001We try to limit it to a half hour, but there are times we can't do that. So, I apologize, but thank you for all staying here and being with us. Um, board correspondents, do we have anything to >> We do not. Thank you. >> Thank you. So, twice annually, I provide the um SSDs report. This is the student safety data system report. And I have so many I just need to find this. It was right in here. I just showed it to Billy actually for the minutes. I don't think I It's literally one page. Here we go. Sorry about that. Thank you. Um okay so this is for the reporting period from July 1st through December 31st. Uh we had four uh incidents of violence, one incident of vandalism. This is what's reported and investigated
002by the way. Zero involving weapons and eight involving sub substance abuse. We had 10 other incidents leading to removal and with regard to our HIV incidents, we had one alleged and zero confirmed. And one of the kind of disclaimers I always give when I share this information when we look Whether this is more than it was before or less than it was, it's hard to draw conclusions because if we if the sub, you know, the incident of substance abuse are higher, it could be because we're identifying more students who need assistance. Um, and so we're we have better identification methods. It doesn't necessarily mean there, you know, that it's more prevalent. Um, same thing with some of the other items because, uh, for example, for in terms of vandalism, if it's ible of who actually
003did it and we cannot investigate it then it's not something that ends up being reportable. So I always just say take all of these numbers that the state requires us to report with a grain of salt internally. We're certainly always assessing these, but always be a little suspicious of, you know, what districts different districts report because um there's a lot of different factors that go into it, but it's certainly numbers that we're always looking at. And the numbers I report to you are just one snapshot of a full report that our administration does that we input into um at JDE home room. And so there's a lot more data to data on each of the incidents on whether it's recurring um you know with the same students, whether it's different students. So that's internal data
004that we look at. So, this is what I'm required to report publicly, but we certainly look at many more of the details behind the data. So, I just want to share that with everyone so you're aware of that. Um, with regard to other comments, I am just hoping it warms up soon. Uh, we do have a lot of exciting events coming up. Believe it or not, our and I'm going to say our spring musical because we're getting closer to spring um will be in March and you know that'll be here before we know it. They've been rehearsing like crazy. We have our Chinese New Year celebration this weekend that all the board members of course are invited to. Um, and we tomorrow we have our our cultural celebrity chef event in the uh gym during
005lunch that all the students of the school are invited to and that all the students put on. So, there's a lot going on in the school right now um inside the school despite it being absolutely freezing outside. And I do want to take this moment to publicly acknowledge our buildings and ground staff because the work that they did to get this place ready for last Tuesday, I it was immaculate. Um, and they worked their tails off and I am just so appreciative of the care and commitment that they put into making this place safe for the staff and students to to come to. Um, so I really want to make sure I acknowledge that because those were also terrible conditions for them to have to be outside doing that in. Uh, and they did a
006great job. So, I am I'm tremendously appreciative of that. So, thank you. >> Okay. Thank you. Uh it's winter. It's supposed to be cold. >> Oh, wow. Look at this. Next item on the agenda is 2026 2027 preliminary budget presentation. Um I I've gone through it. looks very similar to years past, but uh this will be uh Mr. Schultz's first opportunity to uh give us the overview of where we are and uh sure in the next few months we'll be getting by monthly reports and updates. So >> I did tell him you like all these presentations to be as long as possible. That's what you tell Tim. So >> and I and I did tell the security that we probably be done by 10 o'clock. So I think that's That's our heart stop. >> All
007right, no problem. All right, thank thanks everybody. Uh happy to be here right now first budget following Mr. Ste's footsteps. Uh welcome to the 26 27 budget season. Uh this is going to be a short brief update of the information we have and some of the challenges we're facing for this budget season. As Michael mentioned, it looks presentation looks pretty similar to the previous years because it's a lot of the same issues that we have recurring each year. Um obviously here's the board of education. And the board plays a key role in the budget process both at the board meetings and obviously at the committee meetings. I know we've discussed it be reported later on on the finance committee and operations committee. We briefly talked about the budget last week. Uh the board provides guidance.
008I just want to thank the board for their support. Uh here is the tenative budget timeline. So we started uh the budget meetings and put everything together with the supervisors, principles, the directors uh back in October. We had meetings. We're still having meetings uh through January. Um last week on January 21st, we were or two weeks ago, we received the uh budget state guidelines and open up the budget software so I can start working in the system. Uh February 3rd, which is where we're at right now. Uh the initial board presentation on the 2627 budget timeline, enrollment, some key developments uh they're facing in the budget for this year. Uh the next step is a little different this year. Usually the state budget address is the last Tuesday in February, which would be February 24th.
009But this year, since we have a new governor, there's legislation introduced that would grant uh Governor Cheryl a possible additional two weeks. So, we may not have the address until March 10th. And then the state aid numbers would come out two days later. So, we're waiting to see if it's going to actually be on the 24th or if it's going to be March 10th. So, I'll keep the board updated as to that, but obviously March 10th wouldn't be ideal if we have a preliminary budget hearing planned for the next week on March 17th uh with the state aid information. Uh March 17th will be our preliminary budget presentation to the board. It would if it gets approved, it would go down to the executive county superintendent by March 19th for their review. And then from
010March 19th till April 27th, it is the time frame for the county review and the approval prior to our April 28th, 2026 uh public hearing where the board would vote to approve the budget. Uh some of the key developments for this year and like I mentioned, these are a lot of recurring things from the last number of years. Rising health care costs, uh increased special ed costs, uh inflationary costs that are continuing. We are facing that with a lot of our maintenance contracts and repairs that we need for the building. Uh transportation costs, our send receive uh tuition, the numbers fluctuate each year with Greenbrook. Uh their tuition has been I'm sorry, their uh enrollment has been going down as well. So obviously that's impacting our budget. Uh our enrollment has been decreasing over the
011last number of years. It's uh leveled out a little bit from the the larger decreases we've had over the last number of years, but it's still decreasing. Obviously the changing demographics with a lot of the affordable housing that's being built in some of our our uh sending districts. Uh here's a chart that shows the anticipated enrollment over the last uh enrollment over the last couple of years. So in 2324 there was uh 1,741 students and it's been slowly and gradually declining over the last number of years. Uh 2425 it was uh 1692. I think this current school year it's went down 10 more students to 1682 and we're projecting next year based off the information that the sending districts have shared with me it looks like we'll have 1663 for uh our enrollment next school
012year including the new uh nth graders that'll be coming in uh for revenue projections. So, a 2% budget uh increase on the $36 million tax levy would be roughly about $725,000. Uh this year, we do not have any bank cap available to use. That's all been any bank cap we've had over the last number of years has been used and the tax levy over the last few years has been at least the 2%. So, we have we don't have any bank cap available to use for this budget cycle. We are however eligible for the healthc care waiver which is a huge number this year. The maximum amount we could use is 1,936,920. That's based on the state bel health benefit increase that their state state health benefit plan went up roughly about 31%. So they
013allow a waiver for 29% of that uh discounting at 2% for inflation. So that would be the amount we could tack on to the 2% uh tax levy increase that I mentioned already. And if you combine the two of those, it's roughly a 7.35% tax levy increase. Just to give you the maximum amount if we were to use that entire healthcare waiver. Um, our state aid numbers is are roughly about 6% of our current operating budget. We get about 2.7 million in state aid each year. Um, we're budgeting a flat amount for this year. We have a we have no indication as to how much state aid we're getting this year. Um, all my NJSO meetings that I've had so far, they have really said it's been pretty coming out of the governor's office and
014obviously the governor hasn't even been there a month yet. So we're technically based on the funding formula they used last year we're fully funded and last year I believe was the first year that districts were fully funded but for for planning purposes I'm planning using the same numbers we had last year and and hopefully we'll we'll make out okay we'll actually get a little bit more and not less than what we got last year. um our send receive tuition revenue. We have an agreed upon rate of a 5% increase next year based off the rate we have this year which would be 22505 with our relationship with Greenbrook. Um the special ed tuition is based on a funding formula that I'm I'm currently working on right now. And we do have fewer students this year.
015We have 351 students being sent from Greenbrook. That's what we based our uh tuition billing on. Uh for next year's projection right now it's about it's under 340. So, it looks like we're looking at possibly like 14 or so less students that we're counting on next year, which at a tuition rate of $22,000 a year is a big uh impact on the budget. Uh the use of surplus, uh Mr. Sty, he's been he was great with the budget. Obviously, I don't have to tell all the board members who have been here with that. He was consistent each year using around $900,000 for surplus. So, this way you didn't have a huge gap to fund from one year to the other. In my previous district, we were all over the place a lot of times with
016surplus and it was tough to find a gap that maybe you didn't have one year, but the next year you would have to find that gap. So, the consistency has really been huge here. And again, speaking to Mr. Styles, last year at the audit, he had a great year last year and he was able to put $600,000 into tuition reserve for the amount that we may be losing from Greenbrook and for the amount that we may we actually owe Greenbrook about 230,000 based on a tuition adjustment for 2425. If we don't have the funds available at the end of this year to pay it, we put in the budget for next year. So, this tuition reserve can accommodate that as well. Uh capital reserve, we have a very strong balance in capital reserve at about
0176.6 million. Uh obviously, we'd like to use not really use all of those funds. We'd like to save that for a referendum that we could be planning in in the next couple of years. We may be able to use some of those keer reserve projects for some items in our long range facility plan or some other smaller projects we can include in the actual budget that we're working on right now. Sorry, this is a little small on the slide. But some of the uh key appropriations that we have for the budget which a lot of the similar ones from the last number of years our teachers contract and our administrator's contracts are settled. So we know what those percentage increases that we need to account for in the budget are. Teachers contracts at 3.4% 4%
018administrators at 3.3. Um, our health benefit projection that we got from Brown and Brown is 15.7%. It could change. That's just the estimate that they gave me for budgeting purposes. It was 20.3%. So, the 15.7 accounts for us changing to Bennard, which the board approved at the last board meeting. So, we're saving roughly 5% there by making that switch. So, the board was proactive in getting ahead of that. So, that'll help us with budgeting for next year. Uh some of our instructional needs that we have are our technology, our Chromebooks that we replace each year. Mr. Malusa put in I think 425 uh Chromebooks at about $287,000 in the budget. It's about $675 each. Um our special ed costs continue to increase each year. Um I've gotten numerous letters from some of our private schools
019that our uh students attend requesting that they're seeking a 10% increase in the tuition cost for next year. So you see you just know those costs continue to increase and of course the transportation that's associated with those uh students going to those schools. Our maintenance and support costs due to inflation. Every time we need a repair on the building, all of our maintenance and support costs continue to increase. Um the amounts we get quotes that are all over the place. Sometimes we'll get a quote for a repair we just did 9,000. Another vendor will come in at 25,000. It's all over the place right now. So dealing with those have been very difficult. I know Mr. Snowden's done a great job trying to trying to stay on top of all that. And then also grant
020funding uncertainty. So last year we didn't find out about our our uh title aotments or IDA all aotments until after the school year already started. It was very delayed. Typically each year the guidance you get is to budget for 85% of what you got the year before. But obviously we're really not sure where we're headed with that. Just for board's reference for ESA we received about 69,000 this year and for IDA which is mostly for special education we use mostly for tuition there's 376,000 uh for capital improvements so obviously each year we try to do continue with the security upgrades here at the school because obviously security is the most important thing um TV studio upgrades um it was in the budget for this year where we got an evaluation done of our current TV
021studio and now we were getting some of the information based on what was needed Now, we're looking to budget for those improvements next year. I know we've talked to our architect about that already. Um, we have some asphalt repairs in the parking lots and the driveways that need to be done that can we've done some pricing on that as well just to get estimates for the budget. Those projects could possibly be phased in, but something we're looking to include in the budget. And I know Mr. Snowden has been uh adamant about some of our plumbing and storm drain repairs we need for the building. I know it's a lot of the infrastructure repairs for the building. They may not most appealing repairs, but they're necessary to keep the school built, keep the school open and
022functioning and comfortable for all the students and staff. And one of the last things on here is we have, and this is uh going right off what Liz said about the buildings and grounds repairs, the dump truck and the pickup truck needs that we have in the district. Our trucks are very, very old and obviously they were put to the test this past week with the storm and so we're looking at some options for that to replace them. I know it's something that uh Mr. Sty was looking at for years, but it never made it way into the budget. So, we're looking at some other options on how we could finance that, potentially finance it over the life of the asset rather than having one big expense for the first year of the budget and
023then we could work on budgeting replacement cost for that over the next number of years. So, that might be a better way to approach it. Um, transportation costs, the CPI increase for next year is going to be 3.58%. It was 3.57 last year. We would we would use that number to uh renew and assist in negot negotiating some of the renewals of our current transportation runs that we have right now. Uh rebitting the runs would be a far more expensive route. And then obviously everyone who owns a home knows that the energy costs continue to skyrocket. Seems every month it seems like it's more and more expensive. So that's something we need to account for. Luckily the district did do an EIP a number of years ago to help defay some of that cost, but
024it's obviously the price. If you didn't do that it would be even more costly. And I know it's just preliminary and I have some more information to come, but any board members have any questions or comments? >> Thanks for all the good news, Bill. Really appreciate that. >> Yeah, I appreciate that. >> Yeah, go ahead. >> On um is there a possibility of the budget increasing more than or the the ask from the taxpayers more than 5%. >> Well, that's kind of one of the things I was hoping to talk to the board about today. I kind of wanted to gauge what the board's barometer was as to what their what they would like where they would like us to fall at this budget as we're starting to put it together and we're looking is
025there a certain range where the board would like us to fall because as I I mentioned I know the maximum amount we could go is 7.35%. I know that's an absolutely huge number. I just wanted to share that's the maximum but bas as we're going through it right now I just kind of wanted to gauge the board to see what their interest was and where they would like us to that's the maximum without a reference without a referendum right that's a the 2% plus the health benefit adjustment that I shared and what's the delta between what the sending amount is and our actual cost it was about the act based on last year's uh certified tuition rate the certified tuition rate based on last year which I just got based on the audit was 21697
026and the actual rate charged for last year was 20,413 so that was about a $467,000 difference >> okay and we wind up going Is there a way to increase that sending to the same amount that we're >> Well, we have we have an agreement with Greenbrook through next school year where it's a five it's the I believe it says it's a 5% increase over the tuition rate we're charging this year which I believe was that 22,000 number we're charging. It was either that or the certified tuition rate whichever rate was low. So I believe I suppose it' be up for a renegotiation after school. Let's talk about what the goal of the board is last questions for Billy. Um you referenced the decline of students. Do you see that decline going the next year after
027>> it it looked like it is still a gradual decline. When I looked at the ASA reports that descending district shared with me didn't look like any numbers really were reflecting the increase from the affordable housing units yet at least. So I'm not sure. I think it's going to impact those districts before it impacts us by the time the kids get to high school. But it seemed like it was still going to be declining gradually for the next couple of years, but then it would level up. Just just for reference for the third. All right. So, with regard to direction for the administration, Dan alluded to it before. Uh there's a couple different buckets that I see and we can discuss it. It's no right or wrong, but mention seven change would be the max
028without going to referendum. So option one is going higherend option. Option two% maxed with that referendum plus the healthare waiver. So that gives us the seven change. >> Michael was the healthare waiver that's the maximum like say our health benefit ends up being 31%. So I just threw that number out there so we knew. >> Yeah. Yep. So that's what was that number seven? >> It was like 7.35. >> 7.35. >> So you know that's a you know a step if we look at it steps then you know I know there are people say well let's just cap it at 2% and not use the state waiver for the healthare. So that would be a 2% cap. Others may say well let's try to figure out a way to be flat 0%. So I guess
029some people said let's see if we can double up%. So those are kind of like the four or five different buckets as I see it. Anyone sees this slightly differently but that that's really discussion we need to have so that the direction for administration then we can see where we cut to the bone. We know that there are certain expenses that we're locked into whether again construction and staffing cost that related healthcare and see what would drop out so to speak. Yes, Liz. >> So I know this was discussed at finance committee and so maybe we need to have that report before we discuss this further but does anyone need more details? You know we're talking about percentages. I don't know if everyone has a good understanding of what the hard number is on what
030we're the amount we're expecting the healthare to increase and what that equates to with you know in terms of the percentage increase on the budget. So I don't know if anyone would like numbers in addition to the percentages of what each of those percentages to can we just clarify a little bit with that the healthare kicker for lack of a more technical term. Um so am I correct in understanding that the 7% we're throwing around is basically the 2% plus that 1.9 calculated as percent but the 1.9 we only get to spend the amount of our actual healthare cost increase right so if our healthare costs only increase by a million we don't actually get to increase it by 1.9 it's the lesser of our actual increase to healthare costs or 1.9 so if our
031healthare bump is less than that amount Not even the number. Right. >> Correct. >> Right. Okay. I just wanted to clarify. We don't get to spend the whole 1.9 healthare kicker on anything. It can only be spent on healthare. >> It would be helpful getting so increase in the health insurance amount is All right. So, nothing further. Thank you. We'll do the committee reports. We'll do the finance last. Okay. Committee reports education. >> Yes. We met on January 28th at 5:00 p.m. In attendance were myself, Michael Burber, Katherine Lee, Trisha Rexford, Heather Tronor, Dr. Jaro, Dr. and Jason. Uh Mr. Sabinos gave us an update on the research he's done regarding starting a JTC program. He explained that there's currently a wait list for approval for these kind of programs which also calls for a
032district implementing a different model such as the Navy National Defense Cadet CP for a minimum of four to five years demonstrating consistent student interest and participation before being considered for approval for a JOTC program. costs to the district include a full-time salary for the military instructor as well as a certified PE teacher to serve alongside the military instructor, approximately 1100 square feet of storage space, office space, and a minimum of 50 student participants. Full program details and requirements are linked to the education committee agenda for anyone who's interested. As this does not seem a feasible option for the district at the current time, we would like to explore other avenues for students to pursue J C interests. This could be in the form of a JOTC club or potential enrollment in a JOTC course offered
033by a neighboring district. Dr. Leber discussed a recent trip to Northern Highlands Regional High School on January 14th by a group of administrators and teachers to learn more about their career and academic pathways program. They provided valuable insights into how to grow our program and enhance opportunities offered to our students for senior internships. Um, several years ago, we started bringing nth grade students to visit one of our middle schools as student ambassadors, and this has expanded to all four middle schools. Our ninth graders talk to eighth graders about their experience entering the high school and answer any questions that they may have. These visits are planned for February and March. Uh, Dr. Labraa informed the committee that we are hosting a curriculum night for the parents of incoming eighth grade students on January 29th. and
034orientation will follow at a later date. A committee member inquired as to our scheduling process and access to courses for students. The committee discuss scheduling allocation of teacher and student subscription to courses. Mr. Sabino informed the committee that all efforts are made to fulfill the students request and about 93% of all requests are accommodating. at 550 >> questions. >> I have one comment. >> Um I had a friend who's has an incoming nth grade. So they went to the eighth grade um event and they both came back and were highly um satisfied praising all of the department heads, everybody that presented very excited about coming to the school but thought they did an excellent job. >> Thank you so much. If they're not watching I will be sure to pass that along to them. They
035will they will appreciate that feedback. So, thank you. >> I'm sure they're all watching. >> They better be. >> Okay. Anything else? Thank you. uh personnel >> committee met on January 29th at 8 a.m. President Dr. Member and business administrator Mr. director of human agenda organized the organizational chart with the district which falls affiliated explained how some faculty membing For example, some of our world language teachers have additional certific 22 2022 2023 2023 2024 and 2025 2026 years retirements Dr. explained that by contract faculty must provide notice of retirement for March 1st 2026 for a June retirement in order to receive sickly payout benefits with hiring the most qualified candidates during the early seasons administrator. The next discuss expl The district already has two policies related to sexual harassment. Currently, policy 3362 for teaching staff
036members and 4352 for support staff. She explained that changes made to federal law including changes made to title and title investigations require a change to the current policies and to the regulation which would direct how the district conducts investigations into sexual harassment allegations. Policy and regulation guides 3362 and 4352 previously address sexual harassment allegations and investigations but did not which also applies to sexual harassment of staff in the school district. New policies policy 1552 and regulation 152 incorporate two separate federal regulations requiring action by school district. The first regulation that addresses this issue is title of the civil rights act and the second is title of amendments in 1972. Both of these federal regulations require written policies and grievance procedures which are included in developed policy in regulation 152. The current board policies related to
037sexual harassment policies 3362 and 4352 only address title. Considering the updated policy at the board level updated sexual harassment policy 1552 and regulation 152 discuss the next update on vacies shared vacancies in the district they are mainter replacement instructional June and August through October replacement biology teacher June September through October and techn >> great thank you any comments questions Okay, let's move on to operations. >> The operations committee met on January 28th at 9 a.m. In attendance were Lori Ferano, Rosski, Christina, Heather, Elizabeth Jwitt, Mark Stoden, William Schultz, and myself. First item discussed was the formation of an education foundation for the district. Dr. JW discussed the legal steps required to former foundation and shared that Tim Sty has agreed to be the treasurer of the foundation and Terry McConnell has agreed to participate on
038the administrative board. She also noted that we would like to name the foundation for Dr. Thomas the Gansy at the dedication ceremony of the Gansy wall in the atrium. The finite details of the foundation will be discussed as the project progresses. She asked to be reassured that there is board support for proceeding and the committee agreed and I guess to the board at some point all agreed. I can't imagine that we won't but Elizabeth further expressed her thanks to all the buildings and ground staff for the excellent job with building maintenance and snow removal. The thank yous were echoed by the other board members. Mark Snowden updated the committee on the open construction projects. The sack office rooftop units and chillers are complete. The track asphalt is complete except for the drainage by the bleachers.
039The baseball and softball scorers tables are awaiting electrical work. The Deans Memorial should be completed in about six weeks and the design lab green wall panel is installed and the new contractor a new contractor will be doing a lettering and we will receive a credit from the original contractor for this work. Uh Mr. Schles and Mr. Stone outlined the building and grounds budget requests which have been shared with the budget committee. U Bill Billy outlined an interview an overview of the budget process and I'm not going to read the rest of it because it's a redundant for for your report. The committee adjourned at 9:27. I I guess the one thing is do we all agree to or are supportive of Elizabeth moving forward with the education foundation. As per my conversation, Mr. No formal
040board action is required, but obviously it's not something we want to move forward with if the board was supportive of it because the idea is for the foundation to support um you know hopefully grants and things support different things at the school that we can't fund through the budget. And I I credit Mr. McConnell with coming to me wanting to to get this going. You know, he's a former Warren resident. His kids all went through the school. He was obviously a long time um administrator here and he's really been doing a great job uh you know researching this and actually we didn't have to strongarm Mr. St. he very easily agreed to help out um and you know especially when we talked about it naming it for Dr. Deansy so again that you know just
041wanted to make sure that the board didn't have any concerns or questions about it but I I hopefully you know this could be a successful alternative funding venture for some things Anyone have any objections? Okay. Finance >> the finance committee met on January 28th at 8 a.m. Attendance were Mr. Decker, Mr. Mexford, Dr. Dr. Mr. Schultz referendum planning Mr. Schultz discussed the referendum planning and explained the process for the committee members. He said the district has debt service that will be paid off in 2028 2029. Mr. Schulz shared that he and Dr. met with Phoenix advisor architects the district board district bond council to discuss the maximum amount of referendum that will result in a tax neutral bottom line he said that Phoenix advisor determined that the number 64.5 million Mr. Schultz also shared that
042the state may reimburse up to 40% of the eligible projects that are included through debt service Mr. Schultz discussed the timeline that suggested and shared that it seemed a little aggressive at this point. He said after further discussion more appropriate timeline was determined as follows. Identify projects by September to the state and present it to the public for a vote in September of 2027. Mr. Ged that we should also the school budget tax impact when deciding the amount of referendum. Dr. Detained for the timeline. She explained that we should pursue a new referendum as the prior ones are paid off so that the tax impists to explain the big picture as it refers to debt service. Mr. Schultz reviewed the district's current debt service payments that He said the 2013 bond has three payments and
043the 2021 bond has two payments. Discussion followed regarding debt service criteria and what projects typically are eligible for debt service 2027 budget. Mr. Schultz provided an overview of the budget process. He said the state numbers are not typically released until the end of February, but for budgeting purposes, he will be working under the assumption that the amount will be flat. He also mentioned the budget software was recently opened and he has begun to enter information. Mr. Schultz discussed the 2% budget cap and said this equates to an overall increase of $724,598 in the budget. Mr. Schultz also discussed the health benefit waiver available to the district in the maximum amount of $1,936 which would result in a combined 7.3 leenefits to land somewhere between 16 and 20% discuss. Mr. Schultz reviewed the building and grounds
044projects for budget consideration. He discussed a few of the projects that were necessity and said he would be making an effort to include them in the 27 budget. He commented that some may need to be done over multiple budget years. Mr. discussed the need to replace the turf field within the next few years as the life expected looking into financing the cost of specific items over their life expectitating donations for rights. offset replacement also spoke about the district and the need to find the funding associated change discussion followed Mr. Schultz shared the budget request for technology books discussion project graduation Mr. Schultz spoke about the request for funding from the PTO to supplement the graduation. He said in previous years the board would donate $17,500 from the student parking fees. Mr. G, Mr. >> Thank
045you. Any comments? >> Uh for turf replacement, is that something that could potentially be part of a referendum and not have to be budgeted? It can part of the referendum, but it's not eligible for debt service aid. We learned from the um our financial adviserss and our architect. We when we replaced it last time, we got debt service aid for it. We were in a very small window when they were approving turf replacements considering a safety issue as eligible for debt service aid and they told us that that stopped and so they no longer so it could be part of the referendum, but it would be the full cost. We would be eligible for the But you can roll that into the referendum which we do have the option and that's why the referendum discussion
046is important because it entire referendum that we want to have the debt service are there some projects that may not be eligible for but that we want to roll into there you know that finance entirely. So those are some of the more extensive discussions we have to have. Okay, great. All right. So, we had tabled that discussion with respect to what percentage increase or direction we give the administration. Now is the time to do that. >> Wants the lowest amount. That's all I'm gonna say. >> But I'm sure everybody wants the lowest amount. Nobody wants to pay >> I don't know. Warren sometimes likes taxes. Uh, anyone else have any comments with respect to direction that we're going to give? >> Yes. >> Do we have any knowledge yet? I'm sure it's too early to
047know where the KD8 systems are going to be that might affect our taxpayer. >> They're in the same boat that we are where they're still piling. Yeah, I haven't seen watched any of their board meetings to see if they've had similar discussions. So, I'm not sure, but everyone's kind of in the same boat right now. Anyone else? >> Well, that doesn't help. So, >> so real quickly, do you have a per household amount depending on what the percentage is that people's taxes would go up? So this is what makes it our our regional um building of the budget so complicated because it it the we know what we propose you know our budget to increase but the way it gets portioned to the communities to the three communities. It varies based on the um assessments
048each year, but also based on the elementary budgets and what the if if the percentage in a particular town of students that they send to the KA versus the high school changes, that affects how much they give us and affects how much the other two towns give us. So that is a unfortunately like a complicated question to answer. There's no easy answer to that. We don't know that until we actually um you know Yeah, I think that comes out around the same time that the state budget information comes out. >> Nothing is final until So, here's the thing, too. If the board gives us a number tonight, it's not that you're holding to it. It's we build a budget around it and then we might say, "Okay, these are all the things we had to
049cut. We need to increase it because we need these things." Or, okay, you'll say to us, "Uh, listen, Billy, can you, you know, see if you can get it down a little bit more?" And the other So once we actually get the numbers for the tax impact, that's another conversation. So this is it's multilayer. >> it seems counterintuitive to me to come up with a target number before we know the ask. Like to me it seems it would seem to make more sense for you guys to put together what you think in an ideal world what our needs would be. And going to the point that Michael made that was remarked in the minutes of the meeting, you know, of indic what's nice to have, what's a mustave kind of thing. And then we talk
050about an actual number instead of setting a target without knowing what the actual needs are ask. >> So perhaps I just want to make sure we have clear direction. I'm sorry, Dan. I'm trying to if we can uh so if we take, you know, a conservative approach as we always do to to building based on what we need um and then we'll come back to the finance committee from there and take a look and and you know what we do in there too. Look, we're always in our mind thinking, okay, if we have to chip away, what would it be? So we certainly encourage you from that perspective. >> I have the utmost confidence in the two of you and everyone else. You know where we've been and where we historically want to be. I'm
051sure again always relatively conservative with respect to spending and I trust that'll be the case. With regard to the question, if we go up $2 million on average, and obviously it varies from district to district, what do you think would be an average increase? Are we Does that mean, you know, for our part, is that $150? Is that $700? You know, that just ballpark, nothing. >> I can figure that out once I have the tax rates from townships. So I can reach out to them tomorrow, see if they have an ETA when that information may be available and I can start working on that. But I think it usually comes a little later, but I can find out what timeline is for there. Just some sort of ballpark and obviously we know that it's the
052way it works out sometimes. Watch on taxes go down for whatever reason Warren goes up, but then the following year it reverses. But if we had some sort of idea, are we talking $100 per house, thousand, you know, based on a two million. >> Of course. Of course. Just just real quick if I can just for the public if we just give a 2% can stay tax property tax. That is actually what they said. Now, if you did the math and you stayed with it, it would have. But then they had lots of exceptions. There's all sorts of% of tax base increases. So it's no longer singly good conditions for some guidance. I agree with you. There is some guidance because there's some things that you may need to do to bring it into that
053pattern of% start to get into compounding interest. So that's just a background. I think before it was 2%, the year before it was 4% when they put the cap in because at one point there was no cap and it was districts could do whatever they wanted and they said we got to control not dictate to the municipalities but control the municipalities. Okay. First public comment period will be limited to agenda items for this meeting only. The second public comment period will be open to any topic. All comments are limited to five minutes. Do we have any public comment with respect to agenda items this evening? Okay, seeing none close the first round. Again, there'll be a second round which we'll come to very shortly because we will move through our agenda items. Uh board discussion.
054Is there any discussion with regard to future action items? Is there any discussion with regard to policy? I know last meeting we had extensive discussion. I don't think we need to rehash those, but is there any additional discussion? Okay, let's move on. Second. >> Any discussion? Okay. Roll call, please. Mr. Decker. Miss Feroski. Mr. Galla. Yes. M. Lee. M. Potter. >> Yes. >> M. Proa. >> Yes. >> Mr. Rexford. >> Yes. >> Mr. Dente. Mr. Trump. >> Yes. >> Mr. Burber. >> Yes. >> Second. >> Any discussion? Roll, please. Mr. Decker, >> yes. >> Miss Ferki, >> yes. >> Mr. Galla, >> yes. >> Miss Lee, >> Miss Proa, >> yes. >> Miss Rexford, >> yes. >> Mr. Dente, >> Mr. Trump, >> yes. >> Mr. Burberry, >> yes. >> No, no, no. >> A7.
055>> Okay. Uh, before we take a vote on it, uh, we're honored to have our board attorney this evening, Mark Cidimer. Uh, as we noted noted in the executive session, Notice we had a residency hearing tonight and we have a resolution with respect to that. Mark, if you could just read that resolution for the public and then we can take a roll call or have a discussion then take a roll call vote on that. Sure, I'd be happy to. So the res the resolution reads as follows. Whereas the board's residency committee held a residency hearing for the student whose name is on file with the board secretary and whereas the board committee considered the testimony of Mr. Mr. Schultz and the student's parents and whereas the committee determined that the student and his parents are
056not doiciled in the watch hills regional school district and do not satisfy the requirements of the affidavit pupil law. Now therefore be it resolved based on the committee's recommendation that the full board hereby disenrolls the pupil from the district. Be it further resolved that the family shall be provided with formal notification of the board's decision along with information on the right of appeal to the commissioner of education. And be it finally resolved that the does appeal the board's decision to the commissioner. Board reserves the right to pursue back tuition from August 202025 to the present. >> Mr. Decker, >> yes. Mana Roseski, >> yes. >> Mr. Gall, >> yes. >> Miss Lee, Miss Potter, >> yes. Ma, >> yes. >> Mr. Yes. >> Mr. Dente. >> Mr. Trump. >> Yes. >> Mr. Burberry. >> Any
057discussion? >> Roll, please. Mr. Decker. >> Mki. >> Yes. >> Mr. Gall. >> Yes. >> Miss Lee. Miss Potter. >> Yes. >> M. Proa. >> Yes. >> M. Rexford. >> Yes. >> Mr. M. Trump. >> Yes. >> Mr. Bber. Yes. Any discussion? Roll call, please. Mr. Decker. >> Miss Ferriski. >> Yes. >> Mr. Galla. >> Yes. >> Miss Lee. >> Miss Potter. >> Yes. >> Miss Proa. >> Yes. >> Miss Rexford. >> Mr. Rede. >> M. Trump. >> Yes. >> Mr. Bber. >> Yes. Okay. Thank you. Uh now it's the second opportunity for public comment. Again this public comment. These comments can be on any item with regard to the district and certainly not limited to um agenda for this evening. Anybody have any public comment for this evening. Don't be shy. See somebody wants
058to get up. State your name. Where you from? I just want to say thank you for looking into the program and I think that there are other options that pursuing those later down the line and putting thought into it. Charlie, I just want to say thank you for how articulately you've spoken at the board meetings and for approaching us with this. We learned actually a lot about the program and about some other options that Mr. Spino will likely follow up with you just so that we want to help you pursue your interest and your passion. So, if it's not in this form, how else might we be able to do that? We have some ideas. Um, so we look forward to to continuing the dialogue with you. Thank you very much. >> Actually, yeah. So
059just so you know and the public knows we do have a student who is doing a Rozi next year at college. So that opportunity >> you got $180,000 scholarship scholarship >> right and I think I mentioned my son had done Rozi as well so those opportunities still exist so thank you >> thank you >> anyone else any other public comments okay great love public the keep coming >> and uh also just here. Charlie actually was the recipient of our Hobie uh scholarship from the our counseling department. So, he'll be attending a leadership opportunity for that. Congratulations. That's a big deal. It's one It's one student that gets that. So, congratulations. Welld deserved. >> Good job. So, hi. Thank you guys for having me and for all the work that you guys do every day. >>
060Oh, sorry. I'm Aubrey Riker Eline. I'm from Gillette. My daughter Grace is a junior, but I'm This is just something kind of um I am thankful for the team that does the parking and the parking rules and regulations for the school. Um I have a question or suggestion um about the current situation with the parking permits for juniors as they go from fall into spring. I know it's an overarching um lottery system for everyone and I love that from the standpoint of equity equitable for all um though it is randomized. I wanted to propose a suggestion for maybe going forward where we can take into account the continuity of people that have parking permits that are coming in the fall and then when they go into spring they don't get them and the disruption that
061it causes and maybe there's an opportunity for a different process that maybe honors some of the legacy of those that have them in the first part of the year and you know has the opportunity to either grandfather those in or some other suggestions that I have for their parking situation as they go into the spring. Just throwing it out there as a different opportunity for evaluating that process maybe as it goes forward. So it might not be able to be done now but for the future so it doesn't disrupt kind of students that have been parking consistently within the rules for the fall and then as it comes to spring kind of lose those privileges because they don't get to the next round. I can write more of the details of all of it and
062waste the time with it tonight. But I wanted to bring that up as a thought process that there are different options that honor the equitable part of it but also honor continuity for those that have been abiding by the rules. >> Thank you. >> And then I had one other random question. Um, in terms of experiential learning, I was just kind of curious like what is the thought process or what is the feeling of the board on activities like that? because in some cases students do have those opportunities to do things outside of school and can be very well documented in terms of legitimacy of those um learning opportunities and however those are dinged kind of as absences in school and I was just curious if there was a thought process on that because I
063know there's a lot of opportunities during the school school offers but also sometimes students have those opportunities that are really maybe high level at the state or federal level and they don't um they're not able to be excused from school even if there is a lot of documentation that those are beneficial opportunities to experience. So I just wanted to kind of also throw that out there um to the team as something to think about in terms of go forward process. >> Well, thank you. Again, items like that are always addressed at the education committee and the fire administration's always looking at other ways and other options and we discuss that with the board on programming that we offer diversifying other opportunities that are outside the standard five academic areas whatever it may add. >> No,
064that's it. Great. Thank you for coming. >> Look forward to seeing you again. >> Oh, we have a lot of fun here. You got to come every other week. Marissa Walsh, president of Hills Regional Education Association. Um, I just wanted to update the board because we have new board members. Uh, some of the work that our union does in the school is not just advocacy for our members but also community service projects uh for the students and the community at large. So this year uh we have around $10,000 in grant funding that we have used to um supply a giving closet for students who may be in need of basic items hygiene items. Uh we plan on supplementing it with winter uh items like socks, gloves, coats if we can. And this really just uh
065helps the student population who might be struggling and that interferes with learning and ultimately you know that's what we're here for students learning. Uh we also had some grant funding to help sponsor the Rise Against Hunger um event that just happened recently where uh students worked with our member Ken Cares to uh raise money to pack for food that goes overseas to feed hungry people. There was tens of thousands of dollars raised in that event contributed to and then we also have some money that we're going to work with the unified team to help defay the cost of some of the transportation. So um working very hard community service projects out there and if anybody wants to contribute or want more information user. >> Thank you. We appreciate your efforts and as well as the
066the education association. >> Can you send us the information? You will send me an email. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. Bruce, if you share with me, I'll make sure I get it to everyone. >> Excellent. Uh, do we have any additional comments? I see. Now, we're going to close the second opportunity for public comment. Other business, I have one item. Uh, one of my favorites. Of course, no one else seems to like it. Uh, retreat. I like to have retreats a year. I like to have every There you go. I knew it was coming. Knew it was coming. Uh not all required to attend. I like to have two a year. I like to have one in February or March. This way the new board members can talk about certain things that are outside this table. Give
067them an opportunity. >> That's good by me. Good by me. All right. So that's good. So we have that date set. Excellent. Thank you, Liz. And the reason why I like to do one in this summer is uh kind of gives us a a year end and a year start perspective coming out of you know June 30th year end then we're starting school again. Uh so I like to do that and at the retreat uh again Mark's here historically gives us some sort of update with regard to what's going on in the law. Um again further discussion about policies and stuff like that and welcome that. >> Oh great. Um so besides February 14th which I'm good with. Is there any other date that people would be available? What's our calendar? >> When you say
068retreat >> nothing I figured from the I I actually would like to move it to move to Florida perhaps in Miami location. >> We serve food. Are we talking like two hours or two days? >> Two two hours. It's a two hour evening meeting. Um we have we break bread together. Uh but it's just more informal where you know different topics that board members are interested in exploring. Um you know possibly talking about board goals. We take care of our ethics training and Mark usually puts together some nice case studies where you know it's a it's a little um jeopardy game with the board members. But yes, um >> but it's a chance, you know, for so it's considered a public meeting. Um but we don't record it. It's much more informal. We have it
069usually in the learning commons cafe where we, you know, have dinner. Um but it's a chance to explore some other topics that we don't always have time for with all the other board business that we're doing. Um so in terms of you know, we try and avoid a week that already has a board meeting in it. Um, so with February and March, it's the third and the 17th of each month. I believe on Monday too, we have our strategic plan meeting. >> March is the third. >> Yeah, the meeting is the third and 17th of March is earlier. >> It's exactly the same because of the 28 days of February. >> So I don't know. >> Um, and you know, we have to check obviously We don't want next week, but that leaves you the
070week of the 23rd from February. >> We break that week. >> You're right. >> Now, Mark, you normally have meetings on Tuesdays already, correct? Is there a different You could do the 10th. March 10th and we're usually do it like and we do put a time on so that >> I mean there's other I don't have to I know Tuesday's the day that people are used to having board meetings so I don't know any other >> Yeah I mean I could do pretty much any other >> I So, okay. So, it could be Monday the 9th possibly. >> March 9th. March >> you wanted to put you on the 11th. Is that the plan? I have something. >> You already shot me. >> I thought you were a fan. >> March 9th. Monday. >> That's
071March 9th. >> What time? You guys tell me >> dinner's going to be served everybody. Don't worry. >> Look, I've suggested you know morning. >> Oh, you know what? That's what's >> I have an ad hoc committee being established for the retreat. You're the chairman of the meals. Okay, Catherine. How's that? >> Got it. That's what we've had. I'll change it for six o'clock or something. Perfect. Okay. Yes, Dan. Just two things real quick. Talking about parking. Um the middle parking lot is still only half. >> It's for overflow parking. I mean, the security can certainly explain that better, but they do have reasons for why they don't give all of it out. I'm not in the spring as kids get their license issues. So >> I know they did release more spots from that
072that last year they did but I'll mention >> the second thing is suggest I don't know maybe you know Liz whether we're allowed the idea of aucally that we can encou such a thing. >> So what we're our visit to Northern Highlands that was talked about in ed committee. We're looking for seniors you know for the second semester to actually have something where you know they may be gone for half of the day or the whole day but there's requirements around um you know visits that we have to do for them to earn credit for it. Unfortunately for a student because there are certain seat hours required to get credits for a course. So if students are absent for reasons that are not, you know, related to school, they may be very valuable experiences, but
073we're a little bit constrained with, you know, what we can and can't allow. That being said, they're all dealt with on a case by case basis. I mean, you know, there's times where there's different situations we, you know, we have some students who will actually like if they're, I don't know, going to visit family in Asia for a month, they will actually withdraw and rein um, you know, for for a month or two because that's, you know, rather than missing a month of school or there's it's not ideal, but there's there certainly in the different cases we try to work with the student because there are really valuable experiences that we don't want them to miss. And I'm Now, it doesn't mean that that's what we've been talking about with the strategic plan. So, that
074doesn't mean that that can't change. So, that's certainly heard and something we'll talk about, >> but legally it's not part of the system. >> Exactly. Exactly. >> We are returned. Thank you everybody. Appreciate Look at that. It's 9:00