. Our baseball team in particular is thriving early in the season with an impressive eight and three record with a momentous win against rival high school Manasquan, 15 to one. Across all spring sports, student athletes continue to demonstrate their utter dedication. Overall, April has showcased the hard work, involvement, and enthusiasm of Wall High School students as we continue toward a strong finish to the school year. We also have one major accomplishment to celebrate that was just announced. The nominees for the 2026 Basie Awards, which is Monmouth County's annual celebration of high school theater, were released last night and Wall High School is proud to have

007earned 11 nominations for our fall drama, Eurydice, and our spring musical, Into the Woods. Congratulations to our entire cast and crew and especially the following students who were nominated: Avery Lawler, Nikki Vitello, Karina Manal, Jack Baldasser, and Hobie Peterson. Mr. Ryan and Mr. Courtenhouse were also recognized with nominations, along with the entire cast and crew of Eurydice and the student orchestra for Into the Woods. This is an outstanding achievement that reflects the incredible talent and dedication of our performing arts program. The full list of nominees will be shared in the next Wall High School newsletter and it is also available on the Basie Awards website. Congratulations again to all of our nominees. We wish you the best of luck at the awards ceremony, May 19th. Okay, thank you. Thank you very much, Samantha, for that

008report. Lots of good news that you reported tonight. We're happy to hear good news. All right. Uh and as always, we welcome you to stay, but you may join your friends. Okay. Uh at this time, I'm going to introduce Mr. Scarano, who's going to introduce our student showcase tonight. Thank you, Mr. Maliff. Um it gives me great pleasure to introduce high school art teacher, Ms. Jill Alexander, uh who continues to highlight and promote her students' many, many talents and she will be speaking about her students' entries and recognition at the county level. Thank you so much. Uh good evening, everyone. I just want to say that it's so nice to be here uh to have these students recognized. Um We have six outstanding students to recognize tonight uh for their exceptional achievements uh at the

009state level in the arts and I'm incredible incredibly proud to work with these kids every day in the classroom. So, uh our first uh two students are Melody Casters and Aaron McBarron and their artwork was selected for the State Youth Art Month exhibition exhibition at Grounds for Sculpture and was on display during the month of March this year. It was chosen by a panel of art educators of New Jersey judges and this is one of the highest honors for uh student artists in New Jersey. AENJ only makes two high school selections in each county. So, as the only two high school students selected for Monmouth County, their represent their their work represents a truly elite level of creativity and technical skill, as you can see here in the beautiful picture. So, uh the other four

010students that we're recognizing tonight are Abigail Beikler, Abigail Tasoy, Brooke Rowland, and Kiara Burns, who had artwork that was selected for the New Jersey State Teen Arts Festival. New Jersey Teen Arts only selects 20 artworks for this honor and our students captured four of those spots. This recognition highlights their exceptional talent and dedication and provides them the opportunity to showcase their work at the state level, receive professional feedback and grow as artists alongside peers from across New Jersey. And this will all take place on June 3rd at the state festival up at up in Middlesex College. As their teacher, it's incredibly meaningful to witness their growth, their commitment and their passion that they bring to work in my classroom each day. And they represent not only the strength of our art program at Wall High

011School, but the power of arts to inspire, connect and tell important stories. Reminding us all that the word world truly does need art. I also want to sincerely thank the Board of Education for your continued support of the arts. The opportunities our students have are made possible through your funding and your belief in what we do. And it means so much to see you take the time to recognize their talents this evening. So, thank you. So, I'm going to just call those students. So, we've got Aaron McBarron. Come on up, Aaron. >> [applause] [applause] >> Abigail Beekler. >> [applause] [applause] >> Kiara Burns. >> [applause] [applause] >> Brooke Rowland. And Abigail Tosoy. >> [applause] [applause] >> And we also have Ms. Parks with us this evening and she has the privilege of speaking about our

012championship bowling team and repeat individual champion under the direction of Coach Lash. Thank you so much for having me here tonight. I'm truly honored to be able to speak to you about the incredible accomplishments of the young men behind me. Um I'll call them up after. What they did truly to put in perspective when like, "Hey, you won a state championship." But just to make clear what that truly means, the entire state of New Jersey is coupled into four different groups. So, there's North 1, North 2, Central and South. We are in South Group 2. So, our boys went through their entire season playing their divisions, won their division, did things within the state championship, then they start to compete at the state level. They have to go through the sectionals first, which they are

013competing against the 16 other teams and schools that are just in their group. These gentlemen ran away, captured their sectional Group 2 championship to earn them the right to compete against the entire state of Group 2, which is composed of 65 other schools. They then went to the state tournament and did their work as a team, everyone stepping up at different points, taking care of business to create the overall state championship for Group 2. So, that is truly an amazing accomplishment. So, I want to recognize the gentlemen that were part of this winning team. First, we have Mr. Griffin Cook. >> [applause] >> Our next champion, Mr. Will Hague. >> [applause] [applause] >> Next, we have Luke Kapsis. >> [applause] >> Next gentleman coming up. Oh, let Luke get his handshake. Yes. All right, Jake

014McDermott, please. >> [applause] [applause] >> And then we have Mr. Donovan Kline. >> [applause] [applause] >> And while Donovan is walking up to collect his championship, Donovan was also for the second year in a row the overall overall individual state champion out of all groups, all sizes, every division. So, he's the man basically of every boy's bowler in New Jersey. Two-time individual state champ. >> [applause] >> And I want to bring up our coaching staff who have worked diligently to get these gentlemen in a position to compete and capture this championship and continue moving forward. Our first year boys head coach, Ms. Caitlin Lash. >> [applause] [applause] >> And Mr. Juska is not with us this evening, but we also have our assistant coach, Mr. Dave Kline. >> [applause] >> So, there we have our

01520 26 boys bowling state championship team. Thank you again so much, coaches and players. >> [applause] [applause] >> And as we're seating, I just wanted to thank every member of the school board and our incredible administration. Your support not just financially, but just being here to allow these kids the opportunity to branch out in many different ways. I'm so proud that not only did they win this championship, but this group of young men are incredible human beings and they represented our school the way that we want a Crimson Knight to behave. So, thank you for your support in allowing them to excel. Thank you. >> [applause] >> Thank Ms. Henry and again, congratulations to all of these folks who we honored tonight. At this time, we're going to have our first public comment session. This

016will be for any school related issues. And the board requests that those individuals speaking will be courteous and mindful of the rights of individuals when making comments. Specifically, comments regarding individual students and school personnel are discouraged and will not be responded to by the board. Students and employees have specific legal rights afforded by the laws of New Jersey. The Wall Township Board of Education bears no responsibility, nor will it be liable for any comments made by members of the public. Speakers should consider their comments in light of the legal rights of those affected or affected by or identified in their comments and recognize they are legally responsible and liable for their comments. And we please ask you to observe our policy of 3 minutes per speaker. Betsy Ross, I live in Wall Township. I'm glad

017to see that the new super who's starting um in July is here tonight. I did get to have a few words with him and mention that I had been sending in questions, simple questions about the budget and I wasn't getting responses, simple responses. Uh then I'm just ignored and that I wanted him to be aware of it and I was hoping he had an email that I could send them to, but he said he doesn't have an email set up. So, um when that's set up, I will send him those emails. Um I did notice under uh what you sent into the state, we're now paying um for students to go to Manasquan High School. Um and they're general education students. So, I'm just wondering how does how does one go to Manasquan now and

018have the district pay? If you could go over that. Student enrollment, I see is at 3,177. And I'm hoping under your adoption of the budget, Mr. Smythe, if you could go through these numbers. Um the total expenditures of 101. And and go over I want you to go over all the debt service numbers and what they mean. And I I was asking you, how much is the average homeowner expected to pay more this year based upon your increase? Is it an increase of 5,384,802? And what does that equate to? Um for us to walk through the door, have no handouts whatsoever, you have no budget presentation here that I could even look at and ask you. Um it's just complete dysfunction of the business administrator. That that's how I see it. It's very simple. Um

019What else is on here? You have a WTEA sidebar. I'm wondering how much extra are you anticipating to pay with the sidebar? So, I don't know the teaching load is now four periods daily. How much extra are we going to be paying because of that? I did notice, I'm guessing Mr. Richens came back to you on the budget because you had things blank regarding the health insurance. And I have to say Dominick Sinelli's, that nine-page budget presentation that we paid $55,000 for was awful. So, I don't know how anybody would approve anything tonight based on that. I'd like you I did ask you, Mr. Smythe, to bring with you how much we're paying for health benefits currently for each employee. I see for the state health benefits plan it's 75,000 a family for the most

020expensive and 45,000 for the least expensive. It's outrageous. So, I want to know, what are you budgeting um per family? Are you budgeting 40,000 per family? I asked you for those numbers and of course I got nothing back. So, I did let the new superintendent know that. Mr. Scaramanga, I've been very disappointed in and your lack of responses as well. Um And this page about in health benefits, you got it blank. So, you had to either say yes or no. So, I don't know how you're going to approve the budget tonight without having that uh filled out or if you did reply and fill it out, I would I would like those answers. Um >> Thank you, Mrs. Cross. We have another speaker. Right. And we're paying I calculate at least 31,000 per student. Thank

021you, Mrs. Cross. >> over including all costs, what those numbers are. I would appreciate it. >> Cross. Your time has expired. Do we have any other speakers tonight? >> my questions. Thanks. Uh hello, my name's Heath Reinhardt. I'm a senior captain on the football team. I'm Thomas Puskey. I'm also senior captain on the football team. Uh we're just here to talk today about the situation going on with one of our coaches, Coach Rogers. Um I just want to say there isn't many people I really do this for cuz I'm not a real good public speaker, but this just shows how much he really means to me in my heart. Um and I'm speaking for everybody behind me, too. They're here for a reason. Um I'll take it back to freshman year going into freshman year

022when me and Tom right here were seniors. Now, we were going to transfer cuz there wasn't going to be a football team to start. And I know Coach Rogers came to every single one of these meetings fighting for Wall football to come back. He's really the heart and soul of this program and he made sure that us kids would have a team at home and we'd be able to play with our best friends for the rest of our high school career. And that's something that needs to be talked about more. You got anything else to say? Yeah. Speaking on the character of Coach Rogers and he's an amazing coach first off, but he's also an amazing person. I think everyone else here with me can attest to that. You know, he made us elite football

023players, but he also made us really good men. Young men, I'd say that, you know, we're not adults full-grown adults yet, but the life lessons he has taught us and the amount of stuff he has taught us in general have definitely helped me as a person and I feel like you could attest to that as well. And I feel like him as a person, he's an amazing football coach, but him as a person has had an extremely positive impact on my life. Um I also would like to say like there's not many coaches I mean, I started my career out in Red Bank and I made my way back to Wall and there's not many coaches that I could say treat me as one of their own children. Um he really loves each and every

024player like they're his own. He cares about us on the field and especially off the field, what we're doing in the classroom. If we get into any sort of trouble, he's there for us. Um and there's not many people that I could say love their players like that. And he really built a foundation in this program and there's definitely AYF kids that are looking to play under him. So, I really think it's just going to hurt the program without him cuz not having a guy who cares that much is really just going to hurt the foundation. There's been a coaching change every single year, but no matter what, Coach Rogers has been there fighting for us making sure we have a winning program, staying by our side. And he hasn't let anything change that and

025I really think it's going to hurt the program not having him there. I'd also like to say, speaking on the togetherness and family bond of the football team, he's a humongous part of that. Every single day talking about how we're brotherhood, how we're one unit and how we need to fight together as a unit. And I feel like his absence of the football team would completely crumble that brotherhood and that teamwork and that family feeling that I feel like we've been trying to build since our sophomore year or freshman sophomore year. And it would be a humongous loss to the program and a humongous loss to team morale. It just kind of makes me sad to see someone that's such a good father figure get thrown out in the dust like this. So, I really

026think it's something that needs to be taken into consideration more because I mean, I love them with my whole heart and there's not many people I could say that about that coached me. So, I just really think this is something that needs to be talked about more. Thank you for hearing me out. Thank you. Thank you very much. Thank you, gentlemen. >> [applause] [applause] >> How you doing tonight? Um my name is Ken Dad. I live in Wall Township. I've served for the past seven about seven, eight years on the youth football board. I'm proud to say. And I'd I'd like to read a letter that the a few of the rising 14U coaches put together and sent over to the board today. Just going to read that. >> [clears throat] >> Dear members of

027the Board of Education and district leadership, we are writing to express our strong support for Coach Rogers and recognize his many years of dedication to Wall AYF as well as the Wall High School football team. Over the years, Coach Rogers [clears throat] has invested an extraordinary amount of time and energy into the program and the broader community. His commitment extends far beyond the field. He has helped shape young athletes, contribute to rebuilding the football program, as and played a meaningful role in fostering pride and unit within the town. The impact of that kind of sustained effort should not be overlooked. We fully respect that it is responsibility of leadership to evaluate situations and determine whether certain actions warrant disciplinary measures, including potential separation. Those decisions are not easy and they require careful consideration of many

028factors. At the same time, we believe leadership also carries the responsibility to develop, guide, and when appropriate, support the individuals within their organization. Strong organizations >> [clears throat] >> are often defined not only by accountability, but the willingness to address challenges constructively and invest in the people who have contributed to their success. Ultimately, we respect the process and [clears throat] the difficult decisions that must be made. Our intent in writing this is simply to ensure that Coach Rogers uh years of dedication, service, and positive impact in the community is fully recognized as part of this process. Thank you for your thoughtful consideration. Okay. THANK YOU. >> [applause] >> ANYONE ELSE FOR PUBLIC COMMENT? UH GOOD EVENING, EVERYONE. I'm Coach Rogers. Um >> [snorts] >> I'm more than just a football coach and I I just

029I need to paint the picture of who I am as a person because there's some portrayal of me that has kind of garnered the attention of some individuals and I I just I I need to be able to put my head down at night on my pillow and I just need to get the following out. I'm [snorts] a New York City public school teacher for the last 26 years. I've been rated highly effective in that practice every single year of my career. I teach the accelerated US history and government program in my building to eighth graders, which is an 11th grade curriculum, and they take the New York State Regents every year and I have a 95% pass rate of that test. I'm also [snorts] the United Federation of Teachers Union chapter leader in my

030building. So, I am well versed in allegations that are brought up against staff and other individuals. I defend them to the letter of the law of the of our UFT and DOE contract. I know that there is some concern about me being a parent who is a coach. But, I'm a coach who's actually a parent because I've been doing this for 25 years. I have three I have three children, two who are currently members of the Wall Township public school system and one who was a graduate in 2024. >> [snorts] >> I got involved with Wall football because of the hazing scandal. I never intended to be a coach at Wall. I fought to save the program because my child was a victim of that scandal. And I needed to fight to make sure that

031the right guy got the job. So, I was asked to be on that hiring committee. Something that I took very seriously and very very I held it near and dear to my heart. And when coach Gurreri got the job, it was the one the thing that was done right here in a very long time. It's his program. It's his vision. And I am eternally grateful for that. I don't know what I did wrong. I don't know who I pissed off. I had an allegation against me. I was told that it was unfounded and it was unsubstantiated for something that happened outside of school, off of the football field. I've never once, not a single time in my tenure here, had a complaint from my players or their parents. So, I'm confused. I'm sorry. And I

032don't know if this is appropriate and I don't know if I should even be up here speaking. But, the reality is is that I poured my heart and soul into my profession and into my career. And I've had it ripped from me. And I don't know why. I don't have an answer. I've never been evaluated. I've never had a negative evaluation. I've never even had so much as a derogatory comment made to me about my approach. I can't apologize for being from Staten Island. I can't apologize to my accent, how I speak, the way I talk. I can't apologize for any of those things. But, those guys I love those guys back there. I do. >> [snorts] >> And I just want to know why. That's all I'm looking for. I appreciate your time. I

033hope this isn't because someone has a personal vendetta against me cuz that would be unfortunate. I'm just looking for the why. >> [applause] >> Thank you. Thank you. We have another public comment. Hello, my name is Kristen Daniel. Um I live in Wall Township. It is really hard to go after Coach Rogers. But, as a parent of a ninth grade daughter, my son is an eighth grader coming up to join the football team next season. And he had the privilege and the honor of his first year of AYF football last year to be coached by Coach Rogers. I think this board needs to think very hard about the stigma that Wall has had for the past how many years. I'm from not from New Jersey and I got to be honest, I'm tired of the

034stigma. Okay, I want my kids to grow up in an area that they can be proud of, that I could be proud to say we live in Wall, New Jersey. So, I ask you to take really the time and consideration when you make these decisions because Coach Rogers and I can attest you 100% my daughter and my sons have been on teams where they have been coached by parents and you could see the, you know, given the favoritism. But, I can 100% say that Coach Rogers not only shows up for this team, he showed up for my son when his son broke his arm in the first season, the first game. He came to every single practice. He came to every single game. He never stopped coaching. And my son put in the hard work

035because of Coach Rogers. And he made himself a player of that team and he earned his spot because Coach Rogers believed in him. Thank you. >> [applause] >> Um hello. My name is Gus Toransky. I play football varsity football with or for Coach Rogers. And um today uh we heard about the meeting and I went home after school, after the gym, and I tried to figure out like a couple words to describe Coach Rogers. And you know, I was just trying to think what's the best word to describe him and I kept coming back to coach. Every time um you know, I think of a coach, I think of Coach Rogers, I think of my football coaches and how important they are. Um I spend a good amount of time with them, 24 hours a

036week. So, you know, I obviously get to know him. I'd like to say I've a good uh judge of character. And none of these coaches have ever, you know, done anything wrong towards me or crossed me or done anything bad. So, I've nothing bad to say. I would just like to say when you think of the word coach, you might think of someone who coaches a basketball team, baseball team, football team, whatever it is. And you know, maybe they teach the X's of X's and O's. They teach strength. They teach, you know, how to run this play and how to run that play. But, like under that, if a deeper look at it, I think you would see, you know, the real coaching, the coaching that goes on for your life and I think a

037coach is so important to a kid. If you ask any kid, they'll remember a good coach, they'll remember a bad coach. And so, obviously Coach Rogers is a great coach and I'll remember him forever. And I would just like to say Coach Rogers has not only helped me, but the rest of my team back there. And obviously kids who have graduated become better people, more responsible people. Um he's taught a lot of life lessons. You know, we have to He taught us to own up to our mistakes, accept what's wrong, make it better. And I would just think you guys should um take into consideration all of this and make a decision wisely. Thank you. Thank you. >> [applause] >> Hi everyone. I'm Brian Daniel. I'm Axel Quina. Joe Coco. Uh we all played with

038Coach Rogers. He was our coach for AYF last season. Just like after what all these guys said, all these players in high school, after all he's did for them, he came back down after he was tired and after he probably wanted to go to sleep. He came back and he coached us. And like throughout it all, even when he probably didn't want to sometimes, he still came and he supported us and he helped us grow and he helped us be a good football team. And even after his son, Andrew, got hurt in the first game of the season, he still came back. He still helped us. Even when he probably didn't have to, he still showed us what it means to be a great coach. And I bet you can ask every single person on

039our team, every single parent, they're all going to tell you that Coach Rogers is a stand-up guy, stand-up coach, stand-up father. And really, he became a father figure to me and these two guys behind me. So, thank you. >> [applause] >> Thank you, gentlemen. Any further comments? Good evening, everybody. Um my name is Brian Mulholland. Um born and raised. I just want to say thank you very much. I know this job you guys are sitting up there sucks sometimes and not thankless, especially for the people that ran for this and are volunteering their time. So, um thank you very much for your time and effort for the kids in this town. Um I'm [clears throat] born and raised in this town. I got I'm raising now four children. I went to this high school. I

040played ball here. Uh I was lucky enough to have some coaches and some people that cared deeply about me. Uh guys like Tony Vidola, Dr. Vidola, helped me get into school. Came back here, coached under Coach Barnes. I have four children that I cannot wait to be and see them as Wall Crimson Knights. Um I've had the privilege to coach in AYF since my 14-year-old son has been 5 years old. Um we've had our own issues as everybody probably here knows. And Chris Rogers has come here and helped me coach these young men that are behind me. Uh Mrs. Daniel's brought it up about Coach Rogers coming back last year after his youngest son broke his hand. But, the truth of the matter is he's done it 2 years in a row. This gentleman has

041went to work at 5:00 in the morning up in New York City. He also sits his ass back down here. He coaches high school football. Um molds young men and to being good guys. And then instead of going home and being with his family, he comes back and puts another 2 hours in the cold and dark area of the AYF fields cuz we don't have any lights, by the way. If you can help us out with that, that'd be great. Um he then comes back, as they said, and puts time. He cuts film for us. Um and then he does it all over for the high school. Goes home, eats a little bit of food, goes back to bed cuz he's got to wake up and go do it all over again. And he did

042this for 2 years without his son playing on my football team. Um one of the big things with Coach Rogers is accountability. And I'm sure all the people that are up there, I'm pretty sure you're successful people. You know, the volunteers up there, the gentleman like Mr. Smythe who's been up here a long time. Um one of the most important things that he does is holds people accountable, not only to their teammates, but to themselves. And puts in their hearts that these ideas and decisions that you make on a daily basis mold who you are and who you're going to be. He's a passionate guy. He's a wonderful human being. He's a great father. He's a good friend of mine. And he helps these kids of Wall Township very much. So, again, I know this

043decision sucks for you guys. I really do. But I really hope that you take into consideration the words that these young boys are saying, these young men are saying, these mothers of children. Um he's an important part of our community. We're losing coaches. He sat up here and fought for our Wall football team a couple years ago. I know Mr. Smythe was up there. I know you remember all that garbage we were going through. And he fought for these kids. He fought for this program. We were flying high for a couple years. And then we hit it pretty hard. And we need guys like this to back us up to help our children, to guide this township into a better way. So, I thank you for your time, especially again the volunteers for hearing me

044out. I hope you have a blessed day. God bless. >> [applause] >> Thank you. Do we have anyone else for public comment? Okay. Good evening. Um first off, thank you so much from an educator. I have lived in Wall Township my whole life, uh 49 years. Um I am lucky enough to live right next to Coach Rogers for a long, long time. I have three girls. None of them, obviously, play football, but I see and have lived the experience of Wall football through the Rogers. And I thankfully got to see and live through the eyes of Coach Rogers of what it's like to be a coach in Wall. It takes heart and soul just to be just the same as being an educator, and it's hard to be a coach. I tried to be a

045travel soccer coach, and I did not do as well as Coach Rogers, but I'm up here speaking on behalf of him because he's such a good guy. He It is so hard to get someone who has so much heart in the children's lives. I You heard it through the kids. And having the kids come up and speak their heart and soul about how much they love him as a coach, a father, means so much to me listening to it as a neighbor, but I had to come up and speak because I love the Rogers, Coach Chris. He does goes above and beyond for the kids in Wall. And just being alumni, it's speaks volumes. So, please think about it through a parent's view. And um thank you for everything you do, but Coach Rogers is

046a huge part of our community, and we need to keep him on. Thank you. >> [applause] >> Thank you very much. Do we Anyone else for public comment? Okay. At this time, then, I'm going to close this uh first public comment. At this time, I'm going to turn it over to uh Mr. Smythe uh for a budget presentation. Okay. I'll just say a few words first. Just before Mr. Smythe gets started, I was just going to say a few words regarding the budget presentation. Um and there's a number of people and individuals that work on it, but this particular annual school budget continues Wall Township public schools' commitment to providing our students the best possible learning experiences and environment. These experiences include best practices for class size, a variety of age-appropriate counseling and SEL services,

047curriculum rooted in research and in alignment with state standards, and continuous technology and facility updates. The district continues to be proud that this experience is fostered by many different district personnel, including BOE-employed bus drivers, custodians, maintenance, food service, and other support staff. Each school year and budget cycle presents new needs, challenges, and priorities that are strategically evaluated and prioritized by district administration and board committees to allow our district to be responsive to the most pressing needs while remaining fiscally responsible. Maximizing efficiency continues to remain one of our primary goals in developing a balanced school budget. And while operating expenses have continued to rise, this budget reflects a continued commitment to effective operations, student programming and growth, and staff needs. At this time, I'll turn it over to Mr. Smythe, our business administrator, who will lead

048us through more specific details uh regarding the 2026-2027 school budget, and invite those at the dais to take a seat in the audience. Okay, thank you, Mr. Scrano. And I was about to just say what you just said previous to me uh taking a microphone, but uh no, not really. So, this is the public hearing for the 2026- uh school year budget. Um and as well as Mr. Scrano did, I'd like to thank everyone who uh put a lot of work into this budget. Um because uh and and I know a number of them are sitting right here to my right. Uh but it it it's been a long process. With regard to the timeline for this budget, it started in October. Uh and I will say uh Dr. Hanrahan, in anticipation of uh uh

049being absent during the winter and uh the spring of this school year, um required that we started the process a little early uh and progressed uh substantially enough so that uh any difficulties, any issues could be addressed while she was still here. Um as indicated on the schedule, uh district prepared, and that and this is at the department heads, building principals, uh directors, uh started preparing their budgets in in October. Finance Facilities Committee started discussing it uh in November, and it was a topic of discussion each month since. Uh we had a public workshop meeting on March 10th, and and I'll make reference to that workshop meeting because there was uh a lot of detail um pre- presented uh to to the board and discussed with the board at that meeting. We had uh both

050assistant superintendents and the directors, uh you know, review their areas of the budget uh and what's included. We're not going to reiterate that uh tonight, but for additional information, again, please refer to the March 10th workshop meeting. Uh the state aid was released just after that uh workshop meeting on March 12th. The board approved a tentative budget on March 17th. That was subsequently submitted to the Department of Education for review. It's the uh office of the Monmouth County Superintendent. And on April 21st, they approved the budget so that we could advertise uh this this budget prior to the public hearing. That advertised budget is available on the district website. It was provided as a handout for this evening as well. Uh in addition to the advertised budget, the documents that were submitted to the Department

051of Education, along with the tentative budget, were also made available as as well as the presentation of the March 10th budget workshop meeting. Um we have our budget goals, which, you know, uh um they'll be uh included with the presentation. You can refer back to them, but these goals are what are used to guide decisions uh while we are working through the uh multiple months preparing preparing this budget. I I won't um read them for you. You can read them at your leisure. With regard to and again, I'm going to refer to March 10th. This is the uh personnel portion of the budget. Uh great detail at at the workshop meeting. Most importantly, this budget funds all the positions uh in uh in conformance with the budget goals that we have. And uh in addition

052to not requiring any cuts, reallocation of staff, we've also included two additional positions in the in next year's budget. With regard to curriculum and instruction, again, credit to Ms. McCann who presented at the budget workshop meeting. There's no drastic cuts in this category and I say that because there's a lot of school districts that are in a totally different circumstance than than Wall Township. They're going through drastic cuts in order to balance their budgets. Fortunately for us, we're not in that situation. Again, the last item listed, the Summer Nights Academy, that was previously funded by grant funds. That's a priority of the Board of Education and once again, it's being funded within our general fund budget. And this is again another area Sorry. Ketchup. Um another area that where we are achieving one of our

053budget goals. And again, the Summer Nights Academy was the last bullet. The area of special services, Ms. Bond presented information with regard to her department and her budget at the budget workshop meeting. But again, in in compliance with our goals or formal with our goals, the this budget continues to to to fund the movement to having in-house programs as opposed to sending our students out of district and the RISE program is a perfect example of that. That has continued to be funded in next year's school budget and in accordance with the goal, it's bringing students back into the district and it'll be shown on a subsequent slide. We're reducing our out of district placement costs. Student wellness, uh again, in detail at the at the workshop, you know, the the budget provides for the resources

054that are needed for these programs and you know, I'll only speak to you know the program and the benefit of this area. It's not only for students, but it's also for staff. We had an unfortunate situation in the district and I witnessed Ms. Steiner and Ms. Gilvary in action and you know, they are quite impressive. And that's what they do for staff. I can only imagine what they're doing for No problem. I'm sorry. what they're doing for the students in the district. Bless it here. No, I'm just kidding. >> [laughter] >> I don't think he was kidding. Sorry, I got to go one more to wellness. I apologize. Sorry, and again, this presentation will be available on the district's website for future reference. So, technology, this is the area of Mr. Allworth. Again, went great

055detail at the budget workshop. And again, referencing the the budget goals, you know, we've had cost reductions in certain areas and it it's allowed us to reallocate funds to to address a identified needs within our technology department. As noted by Mr. Allworth, and in this budget as in previous budget, continues the process of replacing student devices in different grades in a transition from the grade levels into the intermediate and the high school. And when I made this all one slide with regard to operations, security and transportation, again, detail at the workshop meeting. What what is most noteworthy, it's all there to read, but you know, we manage 200 acres of property. We maintain over half a million square feet of buildings. And this is all maintained by in-house staff that is has been a priority

056of this Board of Education that we don't outsource staff to to perform work in in the district. And all these departments are staffed by Wall Township school employees. And that is once again in the 2026-2027 school budget. So, this is the 2026-2027 school budget. It consists of uh three funds essentially. We have our general fund and this is what directly impacts the tax levy. It's what's being voted on tonight is the general fund budget. We also have the special revenue budget, which uh is basically grants and entitlements and I'll you know, acknowledge Ms. McCann and Ms. Bond for the work they do. Ms. McCann handles our Title One grants. Ms. Bond handles our IDEA grant that are over a million dollars. We get guidance with regard what what we should be budgeting for for the

057grants each year. However, the special revenue grants have no impact on the tax levy. The debt service is uh a separate fund and as its name, it's where we manage the funds where the district manages its debt. The the debt on the district's books are only the referendum from 2022 that we are still currently in the throws of under construction. But that even though the debt service part of the budget and along with the tax levy impacts the tax levy, it's not part of the budget that is presented and voted tonight. The tax levy for the debt service was approved when the referendum was approved in 2022. And continues for the life of the bonds for that debt service. So again, going back to the to the general fund, it's $95,600,000. We have anticipated revenues

058which are state aid as well as a number of miscellaneous revenues and the and then the remaining balance is funded through the taxes to be raised. Which as can be seen by under budgeted revenue are in a graphic, you know, we're we're dependent on the local tax levy. We have state aid, about 8% of our budget and the other sources of revenue, which would be tuition budgeted fund balance, make up about 5% of our revenues. Speaking specifically on the different revenues, again, the tax levy, the increase is 5%. That is comprised of the 2% allowable that all school districts realize on an annual basis for their tax levy as well as the health benefit adjustment that is being applied this year at 3% for a total of 5%. The miscellaneous tuition, miscellaneous revenue, you know,

059they vary year to year. The tuition our our students attending Wall Township But the other noteworthy is so we have our tax levy, we have state aid. I also want to mention that Sorry. State aid is 8% of our budget. We had an increase of 6%. It was about 300 just over $369,000 increase in state aid. Although on the on the schedules, about 444,000 because we also receive state aid for transportation of non-public students, which is not factored into the publicized state aid, but it is something that we include in our revenue stream and it is accurately reported here. The other areas I want to make reference to, budgeted fund balance, essentially that's the balance that's available in the prior year budget. So, we are currently in the 2025-2026 school year. And in creating next

060year's budget, we're estimating that we're going to have about $1.5 million remaining in this existing budget. And when you look at that, it's about 2% of the operating budget. So, we are operating at about a 98% and that could fluctuate depending on and the impact that would have is on what our remaining surplus is at the end of the year. But and this will be important that we're able to fund subsequent budgets with balances remaining in the prior year. Additionally, our capital reserve drawdown, which is used to fund our capital projects, which you'll see in the appropriation slide, but we fund our capital improvements to 100% from our capital reserve account, which means that's not impacting the tax levy or the state aid revenues. And the capital reserve account is funded from balances from prior

061year budgets. So, and we utilize those funds to as a revenue source in subsequent years budgets. And the same would go for the maintenance reserve drawdown. We're required to perform certain required maintenance in the school. We fund that category of accounts from a drawdown from our maintenance reserve account, which is specific for that purpose. And the amount is $700,000. Again, it's something we look to do on an annual basis Uh we fund those reserves with prior year budgets. So, even though there may be and I I mentioned that because in budgeting, you know, like from the beginning we're looking at a 26-27 school year budget. We're projecting out 18 months at the start of this process, 14 to 15 months even when we're completing it. Um and these are budget estimates. So, it it's very

062common that we would have balances remaining in these accounts at the end of the year. Uh those balances are used to fund the subsequent year budget as well as reserve accounts in order to fund um subsequent budgets. The other noteworthy is the designated fund balance is zero and it's been zero every year. Those Those would be funds that would be audited excess surplus. So, if the district after the audit uh the auditors determine that we had surplus in excess of what we're allowed to maintain as a surplus, that would be required to be a line item in our budget revenue which uh we do not have. So, the tax impact based on those uh the revenues and the um increase So, based on and it's based on uh revenues and appropriations equaling $95,600 is the

063tax levy 82 780. This includes the 2% increase that is allowable. It also includes the additional 3% health benefit uh adjustment. Um the allowable over the prior year as noted is 1.5 million and the health benefit adjustment is 2.3. And you know, throughout this budget the driver is the uh is the increase in health benefits. And again, similar to uh when discussing personnel, you know, Wall Township is is in a very good position with regard benefits compared to other districts that are seeing um significant increases in these these line items and therefore uh their their tax levy increases are in excess of this and I'll provide more detail because the health benefit adjustment is driven by the state health benefit plan. Um and and the reason is is because the state through their plan when

064they have increases that exceed the 2% that districts are allowed to increase on an annual basis, they recognize that school districts can't absorb those costs within that 2%. So, therefore there's an allowable adjustment that is driven by the state health benefit plan. Um it can't exceed what the increase is by the by the state plan. The state plan, for example, was 31% increase for the 2026 calendar year and that's what sets the bar for all school districts. Fortunately for us, again, we're nowhere near that 31% increase, but that's what enables school districts to go beyond the 2% statutory statutory increase and include an additional health benefit adjustment. The impact on the average assessed home um is and this assessment again is based on the 2% plus the 3% for the health benefit adjustment. The average

065assessed home in Wall Township is 495,600. The annual increase $248. Um last year the increase was $200, so this is about a an additional increase of $48. It's about it's 5 cents on $100 of assessed value. And again, uh this is the increase is driven by the health benefit adjustment. So, that was the revenue side of the budget. We also have the appropriations, so and we categorize them uh in two different ways. One is as of service and commodity and and again, this this this is telling in the sense that, you know, we're a service organization. 57% of our budget is salaries like combined with employee benefits uh you know, is 80% of our budget. And then you can see the balance of of the the pie, purchased services, supplies, and and other expenses. So,

066and again, when you have an organization with 750 plus employees, we issue more than a thousand W-2s, um you know, you you would and you know, the service is education. This This is how you would expect a a chart to to view uh for a school district budget. On a more detailed schedule, this is how the our appropriations are broken down by again, commodity or services. Uh again, employee benefits is a 13% increase over the prior year. And again, I'll mention the state health benefits comparison is the the state plan increased 30 31%. Um our our health benefits uh and I apologize, our employee benefits are increasing 13% because employee benefits are more than just health benefits. Um I I think some of the other numbers require some explanation. With regard to purchased property, you'll

067see a .7%. Um that is not strictly a a cut, but that is a a reallocation and change on how the district makes purchases. Uh included in there in the purchased property services would be the our lease purchase of school buses. We no longer lease purchase them. We outright purchase them as equipment which would be further down at the property and that's why you see a 270% increase in property. So, there's not a drastic cut and there's not a drastic increase. It's just a reallocation going from a lease purchase to an actual outright purchase and therefore they're required to be accounted for in different categories. Uh with regard to other purchased services being reduced 5%, again going back to the the goal uh of in-house programs, bringing students back to Wall Township, that is a

068direct result of reduced out of district placements as well as a reduction in charter school students being sent. Again, overall it is just under a 5% increase. To further the explanation with regard to the property, total equipment $452,000. Uh significant increase, but included in there is the school bus replacement. Uh and this list the equipment that is included in the budget and for the specific departments. We also review our appropriations by program or or department. Again, we can look at the pie. 36% of uh of our budget is directly related to instruction. Um And benefits being 24% of our uh our total appropriations can actually be applied across all those other categories, all those other slices because the benefits apply to to the staff with in within the instruction and as well as the staff

069in transportation, operations, uh and administration, and student support. From a schedule standpoint, we can review this again. A couple of them require explanation. Co-curricular and athletics is really that's it's a cut in the appropriation. However, this is again is a reallocation. Um costs that we previously budgeted for in this category uh have been re- re- re-appropriated and moved to uh in this case specifically instruction. Uh so, that's why that would fall under the 3.1% increase. So, it wasn't a cut in program. Uh for our athletic programs in the 26-27 budget. The tuition, that's a reduction. That is a a direct result of again, the out of district placement number being reduced as well as the charter school students. Technology, it's a big decrease on a percentage basis. It isn't that big on a dollar basis,

070so we have to take that into consideration. Uh but again, I I refer you refer you to the March 10th workshop meeting where Mr. Allworth went into more detail on reallocating resources, identifying certain efficiencies. Under uh transportation, um it's it's a a a small decrease, but again, there's actually increases in our costs within transportation, salaries, purchased services, etc. But again, we moved the school buses out of the transportation category and into uh equipment and that would also explain why there's a 270% increase. And again, benefits being a large portion of the budget, uh personnel benefits increase of 13.1% uh 13%. So, diving down deeper into the personnel benefits and again, this was discussed at the budget workshop meeting. This is what's included in this category of accounts. We have our social security contributions. We have

071support staff pensions. Uh so, the staff that work in our student transportation, custodial department, maintenance, uh the district is responsible for contributions for their pensions. That is paid annually. Uh that is included in in the budget at $1.7 million. Unfortunately, we're not reflecting an increase for the 2026-2027 school year. Workers' comp also in this category. Again, we've touched on the health benefits. It's a large increase to 2. Uh uh million dollars. And other employee benefits, uh slight increase, total 686,000. Included in there would be uh waivers for not taking health benefits, uniforms, tuition reimbursement, as well as payout of sick leave upon retirement would be included in the other employee benefits. Again, overall, it's a 13 1 13% increase. Health benefit specifically is a 16% increase. So, drilling down a little further into our health

072benefits, again, because that's the driving force on, you know, our health benefit adjustment, tax levy. A- And we're unique in the sense that we are self-insured. Uh And what does that mean? We don't pay fixed premiums as one as districts that are in a traditional plan or in the state plan do. So, if you're in a traditional plan or state plan, you have a fixed premium that the district pays on a monthly basis. If we were in the state plan, each month we would pay premiums of approximately $1.8 to $2 million per month. When you're self-insured, again, we don't pay premiums, but we pay the actual claims. And then we also purchase insurance for when claims are excessively high either on an individual or aggregate basis. So, this is our budget. We have an A4

073surcharge because we don't participate in the state health benefit plan. So, districts that aren't in the plan are are receive a surcharge. Ours is $240,000. We have our dental benefits, uh which are not factored into the health benefit adjustment. So, and then the bulk of it is our expected claims. So, between July and December, we we we anticipate or have an expectation of $8.5 million in claims. And then we put uh a uh 16% increase for uh the 2027. So, that increased the second half of our school year claims to be $9.75 million dollars. So, we And we pay claims on a weekly basis, uh a- which are the actual claims of our our members and their dependents. Uh To protect us from high claimants, we have a stop-loss insurance. We pay $1.5 million. What

074that covers is for any individual that's in our plan for costs that exceed $125,000 in a a year, the district receives reimbursement for those costs. So, we cover the first 125,000 and our stop-loss insurance covers any cost that exceed that. In addition, the stop-loss covers us in the aggregate of In sorry, in the aggregate of all of our claims to provide further protection. However, it is noted that we've never We have not in the 16 years that we've been self-insured, cuz we've been self-insured for 11 year since 2011, have we come near the aggregate for our stop-loss insurance. The third-party administrator, they For us, that's Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield. It allows us to use their network. It allows us to use their prescription discounts. And they manage the the claims and bill us on

075a week weekly basis. And then in addition to that, we have miscellaneous costs in there, Cobra management, flexible spending account management. Um And then as in all school districts, employees are required to contribute toward their health benefits. We offset the the total cost of the health benefit line with those contributions. And that's estimated to be $2.2 million over the course of the year. So, even though we don't pay uh premiums on a on a on a per per person individuals similar to, again, the traditional plan or or the state plan, for the purposes of employees' contributions, and also um to have a comparison um model, we have our brokers' actuaries calculate what a pre- premium equivalent would be based on our plan, based on our experience. Uh and the district employees that uh have health

076benefits contribute based on those premium equivalents. So, when we refer to traditional or state plan, it's premiums. For self-insured, they're premium equivalents. Um So, what I provided here is And I used the family plan because it's the most expensive. Uh and I included non-administrative positions or, you know, members in the WTEA. Uh They could be teachers, they could be non-represented, and it could be any of our support staff. Uh And And And I compared that also with and provided it along with someone who is in the administrators' group. The only difference between the two plans is the dental plan. Uh administrators' group gets a more expensive dental plan than the um uh the WTEA group and some other non-reps. Otherwise, the medical and prescription are identical. If If you choose the second column, the plan

077name, either the EHP, which is the Educators' Health Plan, or the Direct 15 for for these comparison purposes. We use a salary of 80,000 for for for the non-administrator because that's the average salary for our teachers in the district. Uh And the contribution for individuals that are in the Educators' Health Plan are based on your salary. So, in the top row, if you're non-administrator making 80,000, you have full family benefits, which would include medical, prescription, and dental. The total plan cost is 45,000. Your employee share is $5,000. And that's based on the percentage or 7.2% of your salary. The district share would be the difference as indicated, 40,668. If you're in the Direct 15, well, let me take a step back. The Educators' Health Plan is a plan that we are required to have in

078the district. The state mandates all school districts to have an Educators' Health Plan. It also states that any employee who is hired after July 1 of 2020 is required to be in the Educators' Health Plan. The Direct 15 or any other plans you offer are not available to anyone hired after July 1, 2020. So, that's the Educators' Health Plan. The Direct 15 is a district plan. It's a negotiated plan. And if you're in that plan, then And I'll throw out some numbers. Your contribution is based on Chapter 78 as negotiated. So, if you're a teacher, you make 80,000, you're in the Direct 15, cost is 44,465. Your contribution is based on a percentage of the actual premium, which is for our collective bargaining agreement. For someone making 80,000, it caps at 18%. Your contribution is

079the 8,000, the district pays the difference at 36. And again, I'll reiterate, we don't pay a premium. So, that's This is used for the employee share. We do use the employee share as a contribution, but we pay the actual claims, not a premium. Under an administrator, the EHP, and it's capped at 125,000 because it's 125,000 or higher, you pay again 9. 7.2% of that salary. So, any any administrators in the EHP or anyone who makes 125,000, you're going to contribute $9,000. The 554 is for the dental because dental is not part of the EHP, and it's employees contribute based on a percentage of the premium. And I don't want to get Apologize for getting too detailed. Mr. DiGiovanni's going to give me dirty looks. I I apologize, but it It just needs to make sense

080because 9,000 is for the EHP plan, 554 is for the dental. And you can see the district share is 36. And if you're an administrator in the Direct 15 plan, you know, the plan and the salary is not applicable here because you're paying based on a percentage of the premium as negotiated. In our district, administrators pay 30% of the premium. So, if the premium is $45,000, which includes the dental, your contribution is 30% or 13,768, and the district pays the difference of 32,000. So, in comparison, if we were in the state plan, um And I'll only use the the non-administrators as as a comparison because I think it only be worse with with the administrators. You know, under the state plan, you're in the EHP, same salary. The plan cost if for the state health

081benefits is 52,525. Um the employee share is 5,000. Again, because it it's not based on the health benefit premium or the cost of the plan, it's based on your salary. Uh and then the district share would be the 47 5. And if you're in the direct 15, which is a more expensive plan in the state, plan cost is 67 8. Um the contribution would be 12, and the district share would be $55,000. One more example why why the district doesn't look to move into the state health benefits plan. Uh it's reviewed every year, considered, discussed, uh and compared to being self-insured. Um but one of the additional benefits of being self-insured, again, cuz we don't pay those direct premiums, if we were in a state plan or traditional plan, we'd be paying those premiums. So,

082by paying claims, if we realize a savings within this line account, uh and we don't act our experience rating it is in the is positive, and we have a balance remaining at the end of the year, those funds are used I to go back to the prior slide to fund the budgeted fund balance, which is a revenue in the subsequent year, or funds are capital reserve or our maintenance reserve, which again are used to fund subsequent budgets. So, that's In addition to being cost effective, it it keeps the money with the school district as opposed to paying the state or uh a traditional insurer. So, but we'll take it a step further with regard to the tax impact with our health benefits. You know, and again, we've been insured since 2011. Uh dental is provided

083as a traditional plan that is not self self-insured. We have Aetna, we used to have dental. I mean, Delta Dental. Uh we quoted it. Aetna came in more competitive, and we moved to the plan um because it was more cost effective for the district. Uh so, our plan, again, we're self-insured. We have a 6% 16% increase in this budget line, uh and it adds 3% to the tax levy. And funds not needed to pay the claims stay with the district. And again, fund fund subsequent year budgets. If we were to enroll in the state plan, and the state plan runs on a calendar year, like our fiscal year is July through June, uh the state plan runs January to December. So, the the premiums that would be paid starting in July, they're known. Those are

084the premiums that exist right now. And next January, there would be an increase. So, halfway through our our our fiscal year, we would have to account for an increase to these premiums. So, um with no mid-year increase, uh just taking the current rates, carrying them all the way through our fiscal year, that would be a 30% increase to our budget line. And rather than adding 3% to our tax levy, it would be adding 5.8% to our tax levy. Um if if we were to factor in a 10% increase mid-year uh in the state health benefits plan come January, which uh I will say our broker and the industry is saying that they're anticipating an increase near again 30%, but we just factored in 10%, that would be a 37% increase to the budget line. It

085would be a 5.9% uh increase to the tax levy because we would be maxed out on our health benefit adjustment. We couldn't go higher, but it would still leave a shortfall in our budget of a million dollars, where our appropriations would exceed our revenues, and we'd have to find other areas to reduce our appropriations to make up that million dollars. So again, the recommendation is to uh stay uh self-in- self-insured. Capital improvements, cuz we love to end on a on a high note, and we love capital improvements. So, uh Capital improvements included in the 2026-27 school year, uh our total budget is 1,107,780. Uh You know, the the state provides debt service aid, but then they you know, they they hit you on an annual basis. So, we have an assessment uh of 7,780 that

086is given to us by the state Department of Education. We're required to appropriate it, and then they deduct our state aid the equivalent amount. Um but for our projects, we have district-wide paving. Um we're going to be focusing on Old Mill Elementary School as our first priority. Uh we have our front entrance improvements at Wall High School, uh both at the front entrance as well as the athletic entrance at $350,000. The these projects have been both postponed because of the work being performed on the referendum. And then uh new project is the school signage at our four elementary schools. Thank you to Central Elementary School for for starting this process. Um you know, they pitched a a new school sign. The F&F Committee discussed it, uh and they wanted to include it in the school

087budget that all four elementary schools um we look to replace the the schools the school signs. Uh And and make them more usable and allow better communication uh with the residents. And then lastly, we have our building management system upgrades. And this is specific to uh our HVAC and our the building management system that handles that. We've made a lot of improvements and replacements related to the referendum. Uh and what we want to do is bring the other areas of the schools uh to be on the same on on on the same management system that the the new equipment is. So, that that's a priority also, to be able to uh take advantage of the efficiencies of the equipment as well as the uh the management by uh our maintenance team. With that, last slide

088is a a thank you. And then if we return our seats, we'll open up for public comment. Okay, thank you, Mr. Smythe, for for that uh budget presentation. Public comment on the budget. Yes. No. Do Do you have any hard copies? Do you have a hard copy of that presentation I could have in front of me? The handout for the budget presentation was the advertised budget. >> No. Do you have a copy of that? I want to go through it. Do you have a hard copy I can have so I don't have to look at my phone. No. So, no. So, that's that's horrible, but that's typical Brian Smythe. A bad business administrator does not have a presentation for anybody to see. >> on the budget itself, not on any individuals, Mrs. Please comment on

089the budget itself. >> exactly what I want. He's a bad business administrator. When did the Board of Ed members receive a copy? Does anybody even have a copy, or were you looking at it the first time? Could you answer that question? Mr. Maliff, do you have even have a copy yourself of that presentation? >> with your comment. >> like you to answer that question so our new superintendent can hear. There's no analysis. So, Brown & Brown, Dominic Sinelli, gives you a nine-page presentation. There's nothing about going out and getting direct bids from Horizon, from Aetna, from Cigna. All you do is compare the state health benefits plan. That's a bad broker and a bad business administrator. You should be looking direct with the companies. You're not contributing enough. The percentages The employees are contributing 10%,

090and we're contributing, the taxpayers, 90%. I'm paying more for your plan than I'm paying for my own family plan. It's ridiculous. Your max out-of-pocket's are ridiculous. Um you do have three people on the direct 10. It showed from this presentation this sloppy presentation that Brown & Brown did. Their max out-of-pocket's $400. And um you've got 284 people on the on the direct 15. Uh so, on page 11 of 59, Mr. Smythe, you have blanks in here. So, did did Lester Richards approve this when you didn't fill out all the pages? If you could let me know, cuz I'll I'll have to open it. Did Did Lester Richards come back and ask you to do anything else? Um I know, you know, how many claims have you had over 125,000 that What happens to that? Did

091you have any this year over 125,000? If you could let me know about that. Um you had about a million five to spend. Or you had a million six to spend. A million five went on raises. So, all we do is cut things for the kids, and we keep giving you more money and keep giving you more money for health insurance. It it's not making any sense. You have to make changes with your union reps. I'm sure they'd rather pay a smaller percentage for health benefits. It's not making any sense even though it's it's in the union. Is this a public comment just on the budget right now or everything? This is on the budget. Just on the budget? >> That's correct. >> Okay. So there's another public comment? There will be. All right, and

092I want you to answer my first set of questions. >> else for public comment on the budget specifically? >> of questions that I had on the budget and I'd like you to answer these questions on the budget before anybody votes. When did you have copies of the presentation and do you have it in front of you right now? Is there anyone else with comments on the budget? Hi everyone. Gail Mar, community member. Um Jackson Toms River Howell Dell Middletown They're all cutting buildings. They're all closing down schools. Um they're all cutting staff. Because they have not managed their budget in years. Who on the Board of Ed only has increases of 5.9% in their own personal budget. Everything is higher than 5.9%. So although this might be the only time I've ever said it thank

093you, Mr. Smythe. Thank you, Ms. Mar. Any other comments on the budget? Okay. Seeing none at this time. Yes, Mr. Smythe. Go ahead. So just clarify a couple things with regard to contributions. Sure. I just to clarify some things and perhaps answer some questions with regard to the public comment and and the contributions. So contributions by employees are either as stated set by statute if you're in the educators health plan. It's not something the district decides the board can change. That is by law. The plan itself, the provisions of the plan are by statute. That is not at the district's discretion. The The direct 15 plan that the district has is a negotiated plan with the within the collective bargaining agreements that the board has with their employees. That can't be changed arbitrarily, can't be

094changed on a year to year basis. So the the benefits that are within the plan, the contributions that employees are required to pay are originally per chapter 78 which was statute and when that sunsetted went into negotiations and it's per the collective bargaining agreements that that exist. Additionally, I think it which was evident in the presentation that there were no cuts to programs for the kids in order to fund our health benefits. Again, as stated in in in the goals and then going back to the budget workshop meeting, what was the information that was presented is that you know, the different areas of and programs that the district offers have been fully funded with the 26-27 budget. Please cut You're not There are no comments at this time. Your comments are over. Mr. Smythe, any

095additional comments? Okay, at this time I'm going to ask for a motion to adopt the 2026-2027 school budget. Ms. Di Giovanni I'll second. Mr. Buffer Before we vote, I have a few comments that I'd like to make and any other board members can make certainly comments on the budget before we vote. First of all, I would like to say that the board has been We have been provided with copies of the budget. We've also been told by Mr. Smythe through his through contacts that we had opportunities to contact him to discuss the budget, something that I took advantage of over this time. So this is not None of this here is a surprise to any of the board members. We The process has been very open and we are all very much aware of what

096is in this budget. I'd like to want to tell you Excuse me. There are no comments at this point. I'd like to thank Mr. Smythe, Mrs. Scarano, Mr. Smythe, Dr. Handerhan um all of the um administrators who contributed their time and effort to to this budget. And also all of the people that that worked with them to help them to do this. Um As Mr. Smythe pointed out um we have not had to cut any programs. We have not had to cut any staff. Um other districts of similar size to us, some bigger, some smaller um have had to make rather drastic cuts not only to staff but to programs. Um I think that what this budget does is give the the students and the community of Wall Township a very good deal. And I'm

097very much proud to support this budget and I welcome any other comments from any of our other board members. Mr. Maliff Very well said. I'd also like to echo echo your sentiments. Um we sit through and um while that was a little more riveting than the conversations we have in F&F, um we definitely go through uh the budget in the same amount of detail during our discussions. Um We evaluate and and review every single account um at nauseam sometimes in those meetings. Um and you know, I really do appreciate um Mr. Smythe's transparency with the board and with the community and I also fully support this budget. So thank you, Mr. Smythe and thank you to the administration. Any other comments from the board? Okay. Mr. Smythe, roll call, please on the adoption of the

098school budget. Ms. Adams Yes. Ms. Barbier Yes. Ms. Bibby Yes. Mr. Buffer Yes. Ms. Di Giovanni Yes. Ms. Lawlor Yes. Mr. Smith Yes. Mr. Ondrack Yes. Mr. Maliff Yes. Yes. At this time, I'm going to introduce Mr. Scarano again for our superintendent's update. Thank you, Mr. Maliff. Just a quick thank you again to Mr. Smythe as well as Ms. Weiner for all their work in preparing tonight's budget presentation and the entire administrative team, the Board of Education for their work on and support of the 26-27 budget. Um we're pleased to be able to provide a successful budget for the upcoming school year, especially during a time of leadership transition. So thank you for everybody involved. Uh been a number of weeks since our last superintendent's update. A little longer than our our usual monthly time

099frame, so just bear with me. But thank you to the NNJ SCC Color Guard and our student representative to the Board of Education, Sophia Kepping, for joining us this evening. Always a great job and much appreciated. And once again, congratulations to our very talented art students, our championship bowling team and to junior Donovan Klein, the repeat NJ SIAA individual bowling champion. On Monday, March 23rd, it was a full professional development day for staff and thank you to Ms. McCann and the curriculum office for for putting together this full day of meaningful learning. Professional development days such as this require great deal of planning and coordination well in advance and the day was well thought out and provided a number of choices for staff to attend their colleagues' presentations. Thank you also to Ms. Steiner and

100her team for the very informative community resource panel put together for our educational support services staff. And overall, it was a very productive day. The high school spring musical Into the Woods ran from March 26th through the 28th with four shows total and it was a pleasure to attend the opening performance. The new venue was a highlight but the cast, crew and orchestra were the stars. There were a great deal There was a great deal of talent on display and they delivered an enjoyable performance even with the matinee power and sound issue. Congratulations to them and to Mr. Ryan, Mr. Montalto and Ms. Frances for their direction. Congratulations to the junior class as they celebrated their prom on Friday, April 17th. It was a nice event that was well attended by the students and high

101school staff and they certainly look like they were enjoying their evening. And thankfully, the weather broke just in time for arrival. Ms. Bond and I had an opportunity to attend the Volley for Autism event at WHS this past Thursday and it was exciting and rewarding to see so many students, staff and families attend and participate in this very worthy cause. The event raised over $10,000 to support both the POAC Autism Services organization and our district students. NJSLA testing will begin tomorrow, Wednesday, April 29th and Thursday, April 30th here at the high school. This will be specific to the reading and writing sections and math and science will run from May 18th through May 22nd. Elementary testing will begin on Monday, May 4th and WIS NJSLA testing will begin the following week on Monday, May 11th.

102Please refer to Ms. McCann's April 13th testing letter for more specific dates and testing details, which can also be found on our website under the curriculum and instruction tab. As you may have noticed, the various trees purchased through the previously awarded trees for school grant have now been installed around our district's campus. These trees have been purchased, planted, and will be maintained using funds acquired by our district through the collaborative efforts of our staff and conduct in conjunction with the NJDOE, Sustainable New Jersey, and The College of New Jersey. The project will not only further beautify our campus, but will also aid in mitigating environmental impacts and reducing the state's carbon footprint. Special thanks to Dr. Kennedy, Mr. Tenant, and Mr. Hendrickson, as well as many others for their efforts. And much of this progress

103was shared via our social media channels just in time for Earth Day on April 22nd and the Coastar on April 23rd. Our department of our Department of Wellness and Secondary Student Assistance Counselors invite you to a parent evening presentation with Doug Collier, professor of criminal justice at Monmouth University and retired DEA agent. He will shed light on the items and behaviors teens often hide in plain sight, helping caregivers recognize what to look for and how to start meaningful conversations that make an impact. The presentation will be on Wednesday, May 6th from 6:30 to 8:00 here in the Wall High School Auditorium. May marks Mental Health Awareness Month, and this year's district theme is more good days together. Our school counselors have coordinated a variety of student and staff wellness activities for both the elementary and

104secondary levels. Families can stay informed on these initiatives by reviewing our social media posts and wellness flyer that will be included in School News More newsletters. Thank you to Ms. Diner and the entire wellness team for offering a seamless age-appropriate awareness of mental health that is thoroughly aligned thoughtfully aligned to an inspiring theme. We are excited to invite you to our Passport to the World, a multicultural celebration night, which is a special event celebrating cultures from around the world. This fun and educational evening will take place on Wednesday, May 20th at 6:00 p.m. in the gym at the West Belmar Elementary School. And please consider attending for an exciting and educational evening in culture of culture and learning. I'm proud to share that our district has again been awarded the Best Communities for Music Education

105Award from the National Association of Music Merchants. This has been awarded for the second consecutive year. The award is given to recognize the collective efforts in making instrumental music a part of a well-rounded education for our students and to recognize the community's commitment to creating an environment where children can learn and grow with music. We are very proud of our music educators and are thankful for the efforts of our music community. The months of April and May mark a time of recognition for many of the school personnel who work to make our district great. From assistant principals and administrative assistants to media specialists, paraprofessionals, and bus drivers in April, and from school principals and teachers to nurses and lunch heroes in May, please take a moment to thank those individuals who do what many others

106either can't or won't. They listen, guide, and counsel. They push, demand, and praise, but most importantly, they care. Any successful school district relies on these positions to work together, and as such, we celebrate them together. The work has gotten harder, the stakes higher, but regardless of the role, its importance can't be under- understated as it impacts children and inevitably our future. Some professions may be more lucrative, but few are as important and rewarding. I have been called many things in my life, but none are as important to me as father, husband, and educator. May 1st is National School Principals Day, Teacher Appreciation Week is May 4th through May 8th, and National School Nurses Week is May 6th through May 12th. And one final update, our district uh has recently been awarded JROTC status, and we

107look forward to selling celebrating this conversion next month at May's meeting. Thank you, Mr. Maliff. >> [applause] >> Thank you, Mr. Thank you, Mr. Scarano for highlighting many of these great accomplishment and achievements by our our students and and staff. And uh thank you for your great work as your as our acting superintendent. Thank >> A couple things that I'd like to comment on. Maybe I'll I might be some of the things that Mr. Scarano said, but I attended the performance of Into the Woods. I think I was at the at the matinee, and I if there was any problems, I didn't really notice. It was a great performance, really a complex show. Uh It was a little hard for me to follow sometimes, but it but I my wife filled me in it, so.

108But uh But I it was great. It was really great. What talent up there. The The not only the cast, but the crew, and it really was spectacular. I was happy to hear tonight during Sophia's awards comments that many of the of our student performers and the orchestra have been nominated for the the Basie Awards, and that's quite an accomplishment. And let's I wish them good luck, the nominees, and hopefully we'll get some of those awards. Congratulations also to Mrs. Alexander and our art students who were selected for the 2026 Art Educators Youth Art Month state exhibition and those selected for the Monmouth County Teen Arts Festival, those hoping to move on to the New Jersey State Teen Arts Festival. Tremendous accomplishment by our Group Two State Bowling champions. Congratulations to Coach Lash, Coach Jessa,

109Coach Klein, and special congratulations to Donovan Klein, a now two-time individual overall state champion. One of the things that I noticed on the the board agenda and I'm very, very happy to see is that we are entering into a dual enrollment agreement with The College of New Jersey, one of the great institutions of higher learning in New Jersey. This is a great opportunity for our students to get credit at TCNJ in a large number of classes. Thanks to the administration, but also thanks to the teachers who are either having to get approval from TCNJ to teach those classes or are teaching AP-approved classes so that our students can get this credit at greatly reduced prices. It's a Hopefully, it's a win-win for those students. Uh And also I happy to see and I'm sure the

110elementary principals, I see many of them here tonight, are going to looking forward to the new signs you're going to be getting. Okay. And I'm sure the community will be appreciating them once they are installed. Okay. And I'm going to finish my report by mentioning our students of the month, our Knights of the Week, and the students of the third marking period. Students of the month for grade 11, Lily Brady. Grade 11, Jennifer Hunt. Grade 12, El Adriana Talarico. Night of the Week for grade 11, for the week of 3/2/26, Jade Lucky. For the week of 3/9/26, 12th grader Gavin Cartinella. For the week of 3/16, 12th grader Thomas Plisky. And for grade grade 11, the week of 3/23/26, Nicholas Forte. Students of the third marking period. For art, we have 12th grader Catherine Duran.

111For business, 12th grader Joseph Ambrosi. For English, 10th grader Michael Fury. For family life, 12th grader Elizabeth Burns. For math, ninth grader James Davis. For Media TV, 12th grader Ronald Pela. For music, 12th grader Kelly Puzo. For PE and health, 11th grader Ashlyn Holubinko. For science, ninth grader Rizzo Espinandi. For social studies, 10th grader Bridget Mangan. And for world language, 10th grader Esther Hor. All right. And that concludes my report for tonight. And for the Board of Education, any board member would like to make comments at this time. Mr. Buffer. I do, and I I it's going to be somewhat of a committee report, but I had some other things I just wanted to mention while I had the floor. Um So, as just to quickly go back to the budget, I I should have

112mentioned earlier when I was thanking Mr. Smythe and the administrative team. Um Uh thank you to the F&F Committee um for the hours-long meetings that we sit through on a monthly basis um to make sure that um we're putting in the work that needs to go needs to be put in um and to to ensure that things are going the way that our community, Wall Township, needs them to go. So, thank you for your time. Thank you for your energy. And just thank you for always being there. Um Continuing on the F&F train, referendum. We are nearing kind of on the tail end of the referendum. But that doesn't mean we don't have some really exciting stuff going on. F and F was taken on a tour of the stadium renovations at our last meeting

113a couple of weeks ago. And um it was really impressive the amount of progress that they've made out there on those fields. And it's my understanding that even since our last meeting there has been quite a bit of progress made as well. So, for the public, please get on the website. Um check out the referendum tab. It has all of the updates. We're updating pictures as we can. It and there's just a ton information on there. And then last bit about the budget, there's also a ton information about the budget on the website. Um log on, take a look, and I'm sure all your questions will be answered just by doing that. Um and while I have the floor, I I should have said this earlier when Ms. Kepping was here. Um But I really

114am impressed with the how thorough her reports are on a monthly basis. And I feel like her reports really paint a picture of everything that's going on in the high school. Um And just hits all the points. And one of the things that I that I took away from um her report this week was that we had the we were a nominated we received Basie nominations for 11 categories. Um And I'm by no means an expert in this, but I think that in each category um there can be five people nominated for or five schools or five individuals nominated for each category. So, if you put that in into perspective, the entire size of Monmouth County, um and the fact that we were nominated for 11 of those categories, that's really impressive and just a

115testament to the hard work and dedication of our students. Um As well as the showcase we had earlier with the with the kids being presented and honored tonight. It's it's really nice to see and it kind of certain points when you don't know why you're still doing this, those are kind of the reasons why it it reinforces why you do this. Um And lastly, I I did want to thank and again I should have done this earlier when they were here. I did want to thank thank the students that came out tonight to speak on behalf of their coach. Um You know, that's it's I hate public speaking as as a 43-year-old. And I can only imagine, you know, 17, 18-year-olds having to get up and speak in front of a crowd of 75 people.

116Um How daunting that can be. So, I did want to just put that on record. I thank them for coming out and and speaking at the mic tonight and you know, for something they're passionate about. So, thank you. Thank you, Mr. Buffer. Well said about the young men who came and ladies who came to speak tonight regarding the coach. At this time we're going to open up the floor for public comment on of I'm sorry. Committee reports Committee reports are available on the agenda they available on the agenda tonight. You can find them. Okay. And now public comment on um agenda items. Betsy Cross, 11 Wall. Um there was a surplus in food service and that happened a number of years ago under Mr. Smythe and James Hayball who went to jail. I don't know

117how that could happen again, but it did. Um so, I don't know if you're up on that and I don't know if our new superintendent is aware, but he should get copies of that. We had to spend $100,000 on a forensic audit of our food service cuz Brian was buying copy machines from Xerox and he was spending the money on things he shouldn't have been spending the money on. Um So, I think we need to get a handle on how how in the world could that happen again? And it was only because of my Oprah did I did I figure it out. You're supposed to let us know when you get written up for stuff like that. And how did that get past the auditor? Um Having the budget hearing the same night as a

118lot of stuff is going on at municipal, bad choice. Policy 5756, transgender students. We've got to do away with that. And I'm glad Marlboro is one school that did get take it away. We don't need you to keep secrets from parents, which is exactly what that does. We don't need you to help transition our students. So, um I wanted to mention >> agenda items? You you don't run the meeting, Mr. Smythe. You were the business administrator who doesn't reply to emails. Thank you. >> the agenda items. >> And I'm addressing you to please stick to agenda items, please. >> Uh yeah, I'm looking at your referendum. How did we spend an additional $3 million on athletic improvements and an extra $8 million on HVAC improvements? Poor budgeting by your business administrator, Brian Smythe. Um Why

119do we not have Jennifer McCann on an agenda when she was out on leave? And why do we not have Tracy Handurhan not on agenda? So, Mr. Scarantino, you're the head of HR. How do we not have those people on >> not on the agenda tonight. >> Right, it should be on an agenda. >> not. So, please address things that are on the agenda. >> That's what I want to know from the head of your HR. And you know, your new superintendent can hear that, too. >> Those are comments you could have made earlier tonight. >> and choose who do you put on agenda where when they're out and we're paying their salaries and hiring replacements that just show up and sit on the dais? Um what are the two additional positions that you're hiring

120for and how much are you spending? Is it going to be a surprise? You've budgeted for two additional people. What are they going to be doing? How many claims have you had over 125,000 in the last 5 years? I I asked you a number of questions before and you've answered none of them. Um page 11 of 59, did did Mr. Richens come back and ask you to fill out additional items cuz you left them blank? How does how does one go to Manasquan High School? Cuz I I mentioned that before. How do they go to Middletown? How do they go to Jackson? These are regular students going there. How does that happen? Um Thank you, Mr. Cross. It's it's all online. Is there anyone else for public comment? I'm seeing no one else. We're going

121to close public comment. Uh At this time I'm going to ask for approval of the consent agenda with the exception of 16C number two. May I have a motion? I'll motion. Mr. Buffer, motion. A second? Second. Ms. DiGiovanni, roll call, Mr. Smythe. Mr. Xavier? Yes. Ms. Bibbo? Yes. Mr. Buffer? Yes. Ms. DiGiovanni? Yes. Ms. Lawler? Yes. Mr. Smythe? Yes. Mr. Mandrake? Yes. Ms. Adams? Yes. Ms. Lawler? Yes. At this time I would like a motion to adjourn to adjourn the public session and move to executive session for items on the agenda. There will be no action taken at the executive session. Do I have a motion to adjourn to executive session? Mrs. Mrs. Adams, do I have a second? >> I'll second. Mr. Mr. Smythe, okay, we are adjourning from public session. We are moving

122to executive. As I said, no action will be taken.