Wall Township Board of Education Meeting 2-25-2025

001e e e good evening and welcome to the budget only Workshop meeting of the wal Township Board of Education for February 25th 2025 please stand for the flag salute to flag of the United States of America and to the rep for it stands one nation God indivisible liy and jce for all Mr SMI son try announcement and roll call please yes this is the wall Town trip Board of Education meeting for which adequate notice under the open public meeting Act was provided by notice to the co-star Asbury Park Press Township clerk's office all Wall Township Public Schools and in the board Administration office on January 9th 2025 take a roll call Miss Adams here Mr anesio miss barbier here Mr Bon here Mr Buffa Miss D Giovani here Mr Smith here Mr wandra here Mr

002MTH here at this time we're going to open up the uh floor for public comment anyone wishing to make a comment please come to the microphone seeing no public comment we're going to close public comment at this time and at this time I'm going to turn it over to Dr handerhan Who will give an introduction uh about our presentation tonight thank you thank you very very much Mr Mali good evening everyone um just to set the table a little bit for this evening budget workshops are sessions for the full board to meet as a whole and discuss the 2025 2026 budget and are in addition to the discussions that take place at committee meetings where no more than four board members meet with school and District administration on a monthly basis the budget Workshop is

003held in public because it includes the full Board of education and therefore provides an opportunity for the public to observe the board as they work on the budget budget Workshop meetings are not presentations of the school budget and most documents being referenced reviewed and discussed have not been made available to the public and are not made available at the workshop meetings it is important to note that to date state aid figures have not yet been released we are expecting state aid figures shortly please understand that state aid figures can and will impact this process and our budget greatly additionally federal aid is another factor that could potentially impact our school budget at this point we have not received any definitive information regarding federal aid Cuts or allocations for next year at the March 18th Board

004of Education business meeting the board will be asked to approve a tentative 20125 2026 school budget for the purpose of submitting the budget to njd e for review and approval prior to advertising the proposed budget that will be presented at a public meeting and voted on by the Board of Education the deadline to submit this tentative budget is March 19th work on the budget will continue after the budget the tentative budget is approved with the final budget being presented at the public hearing on April 29th at the April 29th public hearing on the 2525 26 school budget a budget presentation will be made to the public and there will be a public comment opportunity specific to the budget the board will then vote on the proposed budget I would like to add that costs to

005run the school district have gone up in recent years to illustrate this I wish to reference the news from earlier this month with a headline announcing the average electric bill in New Jersey is expected to increase between 17 and 20% like homeowners school districts have to prepare for such an increase and we must budget accordingly these types of costs do add up before we get started this evening I would like to share with you the priorities of next year's budget as we move through this process our overarching budget goals continue to adhere to our strategic planning and support the goals and objectives from the strategic planning process our desire is to craft a f fiscal year 26 budget that supports the following curriculum updates and programmatic changes rooted in evidence-based practices and brain-based research strengthening

006capacity of Staff members through professional development and increased leadership opportunities student wellness must continue to be at the Forefront of our decision- making K12 evidence-based practices will be implemented increase investment in technology to best prepare students for Next Generation applications that Employments and continued focus on maximizing efficiency with respect to Staffing and purchasing as I mentioned earlier the 2025 26 budget continues to be a work in progress at this juncture we have a budget gap of approximately $750,000 after factoring in built-in and recurring expenses priorities and initiatives to get to this number a great deal of Cuts have already taken place by administrators the roughly $750,000 Gap is arrived at by assuming current levels of state and federal aid receiving current levels of state and federal aid may not be the reality since we are

007still awaiting next year's allocations I hope it will be but um I felt it necessary to um provide that context that said the finance and Facilities committee other board committees and District administrators will work diligently over the next two months to close the remaining budget Gap and make adjustments for any known Cuts in state and or federal aid in order to close the budget Gap I would like to share with the board that unfortunately Mr adio is unable to join us this evening he reached out to us earlier today and additionally Mr Buffa who is the current chair of finance and facilities ask that I convey his regrets for not attending this evening um unfortunately he is ill and is unable to be here this evening at this point I would like to welcome assistant

008superintendent of curriculum and instruction Miss Jennifer McAn she's going to start us off tonight to review the proposed curriculum and instruction budget Miss mccan thank you Dr hand your hand um in your packets there is a handout of some of the highlights of the curriculum and instruction budget the curriculum and instruction budget is strategically aligned to support the academic objectives outlined in the district's broader strategic plan as highlighted in last week's mid-year goals update the district's academic vision is to cultivate a culture of academic Excellence Innovation and Equity this Vision ensures that students have access to personalized learning experiences a rigorous curriculum and ample Support Services empowering them to reach their full potential consequently the budget prioriti prioritizes key areas curriculum development instructional resources professional development and supplemental programs at the heart of curriculum design

009is the goal of enhancing the quality of teaching and learning a well-crafted curriculum serves as a road map guiding Educators on what content to teach along with effective instructional strategies and assessment practices each summer sorry back up regular curriculum revision is essential for staying aligned with best practices each summer our teachers engage in collaborative efforts to Revis curricula in response to updates from the New Jersey Department of Education or when curricula require a refreshment due to time elapsed since their last revision this summer we will focus on refining mathematics multilingual education World Language and elective courses at both wall intermediate school and the high school as well as some special education courses at the high school while a robust curriculum is foundational to Quality teaching it is equally critical to support this curriculum with research-based

010instructional resources ongoing evaluation of instructional materials ensures alignment with New Jersey student learning standards and adherence to best practices this year grades K to8 along with algebra 1 geometry and Algebra 2 have piloted new instructional materials these new resources along with updated advanced placement US History textbooks are accounted for within the budget Additionally the budget includes Provisions for consumable workbooks such as our K5 reading and writing workbooks Math workbooks and novels for grades 6 through 12 as well as supplies like paper pens p paint student desks and specific materials for music art and technology in our current digital landscape it is essential to integrate educational platforms that enhance classroom instruction to facilitate personalized learning the district utilizes ass assessment platforms that generate detailed reports offering insights into students strengths and areas for improvement these platforms

011along with other contentp specific resources support both teaching and learning across various disciplines professional platforms also play a vital role in The District's operations for instance Genesis serves not only as the student information system but also as a tool for managing teacher lesson plans grade books and professional development plans in addition the district utilizes platforms such as schoolfi Frontline and eye observation each serving a distinct purpose to enhance operational efficiency and instructional quality professional development is the Cornerstone of the district's commitment to continuous Improvement it equips both teachers and administrators with the tools and knowledge necessary to address the diverse learning needs of our students by staying current with educational research professional development ultimately contributes to enhanced student learning outcomes fostering a culture of lifelong learning and collaboration amongst educ ators professional development opportunities for

012our staff are offered in two primary formats out of district and IND District out of District professional development includes local state and national conferences as well as daily workshops in our area IND District professional development is provided by external Consultants Who deliver in-class coaching workshops and guest speaker sessions to en enich the professional growth of our staff members as Dr handerhan had mentioned in addition to our local funding sources the district also benefits from federal funding through the elementary and secondary Education Act also known as Esa which encompasses Title One title two title three and title four subg grants each subgrant targets specific areas Title One focuses on improving the academic achievement of disadvantaged students with funding supporting our morning and after school programs at our qualifying schools such as Central West belmare Wall Intermediate

013School and wall High School title two funds are allocated to support districtwide professional development while title three focuses on language instruction for our English language Learners and our immigrant students title four funds support supports title funds title for funds if I could get it straight supports initiatives related to mental health and Technology the district receive notification of its Federal allocations in late May or early June at which point funding decisions will be made based on available resources for the past several years the Wall Township Public Schools like many others has relied on Esser money to support supplemental programs designed to address learning loss however as noted last year at this time Esser funds are no longer available since September 30th of 2024 as a result the district must now incorporate the cost of these programs

014into the general budget to continue offering them for instance Last Summer the district was only able to fund the elementary Summer Night Academy which had a total cost of about $90,000 this the district recognizes the positive impact this program has on our students and is committed to running it again this summer though the expense must now be accounted for within the district's budget thank you okay thank you Mr mccan uh at this time if we have any questions I'm gonna I'm just going to start off with a uh with a quick question and then any certainly any other members of the board that would have a question just regarding the uh the textbook purchases the new textbook purchases are these uh are they all onetoone purchases are they classroom sets are there any online resources

015that go along with these purchases okay great question so at the elementary level there is a digital component as well as a consumable component in grades four and five that typically would go along with any textbook textbook adoption or a new new series adoption at the middle school level and the high school level they will most likely be a classroom set of textbooks that would be adopted as well as any digital access that we would be afforded within adopting that textbook so students would be able to access their student version via their Chromebook and not have to travel back and forth with the actual book okay thank you question from anyone question from anyone else on the board okay thank you Mrs McAn thank you very much Miss mccan um there there are a lot

016of uh I just want to stress the importance of committee meetings uh for the Board of Education that there is a there's a tremendous amount of really learning and sharing that takes place throughout the calendar year to get to uh this particular point and I just want to mention um that I know it wasn't easy to continue to hold on to um really to make room in our local budget for the summer nights program it's because it came from a federally funded Source where the the funding um the funding uh no longer exists so um I just want I I I want to applaud that and I do hope that we're able to um in the final days because it's such an important program that I do hope that um you know that we will

017be able to to maintain that um I thank you and at this point I would like to welcome um Miss Kelly Bond she is our assistant superintendent in charge of special services and he she's here this evening to share the details of um her proposed budget so I'm going to turn the turn the program over to you thank you very much um so thank you for the opportunity to present this this evening I do have to take a moment to um thank uh Dr Samaha and Miss bagar Roa uh the supervisors of special education and the CST they played a a large role in this creating this proposed budget um and their hard work um certainly shows in in uh the work that we get to do within our department um so the proposed budget

018is based on the missions and uh the principles of the Department of special services the heart of our work is truly in working with students and and doing the best that we can for them but every action that we take is rooted in the New Jersey administrative code and um the federal regulations that are required for special education departments so um you can see here uh in our visions and responsibilities that we Ser as students Age 3 to 21 um so some of our students do remain with us until they are the age of 21 and this proposed budget looks to fund the current programs in which we have the um Staffing and the curriculum that is required to be in compliance uh with the law and also extraordinary services that some students may require

019the next slide talks about the Continuum of services that we provide in District and um some of you have seen these these next couple of slides before but I always think it's important to go back and talk about these because it's the root of what we do and how we make budgeting decisions so um it talks about our programs from um most to least restrictive here you could see the least restrictive environment for a student is in a general education classroom maybe within class resource which would mean there's a special educator in the room with the general education teacher our next step would be a pullout resource room where um a group of students a small group of students is working with just a special educator then you go on to a self-contained program where

020um the students may need more than that they may need more specialized instruction we're going to talk about the programs that we have in District in an upcoming slide out of District is uh when we cannot support the students within district and we need to look to an outside school to be able to um give that child what they need and last but not least um home instruction is considered the most restrictive because that means the student is home and has no access to any peers whether they're special ed or general education um so those are the Continuum of services in which we provide um and then the New Jersey Administrative Code talks talks specifically to the number of students that can be in each one of those settings so this is really important to

021note because that is where all of our staffing needs come from it is truly based off of numbers and requirements that the New Jersey Administrative Code provides so in um in in-class resource section you can see eight students eight special education students can be in an elementary s um session and 10 in secondary those numbers are non-negotiable if we to were go to nine in an elementary class I would need to open another section of that um in pullout resource and in the self-contained classes you see a number and then you see a number in parentheses so for example pull out resource at elementary we can have six students the 7even to nine is if we add a par professional to that classroom if we were to go over that nine with the teacher and

022the par professional we would need another section so we look really carefully at the projections of our students to determine what our staffing needs are for the following year our programs we have a lot of wonderful programs in District that um we are very proud of starting at Wall primary school we have a A specialized class for students that um require a self-contained environment due to their preschool disability and then we have integrated classes where we have general education and special education preschoolers together moving on um to our elementary schools our self-contained programs are housed in either Allenwood or Old Mill um our um emotional regulation impairment multiple disabilities classes and language and learning disabilities classes that occur in elementary continue on as you go into wall Intermediate School um and into the high school

023we we look at projections and we determine when it's appropriate to open a new class so if you were on the board two years ago when we opened the ER class at uh whs that was because we had a cohort of students that was moving up to whs that would continue to need that support um we have not needed a full class quite yet at the high school but um we will be doing some specialized resource classes next year at um the high school for students who need a smaller more specialized resource room that will do academics and incorporate some of that social emotional uh learning that may be required you'll also at the high school we have our work-based experience that is for some high school age students and our 18 to 21 year

024old students who need to learn those employability skills they go out onto job sites they are with job coaches and they are learning in real time which is really awesome um the next slide reviews what the Rise program is that is a program that we just started this past September um and this shares the vision of what that program um why it was created and um this budget does does um incorporate a continuation of that program it is really growing and thriving we're very proud of it it has expanded from four students to seven um and this allows us to educate those students at the high school as opposed to them maybe requiring an outof District placement um and certainly the cost of added District placements are are quite Hefty so um educating our students

025here is not only a cost benefit but also we believe very beneficial for students who can be with their peers um and and incorporate into classes when they are ready Mrs Bond can I just for the for the benefit of the the new members on the board yes regarding this Rise program which is a great thing could you maybe just elaborate a little bit more on absolutely on what the student experience is yes and uh and who might qualify for that yes absolutely so um it is a very individualized program we have um a clinician that works directly with the teacher and with the students to provide the therapeutic services in which those students may require um it could allow for a shortened day if that is something that is necessary it allows for the

026opportunity for family therapy if that is something that is necessary for the students um the reason we we looked to create this program is we are finding that there are many students who are experiencing School anxiety School phobia um students who are not wanting to come to school and um it's very difficult when you sit in a building and you're talking on the phone with a parent who's trying to get their child on the bus in the morning and they're CH they're they there's crying there's emotion there's I don't know what to do um so by creating this type of classroom and having the clinician that can go into homes and can help that parent in real time has made a world of difference um so we we looked at students who were here and

027experiencing that we looked at students who had previously been sent out of District because they were experiencing that and looked to bring some students back um if that was appropriate um it we have had some um other districts come to tour our program we have not had any um official tuition in students just yet my goal was really to get through before because I can assure you once I advertise this to the directors I will get people um who are interested so we really wanted to get through our first year of implementation to feel that we knew we were successful we were successful with our own students before we opened it up to others but I anticipate that being um something that can happen in the near future you're welcome um okay and then the

028next slide talks about our out of District place placement which is a large bulk of um the special education budget um it is something that we take very seriously when we decide to send a student to an outof District placement if if we are saying we have tried everything that we have here in Wall Township and we are not the least restrictive environment for that student we are not able to meet their needs so we may consider an out of District placement um you can see by uh this graph that those numbers have been on a steady decline um we started um at this time last year we were anticipating 27 students to require out of District placements in this past September this year um we are looking to anticipate 25 students so with that

029slow decrease um it it fluctuates certainly depending on students moving in moving out of the district if we determine that we could potentially bring a student back to District but this is the information that we have in this very moment um and then you can also see the tuition in students there are a lot of neighboring towns that don't have the robust offering of programs that we have here in Wall Township and will'll reach out on a regular basis for us to review records to observe the child and to determine if the child might benefit from one of our programs so last year at this time we were anticipating 11 tuition in students right now we are anticipating 13 so um you know that's also something that um between the declining out out of district

030and the increasing or the maintenance of our tuition in is something that is um we're really proud of and is definitely um a direct um correlation to the Quality programs I think that are offered um and I do need to thank the board and um Dr hhan and all of the building administrators who who have these programs in their buildings because I I can assure you in going to my meetings that other special administrators are not off the level of support that that I am here so I do appreciate that um and then the next the next slide which is a long list of things but really just outlines all of the things that the special services uh budget provides for students um you can see that um extended school year all the extraordinary services

031that certain students may require some students may need a onetoone nurse some students may need a on toone par professional there's various evaluations we do for students to ensure that we really know them before we decide what type of program they may need um there's specialized equipment certain students need uh we do training for the entire District we uh do Crisis Prevention training having IEP direct um there's also worked into the budget there is a new tool for the learning disabilities teacher Consultants the evaluation that they give for the educational evaluation has been updated um that's not a suggestion that's a requirement when a new one comes out so those funds are also built into the budget um and then lastly you can just see some grouped items here um for the budget some of

032the line items are going up and some are going down um we could see out of District tuition is going down due to that um decrease in the number of students that are out of District Professional Services as their prices increase our budget needs to increase as well um and we've made some work to be more efficient within the department in regards to the way that we order supplies um so that has helped decrease those line items as well as working very collaboratively with building Administration when we have field trips and the extraordinary Services students might need on those trips we've been much more efficient in grouping students where um that budget line has been able to decrease as well so that's it for me happy to take any questions okay thank any questions for

033Mrs Bond yes Miss bar here who else said oh me m m dvani um I had one question some of these um evaluations of student needs such as like Physical Therapy neurological audiological do they come in or do the kids go out and get those services at a particular office so was just curious so we are lucky enough to have um a neurologist who comes to the special services office so we schedule those right at the special services office the parent parents come in they sit in our adorable little kitchen and the students go upstairs and work with um the neurologist there are times when um we may need a specific evaluation that might cause um a student to have to go to an office but those more common evaluations we do in-house thank you

034um I just had a quick question about the Rise program um so I love that we're doing this um I'm a little nervous that it's growing that's not a good sign is it or is it so um I mean it's it's certainly if if you build a program and um there's a possibility that a student may benefit from it you know we're we're going to look to to have students go into that some of the students that are in the program are not in full day they're in for part of the day because there were certain subjects that were causing that level of anxiety so when I say seven it is not seven full-time students um could be some students who are just benefiting from it for certain periods but it is something that is

035growing and I'm sure you'll hear from Miss Steiner when she does her presentation that student wellness um is something we are consistently working on we work very well as a team so I think we we um try to work from the General Ed and the special ed side but the um the the struggles some of our students are having aren't going away um so so I think we're doing a wonderful thing by trying to create a a safe place for them to be educated so I guess my followup to that is is there a limit on the number of students who can be in that program I didn't see it on the the previous slide so we we coded that program for the state as um a self-contained ER program so it would follow that

036same um that that same but that that is a good question because I've never really we coded it that way even though we're not placing the same types of students we're differentiating the types of students that are in those programs but that is by state code how it is cod we had more students entering that program but weren't necessarily there full-time that number could we could have like 10 12 kids in the program but have not all of them there at different times of the day correct perfect thank you you got it okay any other questions and just once one more for me at um do you is it your goal to have your uh your annual conferences with the the uh uh with the students and their parents and the team uh before the

037end of the school year so that you pretty much know where you're going to be starting or do you I know students come into the district at any time and so it's kind kind of be fluid but you by the end of the school year you have a fairly good idea of what you're going to be needing next year in terms of sections and teachers and Par professionals correct yes so so IEPs are really driven by their annual review date so that happens every year it is not um every May that we do every student so so it does happen um throughout the school year we do have an um our own projection sheet so the teams are to even if they haven't held the meeting they are to give us what they are anticipating

038what happen so we can use that for budgeting purposes but every student will have an IEP meeting yes before the end of the year um and and we're able to make changes as necessary thank you very much thank you very much Miss Bon for all of your um your passion and care as you uh take care take care of our our students um and passion and Care is a as you mentioned uh is our students Wellness is incredibly important um and it is an absolute priority of ours um if you were here at the start of the meeting it was identified as uh one of our budget priorities and uh to share some more specific information um which encompasses both special education and general education it's my pleasure to introduce to the board of education

039of the portion of the budget that speaks to intervention services and student wellness Miss Steiner our director thank you Dr handerhan um and thank you to the board of education for giving me the opportunity to present this evening tonight's agenda will'll begin with a review of The Wellness Department's vision and Pathway to achieve a high standard of care for our students I will discuss the key priorities and actionable steps needed to implement our vision as we enter the third year of our strategic plan as you can see the vision of our wellness program is a holistic approach to supporting students health and well-being we address the social emotional behavioral and health related areas of development our wellness program aims to help all students build foundational skills and prepare them to navigate real world challenges to

040achieve these goals we consider the societal mus haves for Success we use District information and data we implement the best evidence-based programs and we regularly reassess what the needs are applying our best practices in managing mental health and wellness these are the key elements to developing an impactful wellness program the ability for us to support across the spectrum of needs ranging from general education like age appropriate needs and experiences to more indiv individualized intervention services provides equity for all students experiences but also ensures that we have services in place as needs arrive so you can see last week uh Mrs Bond and uh highlighted some of the achiev achievements of the wellness team during the district's midyear presentation I just wanted to review a couple of those activities again so that everyone has a good

041understanding of what we do in Wellness so there's three key areas of our work there's prevention intervention and postvention um to give you a frame of reference prevention is like our seven mindsets program when we Implement something and give every child an experience as far as intervention is when we provide a service based on a need like a counseling service or having one of our specialized teams meet to discuss the students needs and then postvention is the focus on the work that we do after something happens or during something that's happening some type of crisis situation and how we respond if I I'd like to begin uh with the proposed prevention budget you know next year we are looking to continue instruction in the mindsets curriculum including classroom lessons staff professional development and our student

042centered extension activities like our Polar Plunge from last week we're going to continue with our Wellness in the works and our ninth grade mandatory reading task that all ninth graders do as they enter wall high school and it will be a reading task based on a book um it's been the seven mindsets for the past couple years but we may be we're exploring some different options but it will focus on providing students with an experience to really explore and learn about themselves before they enter the high school and also provide some well- needed skills so that they succeed the prevention budget also supports a stien for our head nurse and our school physician as well as nursing supplies which are necessary for the safe operation of our schools we're approaching our third year of implementation

043of many of our programs and with that the wellness team has has acquired a lot of expertise that has allowed us to do professional development inhouse using our own people as opposed to bringing in Consultants so that's something that obviously is a cost savings to the district if we move on to our intervention programs the proposed budget places a key focus on Mental Health counseling and skill development to respond to students with adverse needs this year we introduce the Bas Intervention Program which we will continue to use Bas Intervention Program provides a learning experience for students who are dealing with emotional or personal challenges so we will be extending training using this program and use it as a restorative platform for students with disciplinary infractions so the goal ultimately will be to address skill gaps

044contributing to disruptive behavior and help students develop positive responses so that they don't repeat the same mistakes furthermore we're also um committed to enhancing the skills of our Educators and administrators from professional development and we'll continue training our teams like our inrs in our Section 504 committees um we also plan to continue to organize um things like our community resource panels where we invite Community agencies to meet with our counselors and our administrator to educate them on the community resources that we have many of them are free of charge so these Partnerships ensure that we maximize what the community has to offer provide options for students and obviously save money um we will continue to reserve funding for medical intervention and testing for our students who are suspected to be under the influence of um

045drugs or alcohol this is a safety protocol that we have in place that allows us to detect and advocate for appropriate treatment for students who may be experimenting with drugs and alcohol as far as postvention is concerned um we will continue to budget thinking of our crisis management teams our crisis management teams and our threat assessment teams are who ensure the safety ofu students and the community well-organized protocols that align with best practices are key to minimizing the impact of of crisis situation and preventing negative residual effects so our crisis management and threat assessment teams are trained to handle these situations and we use a lifelines program to guide our response strategies in addition we will be collaborating with preferred Behavioral Health which is a state funded resource to explore training in trauma informs practices

046this initiative will equip all of our staff with the need with the skills skills needed to support students in various situations and to help Foster positive relationships um I'd also like to to mention that in the last couple of years we also have brought in some of our own training for CPR and we have gotten our nurses certified so in this area postvention with the certification of our nurses they're able to certify other staff members in US CPR to respond to emergencies so the last part of my presentation that I wanted to speak to and Dr handerhan had asked me to really go through this meticulously um is what I would refer to as situational spending so situational spending often is governed by Statute and I want to begin by describing the statute that has

047to do with homeless youth so the mckin vento law is a federal law that's designed to ensure that children and youth experiencing homelessness have access to the same educational opportunities as their peers in the 2023 24 school year Mammoth County saw a 24% increase in the number of mckin vento eligible students while Wall Township experienced a much larger increase of 46% this underscores the growing budgetary need for resources es to support these students so what a mckin vento support would look like is that it all is rooted in education what we call educational stability the law allows students who lose permanent housing to stay in their original school or to transfer to a school in the area where they are temporarily living this is important because many families want their child to remain in the

048original school for educational stability but sometimes when they move into housing it's outside of the district so we are responsible to make sure our students are transported it's our responsibility to get them back and forth to school to provide that educational ex stability so an example of a student who lose housing in wall and they move to Brick and they want to continue to attend wall schools it is our responsibility to make sure that we get them to school on time similarly students who lose housing in Brick and are temporarily placed in Wall Township in temporary housing are the responsibility of brick until 365 days after a year has passed in temporary housing if a family still remains in this situation where they do not have permanent housing the um student becomes what's called domiciled

049in the new district and financial responsibility shifts so the student from brick who moves to Temporary housing in wall and is there for over a year becomes domiciled in wall and becomes our responsibility so then if that child wishes to continue School in Brick it would be our responsibility as the domicile District to provide transportation and tuition um with a 46% increase in this population and a lack of affordable rentals families are remaining under the mckin vent law much longer and costs continue to shift back and forth between districts additionally costs go beyond tuition and transportation and include needs like school supplies school breakfast lunch and access to Medical resources so ultimately the budgeting process for mckin vento eligible students is very difficult to predict it's ever changing and it really requires careful meticulous monitoring

050another example of situational spending that I wanted to address is our homebound instruction this is the funding um Mrs boned had mentioned it as our least is as our most restrictive um type of program but we do have many students who are unable to attend school due to medical condition or other health related issues so we are responsible to make sure that we educate those students we provide homebound instruction and often we have to purchase instruction if a student is placed in a um facility as an into patient treatment program um one final thing that I wanted to mention about situational spending is that we also have spending for nursing services for before and after school programs it's a cost that fluctuates based on need but a student who requires a life-saving medication like a

051benzo dipene it can only be dispensed by a nurse or School physician so these children are obviously you know want to participate in Afterschool activities and it is our responsibility to make sure that we have the medical professional available on site during these activities to meet their needs um I hope I effectively highlighted the need for the result sources in our proposed budget um I would like to recognize the dedication of the school counselors and the nurses teacher leaders and administrative team because their hard work was invaluable and invaluable input were essential to developing the budget thank you okay thank or do we have any questions for okay um Miss Diner thank you very much and certainly these programs you know are of great benefit to the to the wellness of our students and I

052I understand that the the nature of these things are that it's it's perhaps maybe a little bit difficult to measure their success because things happen unexpectedly but you know for is it possible for you to maybe site any measurable area where you've seen Improvement as a result of any of these programs whether it be you know either in the uh Hib notices or discipline referrals anything that that you can put your finger on that we can say oh this is now better absolutely we um are seeing an increase in in reporting which is a positive thing so students who are observing or bystanders to behaviors that they're uncomfortable with are now more reporting those situations and with that reporting we still if it is a situation that deals with harassment intimidation and bullying we do

053have a board policy that mandates that we investigate that situation fully F and as you can see after investigations many times we deem that it doesn't fully meet the criteria but the fact that we had a student report something that they're uncomfortable with and we address it speaks volumes we also have um from the elementary we're seeing a lot of positive feedback and I think Dr handerhan can attest to this with the implementation of mindset mentors so we're seeing as far as students satisfaction in school these leadership opportunities are contributing to positive attitudes towards school so okay thank you very much thank you Dr henryan M thank you Mr Mal thank you so much Miss Steiner for um really sharing with us a lot of the details because so much of the so much of

054the work um that you in particular um tend to is um confidential so much of it is and I just want there and I asked Miss Steiner to provide um greater context this year from mcken vento uh for students experiencing homelessness because um the the case the the management is in it's complex it's multi-district um you know it there is there is a there is um an in and an out type of balance that does happen it's to to be frank it's difficult to budget for and um you know it's but at the end of the day we have children that um that need our attention and Care um and I just want to point out that there are times U this for the board there are times where you may notice that um you

055know students are being placed in other public school districts in more often in the vast vast vast majority um that happens under the circumstan that um Miss Steiner speaks of this evening so so uh and uh you know through meticulous records and making sure that everything you know that we tend to our obligations but also other districts tend to their obligations um so it is um this is It's increasing across the state of New Jersey um certainly Mammoth County and um unfortunately it is um it we are outpacing the county um the county percent so um it's important work and it's a challenge to budget for so um thank you for being on the pulse so that we can be responsive with the budget um at this point I we're going to shift gears a

056little bit and I'm going to introduce um our this is actually the the first time you're at one of our budget Workshop meetings uh Mr Chris Alworth he is our director of uh technology integration and he's going to share with us all things technology for the next couple minutes so Mr Alworth I'm I'm going to turn it over to you hello everybody thank you for having me tonight um I'd like to start by basically reading our technology department Mission uh the Wall Township Public Schools technology department aims to create a secure resilient adaptable and Innovative technology infrastructure that enhances learning supports academic social and emotional growth and prepares students as confident responsible digital citizens ready to contribute to the global Community as the leader in the technology department our role here at wall Public Schools

057is supporting everything else we're hearing about with the technology to make sure that we are ready to learn and to operate the district um today's world technology is not no longer optional or convenient it's it's a necessity unfortunately and we have to make sure that it is available for our staff um if we move on to the technology plans for the 25 26 school year the big goals that we're focusing on next year is going to be redundancy and Technology availability so the biggest uh the biggest Focus for us is basically making sure that our internet connections are up and running for all of our facilities the computers are working the copers are running like we want to make sure that we have the needs available to us uh so that we can do our

058jobs um so the classrooms can operate as instructional um for instructional purposes uh some of the details for infrastructure updates um some things that are coming up our production virtualization environment is coming due this coming summer that will have to be um revamped and redone um we're looking at installing uh much more server redundancy and Disaster Recovery situations uh so that if we do have problems we can get back up and running and I can give a legitimate timeline on when that will take place uh we're looking at upgrading our Telecom Telecommunications system uh to provide more redundancy so that if one facility was to kind of go offline to the district we can still maintain Services uh within that facility and not lose important communication tools and we're also looking at installing uh redundant

059internet connections throughout the district uh again because everything most of the stuff we do in today's world is all cloud-based um we use Google we use a lot of different software uh I know we mentioned Genesis most of our software is cloud-based they we need access to the internet in order to access the tools that we need uh for daily operation uh we're looking at software and support licensing uh we have we're making a lot of changes with some of the different levels of repairs uh and Licensing that we're purchasing uh to restructure some of the funding which we'll see in some later slides uh facility coverage and support is a big one too because when you pick up the phone and make a call for tech support you want someone to answer you want

060someone to be there to help um and we're really succeeding at that and we're looking at actually uh um making sure that we have the Staffing in the department so that we can handle the issues uh one of the biggest changes that we've been making is we are taking a lot more ownership in house uh for repairing and maintaining the systems that we do have uh we're building the capacity of the of of the actual IT staff uh the Department's fantastic and we are becoming better every day at learning the tools uh the systems that we have in place so that we can manage them inhouse and then we don't have to worry about calling outside to have someone come in next week to fix something we can fix it in the moment and that's

061our goal um and then network security is a big one that we are always focusing on and making sure that we keep our Network safe um and our data so now moving on to some of the different um specific areas cybercity and data backup um you will see some of the values from last fiscal year to the current one uh the or the current fiscal year to the next fiscal year is changing drastically because we are reallocating funds depend uh according to the different Departments of the technology Focus uh so that we are kind of refocusing some of our licensing and support contracts because we're taking care of some of that stuff in house so that's where you're going to see some fluctuations in the in some of the balances that we that that we're

062talking about uh but for cyber security and data backup we're looking at multiactor authentication uh our domain name systems and and content filtering uh our endpoint antivirus software uh our different firewalls throughout the district we're looking at doing offline or we're looking at doing offline and off-site data backups uh for Disaster Recovery uh internet redundancy and then also software as of service availability remotely so that if we do have an issue we still have access to to our services uh that are out installed out in the cloud moving on to productivity collaboration Community internet redundancy so internet redundancy uh so we basically have one internet connection for the building or for the entire District so if if that one pipe was to have an issue or a blip um um ironically I think it went

063down for about 30 seconds today and I I received five phone calls in 30 seconds U that we had an internet outage um so internet redundancy would basically mean I'm going to have an internet connection at each facility whether it's like a uh an Optimum line that you would have home or FiOS or a cellular signal something to that extent where if our primary internet service has an issue it would kick over to a backup uh connection so then as an end user they would never know that where their internet is going out of just that the internet's working like that's the goal uh my goal is to have like a backup plan so that if there is an issue we can get back up and running uh because right now if we do have

064an issue we don't have that backup plan it would be a much more stressful situation for me unfortunately yes so that's something we're looking to change yes thank you thank you very much thank you very much Mr allworth and um yeah that is pretty funny that it went over 30 seconds today and I'm surprised you didn't get more than the five F calls U but thank you very very much and um you know and and I just want to note that uh a great deal is um you know it speaks to cyber security that obviously we will not be discussing in public so um I thank you for your discretion and um you know well welcome again to the team it's your your your first budget Workshop um at this point it's my pleasure to

065introduce our business administrator Mr Brian SMI uh Mr SMI is uh he'll be speaking twice this evening and um the first time really sharing uh the proposed budget for all of the departments in his charge so I'll turn this over to you Mr SMI thank you and normally at this point I get to say that I get to review the less glamorous sections of the budget but uh following technology Maybe maybe won't be so bad this evening nothing personal though um but again uh as with technology this these areas of the budget are just as critical because it allows the more glamorous presentations of earlier uh to do the things that they do on a daily basis so um but but to back up one step with regard to the budget especially for the our

066new board members uh the budget is you know comprised of hundreds of accounts that are organized uh into programs and functions for the purpose of uh the state to be able to monitor school districts and also for the purposes of being able to compare like districts um you know from the from the state's perspective and that's what they do uh when I go through my my slides you'll see an account number that you'll be able to reference uh reference when you're going through the budget documents that uh we we provide you uh and I'll say it at the end as well between now and the public hearing any board members that have questions concerns uh want to come into the uh Board office and have a discussion with regard to the budget uh please please

067contact me contact our staff and uh we'll be more than happy to uh accommodate you uh so with regard to the support service uh uh programs and functions uh you know on your first slide uh we break it down we have Building Maintenance custodial uh which is more than cust cians and cleaning the buildings that's why it's 8% of the overall budget uh grounds transportation and personal benefits which are uh 22% of the uh overall budget uh with regard to the first category it's Building Maintenance uh and this is a a very important category of accounts uh we budget a little over $700,000 uh in this account and this is for recording uh expenses related to keeping your buildings open comfortable and safe for use or keeping them in their original condition uh it's also

068a requirement of the State Department of Education that districts invest in their facilities and in order for districts to be eligible for State funding for facility improvements you must demonstrate that investment um based on our annual it's referred to as the comprehensive maintenance plan that we submit uh and with respect to our referendum the $66 million referendum the state was eligible for $20 million in state aid as part of that referendum because of the investment that we've made in this category of accounts um which is the maintenance of um maintenance of our buildings for this summer we anticipate uh in addition to the routine maintenance that we do when when things basically break uh we're looking to refinish uh uh gym floor we do it on an annual basis last year we did the high

069school this year we we have scheduled to do the Intermediate School we'll do floor tile replacement in classrooms and we're looking to do lighting retrofit projects uh in this category as well as the capital projects category we are still working through uh what projects will be able to uh perform this summer and in the 2526 budget because as you are aware we have a referendum and we are scheduled to perform about $35 million worth of work um starting now they are starting but uh between now and September we're looking to accomplish uh that much uh amount of work so trying to do additional Capital Pro projects and maintenance projects on top of that uh may prove to be difficult but we are um working through that at this point in time uh next category is

070uh building custodial accounts and as I indicated it's not just um uh the custodians and cleaning more than 50% of the budget is Staffing and the staff that are included here are the maintenance staff custodial staff as well as the non-instruction non-instructional power professionals are included here uh this category of account is basically for uh keeping our our buildings uh clean uh and and as well as to perform inspections uh with respect to the Regulatory Compliance that the district must adhere to we're looking for a increase in the amount of $383,000 or 6% uh over what is currently budget in this category uh of accounts two items that we see an increase in one is our property insurance which is for that line item it's a little over 3% set and as Dr handhand indicated

071earlier uh you know the big unknown this year is what we should be budgeting for our electricity usage um you know the industry is saying that we should be anticipating 20% I've hear that we should be anticipating 30% increases in this category we are currently uh with the proposed budget as it stands we are at a 14% increase uh with the electricity line item we've kept natural gas and the water and sewer utilities flat so between the uh those category of utilities we proposing a 7 and a half% increase but that is a uh that's an unknown at this time and we spend about $700,000 on electricity usage on an annual basis so for and if there's any questions in any one of these categories please stop me and address it at that time uh

072where we can revisit it when I'm when I'm done yes there is question there we go how do we get to the 20% is a there's something that the public utilities and they have I don't know what you call they have all these things out there and they come to a price and this year was 20% out nowhere yes someone aware of that um so we we participate in uh we were par participating in a program called Asus which is a Consortium of uh the majority of school districts in the state of New Jersey and they uh through a competitive bid through an economy of scale they go out and they do the pricing however um be because of what's happened in the market they have not been able to award a competitive bid so

073we are all back with our regular utility our provider so for us it's through jcpnl we're hoping that um um I I I believe when the market perhaps stabilizes a little bit more they're going to be able to go back out the bid and we'll be part of the Consortium but again it's you know we're monitoring it on a regular basis in between now and both the tenative budget as well as the public hearing at the end of April we may be moving this number um you know as we obtain additional information so uh the next category is our our grounds Department obviously significantly smaller 290,000 uh it's for the general upkeep of our facilities exterior uh as well as uh maintaining our athletic fields uh you know we we've identified that we have a

074need to do a better job of up keeping our athletic facilities uh so we have a proposed increase of $30,000 uh in this Cate category of accounts in order to do so good so uh student transportation and uh you know first off you can't say enough about having an in-house student transportation department uh and any school district that we work with that outsources it um you know we just it just reinforces uh the appreciation we have for having an in-house uh in-house Department um so the overall budget in this uh Cate category of accounts is over $6 million um you know a good portion of that is the staff however we do also contract out over $2 million uh worth of um worth of work to contracted services and just a real quick review on

075how we uh process our students on you know when we're looking at Transportation routes our our first goal is to be able to do the the routes inhouse we look to transport if we are unable to do it cost effective ly inhouse and that's a requirement of the state we have to demonstrate that we can do it cost effectively um then we go through what is the mam oan Education Services Commission we provide those students and they pull them with students from other school districts and they look to put them out the bid and they're required to do that on a on an efficient basis and if they're not able to then uh those students are moved to the category of eight in lie and the school district pays $1,000 in lie of transporting those

076students and that's the Benchmark is you have to be able to transport students uh more cost of than uh $1,000 otherwise you're to provide Aid in in Lee of that um just those Aid in lie do they mainly go to students who are not attending our schools um that's a great question or opportunity to clarify we do not provide any Aid and L to anyone that attends Wall Township Schools um all all students that attend wall wall schools are either designated as Walkers or we provide transportation so the Aiden L would be private schools and parochial schools so um does that also include the um various high schools throughout the county that k um not for through uh the Ocean County vocational no we are required to transport those students so that that would be

077they would be considered going to a wall school well they're not going to a wall school but we're required to provide transportation to the vocals so but we don't offer those students Aiden no I hesitate because I'm giving thought to make sure that we don't have that situation but no it's the parochial schools and the private schools that we provide Aid and lo to uh which is not always desired by by the parents many of them would much rather have the transportation so we do what we can in order to provide that transportation we go through our El we go through MC uh and as a last resort they're provided Aid in L uh and that is reviewed by the State Department of Education so our our goal in this um this department is to

078and attribut to some of the increase is increasing staff to uh do two things one in order to cover absences within the department so that we have a better ability to cover uh the runs uh we've had to double up runs on a regular basis this school year uh which cause um delays in getting our students to school or home from school uh we you know we're aware of that um we have taken steps in the current school year to address that um but in addition if these positions are enable the school district to bring back expensive costly runs that we currently contract out we will look to do that uh as well as long as it makes Financial sense um also we scheduled the regular purchase of school buses to replace the buses that

079are required to be retired school buses have uh a life um you know whether it be 15 years or 20 years that then they then have to come off the road so um we purchase school buses on a regular basis to uh in anticipation of those Replacements and we've also you know for next year appli for a grant we apply on an annual basis uh for grants in order to offset those costs currently the grant that we applied for is to replace buses that are 2008 or older if we're awarded the grant as we have been in the past not recently then you know that the the grant funds would weigh into that equation personal benefits which is a very large uh percentage of our budget uh compared to the other categories this is uh

08022% of our budget uh I've provided the um main categories we have social security uh pension for support staff workers compensation health benefits and other employee benefits with regard to the other employee benefits um that would be for employees that actually surrender health benefits we offer uh a waiver or a surrender benefit uh it's categorized in the other employee benefits as well as uniforms tuition reimbursement and sick time payout um Social Security uh we anticipate based on our current year expenses uh that that line item requires a $50,000 increase to 1.2 million uh the support staff iions this is the district's obligation for pay paying the um Pur obligation which is the public employer Retirement Systems uh obligation for uh the support staff uh this the current appropriation uh that is due in April is

081one little more than $1.6 million and based on the historical Appropriations we've had uh the proposed budget for next year is at $1.7 million um that's one of the additional costs for having inhouse um departments for all of your support services so just to be uh cognizant of that uh workers compensation uh it's a not a large increase 650,000 we have a very good track record with regard to the workers compensation and we are members of the diploma joint Insurance Fund and uh with the budget amount of $650,000 is very competitive and one of the reasons why um staying in the deploy joint Insurance Fund is so coste effective because going anywhere else our workers comp um expense would significantly increase um health benefits the increase is 13% it's a big number uh I'll go

082into more detail on the next slide but it is a $1.8 million increase or 133% for the total amount of for the line item of $16 m3000 U and again lastly the other employee benef which I had listed uh there's an increase those are anticipated actual cost uh for a budget amount of 610,000 so with regarding the employee benefits um one of the uh comparisons we do how we uh gauge whether we should um let me back up we're self-insured uh for our medical and prescription benefits Dental is purchased through Delta Dental but for where the medical and prescription were self-insured instead of being a being in the state health benefits plan or two going with a Prov uh privately either with Horizon or Etna um so essentially what self-insured means is we hire a

083third- party administrator to manage the plan and we pay the actual claims uh that are uh incurred by our employees and their dependents um so you know going privately is um like that's not even an option it's just too too costly to look to do that so the one option uh that is discussed or offered is to and what a lot of school districts do is to go into the uh state health benefits plan um so we use that on a comparison basis and we've been self-insured since 2011 uh we have saved millions of dollars being self-insured as opposed to being in the state health benefits plan there was a year um that we saved $2 million compared to being in the state plan there was years routinely that were a million dollars each um

084we have had cost increases in our self-insurance plan and we've be and it's become more competitive with the state health benefit plan or the State Health Benefit Plan has been more competitive with our self Insurance um you know State Health p uh Health Plan froze rates one years they um gave amnesty one year one month where uh you know they the the districts didn't have to to pay their monthly bill uh but that ended up catching up to them with the percentage uh increases they had on an annual basis so what I've provided here is comparison of self-insured versus New Jersey State Health Benefit Plan uh so these costs that I listed under the district self-insured are the costs that are associated with being self-insured there's other costs included in the health benefit line account

085but these are the costs we would not have if we were in the state health benefits plan so we pay taxes and fee we pay an 84 tax for not being in the plan that's for the purpose of uh contributing toward those that are retirees that are in the State Health Benefit Plan uh we pay the expected claim so in next year's budget we anticipate um that the projection is that we'll have 15.5 million dollar worth of claims that we will pay um we have employee benefit platform that we provide our employees for when they do enrollment and make changes uh we do we have a consultant that does an RX analytics where they uh review our contract with Horizon uh they've saved us hundreds of thousands of dollars their fee is based on a

086percentage of that savings and we will continue to utilize them uh we provide stop-loss insurance which basically is reinsurance for us so on an individual uh member if the cost for that individual exceed $125,000 we reimburse those costs by our stop loss insurance so uh it's expensive but it is uh very important because otherwise our exposure would be unlimited uh we have the third party administrator that manages it so those are uh and for the most part they're fixed um with the but they're dependent on the number of enrollments we have uh but the one that is not fixed is the expected claims of $15.5 million like I said we pay the actual claims and we are reimburse for those claims that exceed $125,000 uh on the members and then the last item is the

087Mi is the fixed monthly premium so if we were to go into the State Health Benefit Plan um we would pay a fixed premium based on our uh enrollment uh by our uh staff in the plan and we would pay a fixed monthly premium regardless of what the um uh actual expenses are and it would be $17.9 million that we would pay which is um still more than the 17.7 that we've listed here as a comparison but again the expected claims is a projected estimate and uh there is a very good chance that we will not actually incur $15.5 Million worth of expenses and when we don't those funds remain in this account and are rolled over and are utilized to offset subsequent Year's budget as um it's referred to as budgeted uh fund balance

088but it's essentially resorts to being a revenue for a subsequent year so the option has always been hey you're going to pay a fixed cost to the state health benefits plan or for a private provider and let them assume the risk and also the reward or being self-insured where we budget for and if we don't realize the claims that we are projecting the funds stay with the district and are used in subsequent years and um know that was kind of lengthy pretty detailed but I this is a big line item in the budget uh and I think it's important we discuss it at fnf uh we bring our broker in uh we start out in um actually September but we discuss in October November when we're re renewing um and uh you know what we're

089discussing is are is this the year that we're going to have to uh look to go into the state health benefits plan uh and and and and also what I want to point out is at the top of the column it's the state health benefits plan with a 7% midyear increase and the reason why that's there is the state health benefit plan is on a calendar year they run January through December our fiscal year is July through June so the rates are fixed right now in the state plan and they will uh be adjusted I don't want to say increase um at this point but they'll be adjusted in January of 2026 so the increase this past January for the state plan was 14% so I think I was conservative from a comparison standpoint and

090only projecting a 7% increase next year so if the in the increase in estate plan is greater than that 7% then the 17.9 would be that much higher um so again the recommendation is going to be to stay self-insured with the district's Health Medical and prescription can you provide Clarity on the role of third party Administration and a little bit more about what they do yes so uh they are they do essentially if we were um if we retained Horizon as our benefits provider um they do the same thing Horizon does for somebody who has private insurance with Horizon our third party administrator is Horizon so they manage the plan they manage the uh claims that are buildt by the providers and they pay those claims uh and build us for the actual claims so

091yeah they they manag the plan and for us both the stop loss insurance and the uh third party administrator is provided by Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield thank you and annually we go out for uh unless we enter into a multi-year contract we uh competitively quote through our broker the cost of the stop loss insurance and third party administrator okay so benefits um that's two categories for this stage uh is is the equipment that is purchased we have it uh listed here again these purchases go through our finance facilities committee uh it's $122,000 which we listed the equipment we're looking for grounds equipment which most likely be a um equipment for the new proposed turf fields we have HVAC mechanical equipment that uh we purchase during the school year in the event that we have

092equipment that fails uh and as well as the routine replacement of Maintenance vehicles for the operations department and then lastly is our capital projects um we have in the budget proposed $1 million that is currently an estimate continually being reviewed and will be uh updated through this process we have districtwide Paving which includes Old Mill Old Mill Elementary School that was scheduled last year however due to work that's going to be performed with the referendum they're going to have to do some escavation within the parking lot so we postpone that work uh in order to be done after they're done with the uh um work in the parking lot of Old Mill so it's scheduled for this summer uh we also have proposed the front entrance uh front and athletic entrance at the high school

093uh that's a $300,000 project for um replacement of the concrete and pavers that are there we've experienced um uh some unfortunate accidents uh with people tripping on the pavers and concrete sidewalk there so we're looking to get that work done again um we don't anticipate an issue in performing the work in front of the athletic entrance but because of the the amount of work we're doing in the high school this summer uh we're going to have to work out this schedule in attempting to try to get the work done at the front entrance uh these are projects that are being proposed in the uh and being discussed in the finance facility committee last point I want to uh point out both for the capital projects and going back to the uh uh required maintenance accounts

094both of those both of these categories are funded through Reserve accounts um so the capital projects it's 1,778,112 that is funded with a $700,000 withdrawal from a maintenance reserve on an annual basis uh at year end we fund those Reserve accounts for use in subsequent budgets but what it really means is any adjustments that we're trying to make uh in balancing the budget with regard to the tax levy state aid and our other revenues any adjustments to these two accounts has no effect on those because these are funded outside of those Revenue sources and are are funded by our Reserve accounts so when we're and I'll get to that point later uh like trying to make up a shortfall in the budget reducing the capital projects doesn't get it done because that's funded uh by

095a by a different Source if that makes sense any questions on questions for M uh Mr SM just uh earlier in your presentation you mentioned about I think you said $35 million of referendum work is going to be done this summer or very soon could you maybe just uh outline again those projects that we're going to be looking at this summer um yes so the uh we have the and I have to go in order of the uh the projects so there there's there's another so we had bathroom Renovations that were performed this past summer at three of our schools it was at West Belmar primary school and the high school uh so that project is continuing it's the same contractor it's the same project into uh into the summer of 2025 with uh toilet

096room Renovations at um Allenwood School Old Mill and Central Elementary School so those project that project will be going on that's the 126a um we have uh HVAC projects that are going that is going on at the three elementary schools by one contractor that is at Allenwood oldmill and West Belmar Elementary Schools we have an HVAC project in the $18 million project that is for HVAC renovation at the high school um High School Intermediate School and Central Elementary School that's uh two two of the HVAC projects uh we have an interor alterations project which is the auditorium Renovations at the high school the art room Renovations and technology room Renovations at the high school uh at the Intermediate School it's the locker room Renovations and art and tech room Renovations so and at Central School

097probably 75% of the mechanical systems are being replaced at Central School and probably 70% of the mechanical systems at the high school are are being replaced so there's a considerable amount of work again to the tune of $35 million uh that has that is outstanding with the U hopes of getting that work done this this summer and I don't believe I okay thank you Mr SM you're welcome back to Dr henryan thank you so much Mr Malo thank you Mr Smite um again it's there's a a a whole lot of work that goes into that discussion and um you know a great de a great deal of the committee work with fnf is um meeting with the third party administrators is um working with different Consultants so that we can get um to get you

098know the most for our money um for the for the Board of Education and for the town's money um so we're very cognizant of that um throughout the process um right now I would like to um we've talked um about certainly a part part of Mr smi's present uh part of his discussion included benefits included um you know different types of um you know workman's comp uh and different different expenses on the employee side but um at this point I would like to turn the floor over to Mr scano our director of Human Resources to provide um somewhat of a sketch of where we are with respect to Staffing so um I'll let him take over thank you thank you Dr Hanahan um I'd also like to thank the board of education for the opportunity

099to present this information tonight and more specifically the opportunity to do the work for the district um like to thank the administrative colleagues both um districtwide and central office in terms of the communication we've had to get to this point it really does take a lot of a lot of individuals and a lot of communication to start to refine the budget um and I'd also like to take this opportunity because we get it once a year to thank our um our HR staff in the office our HR coordinator Lisa Ros Amilia and our HR secretary Michelle Meisner um because they do a lot of the work that helps these systems operate and a lot of the work um on a daily basis to allow you know me to focus on things like this so I

100do want to take an opportunity to thank them as well um I will apologize this is not glamorous um in any way but it is important because it's the people that that make the glamour happen and it's the people that um you know we look to get into the budget and those positions to help make these other things happen um across the district for our students so um I'm going to focus and start first on the goals of the Personnel budget and while we have six specific goals um it really is one General theme of us maximizing and putting and placing a focus on maximizing the general efficiency of our district so that we can still keep an eye on expanding and improving the services and programs that we provide um so we would like

101to ensure that our Personnel is maximized and the district is appropriately staffed um audit certification uh certificates and certifications to ensure that our staff are appropriately assigned in those positions and in an effort to provide the the greatest possible assignment flexibility um verifying the alignment of Staffing FTE and I'll talk about FTE in the next slide um and position accounts with the building and District administration to ensure accuracy between our personnel modu modle and our budgeting module and I think that's an important thing to mention now because this is the first year where we have well we transitioned to a new Personnel system last January so this is really the first budget cycle where we've used that new Personnel module and our own um and our older accounting uh system so what that required us

102to do is not only export the information from our Personnel system verify it but then import it into into our accounting software and then reverifying so that was an additional step for this year because we're using two different systems um evaluating the current Personnel options that we have in order to look to staff new programs and positions allocate the staff that we may currently have to ensure the continuation and the expansion of any programs and services and to maximize the breakage and any attrition Savings in order to help us develop a more balanced budget now I mentioned I would talk a little bit about FTE FTE are full-time equivalents or essentially the amount of time that an employee or a staff member works for the district um also we use FTE for the amount of

103time well to divide up the account that a staff member might be paid out of so for example a staff member who might work in four different schools we would have different FTE percentages across a variety of counts to make sure that those accounts are funding that salary um employee FTE can range from zero to one a zero would essentially be a substitute position they're employees of the district but they don't hold a full-time equivalency because they do per DM work um to put it into context a teacher um who has a reduced FTE so for example a teacher that might work three days a week would have an FTE of6 if they were to work two days it would be an FTE of 04 but if they were to work four days they would

104have an FTE of 08 you know full five days a week would be a full FTE of one we can also determine those FTE depending on the teacher schedule so if they worked five days a week but only worked a half a schedule uh within that day or a half day scheduled then they would be considered say a 0.5 FTE currently in our district we have six professional or certificated staff members uh in our 2425 budget that have either a 0.5 or 6 FTE so the large majority of our employees in the district are are operating at an FTE of one um the final budget for the 2425 school year had uh 725414 positions in that budget there could be late in the year retirements that don't get replaced so sometimes we'll will'll have those

105in the budget but it doesn't mean that those positions are replaced if we're not aware of them prior to the finalization of of that budget So currently the budget that we have as it stands right now and a great deal of refinement will still happen between now and the end of March typically this would be a presentation that we would do in about another four weeks so a lot of the the important work that would have been done for that previous uh presentation over the last few years is really going to start to happen now as we refine and we look to um you know again balance the budget and look at any positions We are continuing to get retirements got one today so those would be things that we would look at to see

106how we can maximize those savings but that's a fluid situation that um for at least the next four to five weeks we'll we continue to be working with District um Administration to refine but we currently as it stands right now today uh for the 25 26 school year we have 7244 FTE so looking like we are down a position um as it stands right now but I'll I'll explain that a little bit more when we get into the next slide in terms of new positions we're adding to the budget but it is important to note that that number of over 700 are all of our district position so while it's not just referring to certificated staff and I know Mr SMI had said we we have a lot of In-House services our transportation department our

107custodial Services these FTE reflect all of those employees um essentially our certificated staff makes up approximately half of that number and the other half of the other services that we provide throughout the course of the district including par professionals um custodial and maintenance as well as Transportation um and it's also important to note as I mentioned that these numbers will continue to remain fluid uh as we continue to monitor new student registrations uh student course selections scheduling options and uh various uh fluctuations in class sizes um would would essentially impact any any FTE decisions as we move forward so looking at new positions that we have currently added to the budget so these would be three new positions and as I mentioned it looked like we were down a position so when I had spoke

108previously about sometimes we get resignations or retirements that may happen after the final budget we currently had four of those positions we've now looked to add three positions back into the budget that's how we're down that number of one so just to kind of put it into context and paint that picture um through one the first new position we've we've added to the budget as it currently stands is to re reinstate one computer technician position and this was a position we had two years ago last year it remained unfilled and this year we filled it on a temporary basis and we are looking to incorporate that as a more full-time position again next year reinstate it to help support some of the technology goals and uh and focus of of the technology department moving forward

109um another position that was added to the budget is a school social worker and this would be a a position 612 to really focus on a number of theal initiatives um and essentially to focus on the increased student needs that we're seeing at our secondary level um and and in in context with a lot of the programs that Miss Steiner spoke about so this position would be an aid and support to to those programs um and finally an additional operation operations supervisor with a focus on grounds and this position um would primarily entail Regulatory Compliance as well as um focusing on the maintenance of the grounds and the the sustainability and the improvements and the upkeep of the new referendum grounds projects so while not necessarily to oversee those projects also to maintain the upkeep

110of our you know athletic facilities and our grounds facilities moving forward and these positions would be funded through retirements any reductions non-renewals or transfer savings that we would realize as we go through the um you know the next stages of refinement in the budget so our increased cost in total savings when we look at our current retirement numbers any reductions positions not replaced um or transfers savings we're looking at a little over $600,000 in those savings um when we factor in the additional positions as well as any increases to potentially prepare for an increase of a position in a salary account we're looking at about $218,000 of increases which still realizes a total Savings of over $400,000 um as it currently stands right now in our budget so now that we've gotten there we we

111will take a look at some of the next steps as we go through the remainder of the school year so we'll continue as I mentioned before we'll continue to evaluate the class sizes and the enrollment numbers as we see them coming in across the district uh we'll review the need for the current positions that we have as well as reviewing the staff certifications for p position flexibility in case we need to replace other positions with staff that we currently have um as well as utilizing staff transfers as a mean to preserve these positions while also identifying areas of inefficiency and a and additional potential consolidation So in theory the staff goes where the where the students are so what we do is we look at where are the students and where is the need and

112then that's where the staff is is transferred or moves to go where the student needs are so after those decisions are made the next handful of steps are our process and our timeline for either notifications or approvals as as we get prepared for the next school year so we would notify any impacted staff members we typically try to do all non-renewal notifications by early May um again these are at the latest um as well as any transfers or potential transfers within the district to notify those staff members prior to the end of the school year those are ideal situations sometimes circumstances require us to make different decisions over the summer but ideally we would have those notifications were prepared for um by the end of the school year we then post for all new positions

113and we begin the interview process in um April so with our goal is always being any new hires to be on our May or June agenda for the following school year because this allows the the at a minimum the 60 days notice for them to give any previous employers so that we can have them starting with us on September 1st so those are always our goals um and then we look to reapo our our current certificated staff paraprofessional staff and any Administrative Assistant staff at our May meeting and then at our J at our June meeting we look to re approve the non-certificated staff and non-represented staff that weren't approved in May at our June meeting and we will continue throughout the course of that to monitor any areas for potential for potential additional savings

114that we may either be able to recoup or reallocate towards different needs all right and our current overall Staffing cost so our 2024 our 2024 2025 budget totals in this in our salary accounts were a little over um 51 million precisely 51,8 61,800 where our current proposed 2526 budget salary accounts are at about 53 m49 672 so we've seen an increase of a little over a million dollars uh 1,1 8,289 to be specific which shows and relays an increase of about 2.29% uh we saw a 2.43% increase in our 2425 budget and in addition to the uh additional positions we've added the primary increase that we see are just the general annual salary raises across the district and these would be wtaa positions WTC positions and non-represented positions those annual salary increases are what make

115up this the primarily this this figure that you see and those those are annual for those annual salary increases um and that's all I have thank you questions from the board okay thank you Mr Scarano and uh as you say it's an ongoing thing and we'll uh be looking forward to any updates that uh you will provide for us at a later date of course thank you okay thanks Dr handerhan thank you so much Mr malf and uh thank you Mr scano for providing us with really the up to the minute um the uh our secondary schools uh we're you know awaiting our um course selections and there are so many uh Staffing decisions that have that typically are made uh during the early spring so uh this is uh Personnel is an item where

116um it will be a major major Focus um a major Focus uh for us a major Focus for our Personnel committee certainly uh finance and facility impacts I'm sure curriculum and instruction and um yeah it's U there there's a lot of decisions that have to be made um as we look towards um closing our budget Gap but also um you know looking forward to any state figures state aid numbers that we should be expecting shortly so um I for one look forward to to getting those numbers to see exactly where we are so um thank you for your thank you for your hard work um at this point as as earlier promised I'm going to turn the floor back to Mr SMI to really um really wrap up where we are as far as impact

117um on the fiscal year 26 budget so Mr Smite and as much as I'd like to say this is less painful than the last area I covered um but I'll try to be succinct from m dgani charge you by okay so uh everything that was been discussed tonight has to do with our general fund or our current expenses which is basically all all the expenses that we have in our one fiscal year but there is another section of the budget which is referred to as our Debt Service uh that is part of the overall budget it's approved by the the Board of Education and it's factored into the uh tax levy um for for the school district so everything discussed so far has been the general fund or again the the current expense budget but

118the first slide on the next section has to do with our debt service and our debt is based on the referendum from 2022 the 66 m599 th000 uh in Prior years we had uh different groups of bonds that made up our Debt Service uh going back to the refence fum from 1998 uh that were refinanced multiple times through the years but uh currently the only debt on our books is the 22 referendum so our debt service budget for the 2526 school year is a little more than $4.3 million The Debt Service state aid I have projected here is based on 30% of that Debt Service uh amount that will be due uh at 1.9 that is still pending the uh receipt of our state aid from the Department of Education uh but based on that

119projection our debt service tax levy will be $3 million uh and we're bringing this up so that um we're making everyone aware with with regard to the uh two areas of the budget both the general fund and The Debt Service uh with regard to The Debt Service tax levy uh it's too premature with regard to the general fund School tax but for the general The Debt Service tax levy prior to the referendum in 2022 uh we were about 3.8 cents per $100 of assessed value or the 038 uh dollars as part of the referendum when we were proposing the referendum we projected uh conservatively that the referendum uh The Debt Service would be 5.1 cents per $100 of assessed value and for the 25 26 school year it's going to be less than what was

120rejected at 4.4 per $100 of assist value granted I'll qualify these statements because the state a numbers have not yet uh been released but uh this is what we anticipate that The Debt Service tax ly will be so which I think that's uh important since the referendum is so new uh with regard to the portion of the TA School tax based on the general fund that tax levy as part of this budget is proposed at the the number provided $ 78.8 million that includes the allowable 2% increase school districts uh by Statute are permitted to increase their tax levy as part of the subsequent Year's budget by 2% of the prior year's tax levy um school districts are also permitted to utilize waivers uh there's a number of them for our district the waiver that

121we qualify for is the health benefit waiver uh and we'd be able to use Bank cap if we had spending Authority created in the last uh two years which we do not so the proposed tax levy is based on the 2% increase which is over the prior year at $1.5 million as listed there and the health benefit waiver of $1.6 million so and to go into a little bit of an explanation on health benefit waiver uh again this is all um predicated on what happens with state health benefits so districts would otherwise be required to include any increase in health benefits within our 2% increase in the tax levy however the state health benefits increase exceeds that um 2% school districts are permitted to apply for a waiver or or eligible for a waiver for

122that amount over 2% that the state health benefits has increased so for example the State Health Benefit has increased 14% % so those costs of health benefits above 2% up to 14% make up the health benefit waiver so if our health benefits increased 16% we would only be eligible for the waiver up to the 14% of the state health benefits and the idea of that is is we match what is in the state health benefits and if you can't match what's in the state health benefits then you should enroll in the state health benefits so that's why they um um the formula allows for the waivers for the health benefits as compared to the State Health Benefit again as I mentioned earlier the State Health Benefit in January the increase was 14% so the eligible

123health benefit waiver for our district is the 1.6 million million do there is no available Bank cap so that is not included and when the time comes when we're able to uh further refine these numbers because we receive our state aid and we further refine our other Revenue sources we'll calculate what the uh average assess home would uh what the impact would be from a tax standpoint and the average assisted home for 2025 is as listed $493,500 in Wall Township so where we are on the budget at this point um we have budgeted revenues at a little over 90 million 9 ,4 46,000 our budget Appropriations exceed that they're at 91 1881 uh so we are over budget by little less than three4 of a million dollar 73482 and this is based on anticipated Flat

124state aid we're not anticipating an increase or a decrease um and again the industry saying that we could anticipate up to a 3% decrease in state aid uh but we're also Al factoring a uh a possible reduction in federal aid we receive F federal aid in uh title grants that uh Miss mccan handles as well as uh idea funds uh and ex U idea funds that are handled by Miss Bond for special education um you know we're we're right now massaging our revenues based you know waiting to hear additional information with with regard to uh federal aid and hopefully the State a figures will be up by the uh end of the week and the goal will be to balance the budget uh by mid-march once we have that additional information so moving forward our

125budget calendar today's the budget Workshop we have a finance facilities committee on March 11th again we should have our state aid figures at that point the goal will be for the Board of Education to approve a tenative Budget on March 18th the deadline to submit that tenative budget to the Department of Education for approv approval uh for their review and approval prior to us advertising it publicly for the public hearing uh the deadline to submit to the state is March 19th I believe um and the public hearing there is a window to for districts to hold a public hearing is scheduled for April 29 2025 and again if there's any questions with regard to the budget or you want a further detailed review um you know please contact our office and we'll be happy to

126accommodate you uh and go through to to whatever level detail you wish we love the budget thank you Mr Smite uh are there any other questions or comments from any board members okay uh I would just like to Dr handerhan you have anything else to say um just a couple things and I will certainly be brief I just wanted to reiterate we had some folks come and come in and join us a little bit after the start uh this evening I just want to reiterate that this is not the budget presentation to the public this is not the public hearing this the the purpose of tonight is for the Board of Education to assemble as a full Board of Education all of us together and discuss where we are in the budget it's where um

127the different committees are really sharing in detail with other members that may not be on the committee it is a place where we're able to um get together because we're a full the full board and and Company uh we it must be done so in public so that is this evening the um intention is not for it to be a Public Presentation it is a workshop session for the Board of Education Next Step just as uh Mr SMI said um our board of education is going to digest what they heard here this evening and we head into our March committee meetings where further dialogue will be taking place so um I just wanted to for those of you that came in late just a snapshot of the purpose of this evening and again it is

128a work session where the board of education is able to work with central office administrators on the uh you know some of the knit and gritty in what has made it into the budget thus far um as we said earlier we still have some work to do but right now this is where we are at the snapshot moment in time so um I thank you for all the interest um I really appreciate it and um I thank you uh Board of Education many thanks to my colleagues U you know there's an awful lot this is a whole year in the making um an evening like this and I just wanted to applaud all of your efforts and um you know you work hard each and every day and um as to our employees throughout the

129district and I just wanted to thank them so um back to you Mr Mala okay thank you Dr hry I just want to say uh just uh uh also thank all the presenters tonight and one of the things that I I greatly appreciated hearing from you is the appreciation that you all gave to the the people that uh uh that work for you and with you uh because you know I think we have a great District here from you know right from the top all the way down and uh you know it's great to hear that uh you administrators and supervisors you know uh work well with your staff and greatly appreciate what they uh are able to do for us for the township and for uh for all all the students in the schools

130all right uh if there are any other comments Mr SMI yes and I apologize um I I just with regard to the construction that we're anticipating for this summer I reviewed those projects that are currently awarded um I want to point out that we do anticipate doing work on the athletic improvements at wall High School uh but that is not yet out to bid uh is expected to be out uh within the next month or two uh and work is anticipated to be performed this summer so just want to clarify that thank you Mr SMI at this time uh may I have a motion uh to adjourn Miss D Giovani second Mr wandra all in favor opposed we are [Music] adjourned e