001o. What are we waiting for? It's six o'clock. Oh, I just see. I got a win. Put a winning pen. That's what I'm saying. I do. I got Is anybody here for Mr. I guess? Hey, are you on your way? No, it's six. Starting at seven. Okay. All right. He's on his way. Mcmanis, he thought it was [Laughter] seven. Move. Sometimes I'll check my email. Yeah, we said it. I think you said it at the last meeting. Sometimes we have Especially when you like him, he be running all around doing all kinds of stuff. He probably went down. She's going back again. But she said, "Are you on your way?" His car is in the spot. Yeah. There's a car in the parking spot that says superintendent. You get sent [Music] is around the corner.
002there. I hope he's all right. Dr. His room's dark. That's what I saw. I have it. Mr. Davis. Yes. Cooker. Do you know where Dr. Cooker is? working. Now we're like, "Okay, somebody's parked in his spot." He's laying across the desk. You went into his office, but I didn't go all the way. Girl, I don't even do that. the little Well, he's not hurt. I hope so. I remember I remember one time I was late to work and I overslept cuz I was going to school and working all the time at the same time. This building doesn't service and see that's it. It's the all the concrete understand. You probably get it. Don't even walk at the door. Get out of here. Yeah. Turn. I turned the whole script. He walked away from me all.
003He was embarrassed. Embarrassed. I said, "Don't you ever come to me about being I said something could have happened to me." Like, you didn't even cry. didn't even check and see if I was alive. There's not one miss call from this job. See where it says poker. Huh? Just I just haven't seen it. Yeah. Yeah. There it just came. Thank you very much. You're welcome. urinate, too. All right. Now that we know you're okay, we're good. Back here working with me. It's all right. Welcome to the Winsow Township Board of Education special uh board meeting for uh for the 2025 2026 budget hearing on Wednesday, May 7th, 2025. Public notice of this meeting was given to all board members and associates in a notice dated 4:18, 2025. Adequate and electronic notice of this public meeting
004has been provided specifying the time, place, and manner in which this meeting is being conducted. It was advertised in the courier posted in all schools, the administration building, the municipal building, the library, Bud Dubal Center, Edwood Acres, Elmtown, and the Winslow Township Post Office. Post Office Winsow I mean mission statement. The mission of of the Winslow Township School District, the large, diverse, and growing community is to educate all students to become independent, lifelong learners, critical thinkers, and caring, confident members of their community. The district in partnership with with the community and in climate of cooperation and mutual respect will provide an academic environment which values excellence and diversity encourages the students to strive for personal excellence and assists them in acquiring the knowledge, skills, and attitudes necessary to contribute positively to a rapidly changing world.
005Roll call, please. Mr. Clark, here. Miss Dre, here. Miss Glaude, present. Miss Martin present. Mr. McManis. Mr. Mcmanis will be late. Miss Peterson present. Miss Pitts, she will be absent. Thank you. Mr. Thomas, yes. And Mr. Shaw, present. We have a quorum. Can we please stand for the pledge of allegiance? I pledge algiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Mr. Clark, would you mind doing the uh 20 district goals? Sure. 2024 2025 district goals. Number one, student achievement. Continue to implement best practices for delivering instruction to students. This shall include A conduct weekly administrative walkthroughs to monitor teaching and learning. B consistently review student assessment data to guide and redirect teaching. C continue
006to provide supplemental activities, for example, tutoring enrichment periods to address student deficiencies. D, benchmark assessment for 9th grade math and language arts. Number two, create a safe and positive learning environment for students and staff. A. Strictly enforce the district's student code of conduct. B. Focus on upper elementary school students to modify student behavior in the early grades. C. Reinforce positive behavior in a specific and genuine way. D, approach discipline with care, respect, and the desire to see the good in all students. Number three, increase parent, caregiver, and community engagement in education. A, provide opportunities for two-way communication with district stakeholders. B, continue with communications consortium. C, focus on refining our communication methods and messages to better market our schools. And D, continue with our public relations with the community. Moving on to awards and presentations.
007Uh, Mr. President, members of the board and community, at this time we will have our 2526 budget pres presentation under the direction of our board administrative school uh board secretary, Miss Ty McCoy Bole. Mrs. Bole, Mrs. Bole, would you like for us to relocate? Oh, yes. That would be a good idea. Thank you board and members of the community for coming to the um 2526 budget presentation. Want to jump right into this. As we hear at the opening of each of our board meetings, we have our district goals. First one and foremost is student achievement. Uh we also create a safe and positive learning environment for students and staff. We want to increase parent caregiver and community engagement and education. And these are the goals. These are the goals of the board. And what we're
008doing tonight is presenting a budget which will assist in the district achieving these goals. So the first thing I want to provide or go over as the enrollment in in your um the budget agenda um Mr. Mcan just sitting so we can see the services and in your in your um your agendas there is the advertised budget is right in there. these figures that you're going to see, some you'll see number by number, others may be uh condensed or consolidated. So, some you'll be able to go from my presentation straight to what's in the budget. Um, if you have any questions, we can always go over that. Okay. So, the first thing we I want to share are the enrollments and you'll see there's the October 15, 2023 actual enrollment. um the October 13, 2024
009actual enrollments and the October 15, 2025 estimates and we we haven't gotten there yet, but um the district or the budget software allows us to project within a range and so we have projected in that range. Uh October 13, 2024, what they do is they count all the students in the district at the time. So, we had 4,955. We had 88 cent private schools. So, we would add that back in. Uh 57 other students going to other districts. Um that totals uh 5,100. Also, in the seats, we had 198 students that were received from other districts. So, they're not resident enrollments, but they're coming here. If I were to back that out and then add back in students from Winslow that are in state facilities, we would have about 4,7 students. We're projecting for next
010year to have on roll 4,994 students, uh 88 going to private schools, 57 to other districts, which would bring us to 5,139, an increase of about 39 students. but also um out of those students sitting in the seat, we're saying only 170 would have been brought in from other districts. Uh and then we would add back our state facility students. Um and that would give us 4,974. That is just a prediction. Once everything's said and done, we'll have an actual but that was within the parameters. for the increase of 67 students. So, first thing I want to go over is stating I want to see and explain and I'd like to take it from where we are in this year's budget compared to what's happening in next year's budget. So, in uh 2024 25 we
011had an operating with state aid. They gave us $53 million 53 5 days and 74 2526 we got an additional additional state aid. Yeah. Power. Oh yes. Thank you. Um so um for 2526 this we received 56,798767 in state aid. That was an increase of 3,215,224. So we got uh 3.2 million increase in state aid for the preschool program. And this is not this is a special revenue fund. So that's only for preschool. In 2425 we received 3.8 million. In 2526 we're getting 3.1 million. and it's a decrease of about 660,357. So in total we while we received 57 391 uh 943 and state aid and 2425 and 2526 we're receiving 59 million 946 and $160. So it's a overall increase of 2,554667. Now federal in 2425 we were told to budget and we that
012number is plpped into our budget software. They told us we had to budget 299 uh about 299,727 in uh semi or special education Medicaid incentive fee. This year they're telling us 46,640. So that's a decrease of $253,87. um just because they told us to budget that amount didn't necessarily mean that we would make it and typically we did not because it depends on participation from parents applications coming in. So um the decrease I hope that we will be able to at least achieve that number. Now local contribution from the general fund. So we had a $54.7 million tax levy in 2425. We brought in 8 million 8.9 million in fund bells and we made a withdrawal from capital reserves of 13.4 million. So the district um the local funding that that was contributed was 77
013million 052099. In 2526, our tax levy has gone up to 55.8. And I'm not going to read the little number, but we'll be here all night. That was an increase of a,9494,699. That represents a 2% tax increase on our tax fund balance. We're bringing in 6.7 million from fund balance. We're also making a withdrawal from capital reserve of 14.5 million. And as we go through um the the uh slide, you'll see what that's for. So we had an overall increase of 955,54. Okay. So our total revenues for the general fund and that's our the general fund is our operating budget. Uh we have from the tax levy 55.8 million. We have 56.7 million in state aid. We have 1.2 million in extraordinary aid. We're contributing 6.7 million of fund balance. We're anticipating 3.1 million in
014tuition that's being paid from other districts. Um between miscellaneous which is um could be book fines interest on capital and maintenance reserves we are anticipating 80,600 the semi program is 46,640 we're making the withdrawal from capital reserve of 14.5 million and we're also making a withdrawal from our maintenance reserve of 830,200. So, our operating fund for the general fund for 2526 is 139,245,53 $356. And this is where we take a brief and we look at a lovely chart that tells us where the funding is coming from. You'll notice that state aid is 41% of our overall budget and our tax levy is 40%. Fund balance is 5% 2 million uh 2% is tuition. The withdrawal from capital and maintenance reserves about 11% and uh the miscellaneous other aids extraordinary and semi 1%. So now we
015have the revenues. Let's look at the appropriations. How we how have we allocated the money for? So what this is going to include is we are um purchasing four school buses according to our vehicle rotation schedule. I believe that amount was 648,000. It's about 648,000. I remember a time where for 600,000 I would be bringing six buses in, but the cost of these vehicles has escalated just tremendously. And if it's not co backing up to production, there's tariffs coming. So, while I cannot I cannot increase the fleet, what I'm trying to do is at least maintain it so that we have a safe fleet for the district. Um, we're also going to have new textbook adoptions for next year. We're also going to continue to support our technology and we have uh software upgrades and
016renewals that we'll be putting through. We're going to continue to provide mental health and behavioral services. This is going to be through one of our title grants. And we're going to have the replacement of playgrounds at schools one through six, which I believe is long overdue. Capital project. We're going to upgrade the HBA system at the middle school and that's going to be 14,585,988. That's the money that we withdrew from capital reserve. So that's money that we have been stocking away and now we have a a use for it and pull it in does not impact our and I'm saying on their original units there were newer units in the middle school but um one of those unforeseen occurrences um that started to occur was the um the pipes would freeze up and then the
017pipes would bust and water would leak and of course the floors had speestous tile. So then we had to go through an abatement and um and replace the unit. So we did I think in previous years not too long ago we replaced but they were the newer units that we've replaced. So I would say about 40 to 50% of the school already has upgraded units. These are the units that are original to the building. So, we're on borrow time. So, that's why we're going to go before and I know we had one at least one first this winter. So, we're going to go ahead and get that project done. And, you know, we have been, you know, consistently trying to get our buildings and their HBAC systems upgraded. So, this would be the next one
018we'd like to move along. So, what has not changed in 2526? We're still supporting staff needs. We're not charging uh to participate in extra or co-curricular activities. We continue to invest in the district's technology. We're investing in current and upto-date educational resources. We're investing in performing arts. And we're trying to support the best outcome for our students. And I I believe that uh when the students come and report out to us, we see evidence of this working. It's also nice that they feel comfortable enough to come to the board to make a presentation about what they're participating in. Yeah. Um so budgeted appropriations and I know in your agenda there's a whole litany of them. These are collapsed. There will be some that you can again go from the um what's in the adopted budget
019or advertised budget straight back to this and others are consolidated or collapsed together. But you'll see that instruction is 44 million. Tuition and this is what we're paying now is uh 15 million. It's over 15 million. Student support is 12.6 million. Administration and info technology is about 8 million. Operations and maintenance of the buildings and grounds is about 11 million. Student transportation 11.5 million. Benefits are 19.4 million. Uh interest earned on maintenance reserve we're anticipating $500. That is low. Um and capital outlay um is 16.7 million. We also have students that attend charter schools. That's 521,127. So our total operating budget is 139,245, 356, which ties back to our revenue. And I'm going to turn the page. And again, we have a lovely slide presentation on the graph to show the allocation of where the
020funding is being placed. You'll see that instruction is 31.66% of the entire budget. Tuition that we're paying out is 10.79. Student support services are 9.10%. Student transportation is 8.32. Operations and maintenance of the buildings and grounds is 7.94. Transfer to charter schools is 38. And I think we have these decimals so so that transfer and chart would even show up on the pie chart. Uh administration and information technology is 5.79%. And um benefits is 13.98. Capital outlay is 12.04. So you can see um where the pie is sliced and which um pieces are the largest pieces versus what's being. So now we are giving you a three-year comparison of 2324 actual budget and what was expended 2425 which is the year we're in in now and it's revised as of February 1st and then 20
0212526 projected. What we like to look at or compare is if there's any wall swings. So, if you look at the tax levy, uh the 2% that seems about good. State aid, woohoo, we've got additional state aid, about 3 million. Uh tuition, we are budgeting 3.1 million to receive even though in our revised budget year this year, we only had 1.8. We did that because if you look at 2324 we we actually uh received 2.9 million because because of the need and the fact that we are getting this kind of funding we increased it. If I increase the the revenue I can then go to my appropriation and say Dr. a party. Um, every time I look at you, you are, you know, I have to dodge your phone calls because you need more money
022and you're sweating. And so since you actually bring in more, I'm going to anticipate getting it and I'm going to give it to you to spend. So you don't have to call me and say, "Oh, Mrs. Boy, you know, I hate to call you." I just thought I'll use Doc's term. Just give it to me straight. Mrs. Boy, would you tell anyone who Dr. Ricardi is? Director of special services. Oh, I'm sorry. Lovely gentlemen. Uh, so we take a look at that. Uh, the other thing is other local sources. We budgeted this year 80,600. We're budgeting 80,600 for next year. But if you look at last year, we received 2.5 million. So, you know, we went back and did a quick analysis of what that was. Hopefully, I have it here, but we did receive
023some funding. Um, I believe it was - funding that we've received after the close of the prior year. Um, ordinarily, if we go through and we get the money in while the current year budget is open, we would just refund the expenditure line so that we could uh utilize those funds if they come in after the budget. uh is closed then I can't I can't recognize it as current year revenue. I have to say we got this from the prior year. See I went and told you that I got to explain my my detail. We also received about 94,000 in transportation fees from other school districts who have students here. Uh interest was about 1.6 million. We earned some use of facilities fund that as well as about $625 refund of prior year expenditures which
024may have been like I said e-ray pri prior year tuition um that was $816,000 and miscellaneous which is book fines technology fines if you use your swipe and you need another one that came out about $9,000 I And it's not uh prudent to budget for uh that number if you don't think you're going to get it. Like I don't know how many people are going to lose their swipe cards. I don't know if I'm going to get 9,000. I don't know if after year end closes this year that I'm going to get a big rate refund. So I can't, you know, you don't budget for that. But these when this funding comes in, it's good. It will end up going fully closed out. And let's say in another category where we're anticipating 3.1 million in
025tuition, if I only get 3 million, but I get more in um the other category, we're still good. We might be short in one area, but higher in another. Um, but again, if I can't concretely touch it or say there's a reason for it, I don't put it in. Okay. So, if we again we take a look at it, we can see what's there. You can see that uh the semi down there we're 299,727 and we dropped to 46. That's again that's out of our control. It's in the budget software when we open it up. Um, in 2425, you see this number where it says adjust for prior year incumbrances. Those are items that we bought out of our the prior year budget, but it didn't come in until after. So, it's just like writing
026the check. The check didn't clear, but you know, it's going to come in. So if we have that expenditure out there, the money that we utilize or budgeted to spend isn't comes over as an open incumbent. So when they come in, the money is still there and it's not getting my current current year fund. That being said, you'll see that it's a the total for 2425 is 136,47710. If we were to take that 2.4 before in incumbrances out it would go to 134,063 350 which is what our adopted budget was last year. We don't have that number in for next year because we're not a year in yet. And if you look at the expenditures underneath again if we take a look at 2425 and this is budgeted compared to 2526. You want to make
027sure again no no no large swings are there. Um and during the not only the budget process but even during um the course of the year we turn in reports and we report out every month as required. We give you our financial and we have to certify that there's sufficient funds in there to get us through the year. um we have to certify that you know nothing crazy happened and um and there's certain thresholds that they watch. If you look at our monthly transfer report, there's percentages. Um you we are allowed to transfer in to educational lines and any other lines as much as we want. We cannot transfer out more than 10%. So most lines if if we transfer out more than 10, we have to go to the county and get approval. We
028have to let them know that we did this, why we did this, and um and they have to come back and give us the approval for administrative lines, which are our 230, 240s, and 250, which is administration. We can take out as much as we want. We cannot put in more than 10%. Because they do not want us to adopt the budget and then after it's adopted, we go, "Hey, well, I'm going to move all the money out of education and put it in my my budget line. If we go over 10% in, we have to go to the county and let them know and explain why." So, and every month we'd look at this. Gina and I are always looking at what's the percentage. Did we increase? decrease. Matter of fact, if I make
029any increases into an administrative cost line, we send the reports to the county and there's a certain threshold uh in the state. There's three north uh central and southern there's limits that your your um administrative cost can't exceed. So that's why we do that. Um and we are stickless to stay within So we have our proposed 2526 budget for our current fund. The total budget is $139.2 million. Um we have anticipated revenues of $83.4 million and the balance is our tax levy which is 55.8 8 million which you will see you have seen in the other slides. The special revenue fund uh is 8.5 million and the anticipated revenues are 8.5 no tax limit to support the special revenue fund. So the total budget for general fund and special revenue fund is a $147.7 million.
030anticipated revenues of 91.9 million and the the tax levy is 55.8 million. We also have in here a reduction in the transfer from general fund to special revenue fund. The general fund is going to pay the special revenue fund for students that uh there's about six students that are in the general fund, but they're going to utilize services in the special revenue fund in the preschool. We have to pay for those students to attend. So because it's coming out of one pocket and going into the other, you can't count it. So they make us take that out and it the address is 147699571 with revenues of 9186923 and the to local tax levy is 55 million 829 648. Okay. So the tax impact the net valuation taxable for 20 2.75865 going to say that's our
031net valuation taxable. The average resident residential assessment in 2025 is 177,700 and our tax rate is 2.004. So in 2025, an increase of a penny raises $275,000 861 a home assessed in 2024 and that was the average residential assess assessment in 2024 was 177,200. That tax in that tax levy would have been about 3500 for the year. 2025, our average home is assessed at 77,700. That tax assessment is going to be about 3,561 and the tax increase is about $61 over the course of the year. If your home assessed higher, it will be higher. If your home is assessed less, it will be less. And does anybody have questions? And before before I ask that, um, on our agenda and it's new this year, we're a little more formal, we would like to have a
032a motion and a roll call to open up public comments just for the budget hearing and then anybody that has questions or comments or concerns only on the topic of the budget, we can entertain them, answer the question. Once that's done, we will close it and then we'll move to just regular public comments that you know you don't like the fact that I don't and Tyra has to park down here. But I do hope that if we could we have a motion, can you take that or just write it down? Peterson move for opening of public comments just for the budget. Second. Roll call, please. Roll call. Sorry, Mr. Clark. Yes. Miss Dre. Yes. Miss Claude, yes. Miss Martin, yes. Mr. McManis. Yes. M. Peterson. Yes. Mr. Thomas? Yes. Mr. Shaw? Yes. Motion is carried.
033Now, does anybody have um any questions or concerns about what they heard? Do you need some clarification? Uh, and this is primarily for the public and then we'll go back to board members if you have questions. Is there anybody on the um the phone? Okay. Are we good? So, doesn't seem to be any comments or questions. How about board members? Do you have any questions? Yes. Uh there's on page four uh it's indicated increase but you really meant the decrease. It says 2024 2025 and then it says proposed 2025 2026 and you even mentioned that it was a decrease but in the blue it says increase. Oh yes you're right that should decrease. I'm sorry the brackets. Thank you, Miss Peterson. It'll be corrected for us before it goes up. Thank you. Thank you. And
034with the estimated number of students that you have for the 20 on the October 15, 2025 number, are we getting students that are coming back into district? Is that why the number is going up? We are. That's not an actual Are you for 2025? Yeah, we don't know. That's just the trend. And I'll tell you, um, when they used to give us our ranges, we would always have to budget a decrease and and it was a certain percent between a certain percent, but it would tell us based on the actual number, you had to budget a decrease, decrease. We flipped it and now it's becoming an increase. Okay. So they give us a range that you you are allowed to budget up to or anticipate between this range and that range. And like I said,
035we got the opportunity to increase whether um we're allowed to uh estimate, but when the actual numbers come in, that's when we'll really tell. Oh, Mr. McMe category children uh I guess that are receiving 195 and 23 20 then 24 198 and projected 170 this year. Yes. Uh and forgive my ignorance and maybe I should already know this but how many of those of those children are coming in from Chis? Probably the bulk. Yeah. Yeah. But there are others that attend um beyond Chiselhurst because uh what I would do what I was doing was I would only budget Shislehurst tuition. Okay. But at year end we were making um like I said in the one 2.9 million and I'm only budget in Chishurst and during the course of the year Dr. the party is running
036short on funds. So I said let's budget like tell me who do you have and we took actual student count and we projected some of them not all at current rates. So I increased that so that I could go Dr. parties were increasing um what we are anticipating in um in revenue from tuition which we were getting and I'm going to allow you I'm going to put it in your line so you can spend for those that are going out. So it wasn't it's a wash basically whatever we got in Dr. part and that was so that you know how I say there's there's these emergencies that that pop up um if he has a need you cannot deny the service and ask it so you know so hopefully he'll make it further through the
037year or maybe the entire year without having to come to us for additional funding thank you Any other questions? One more question and I think you've already said that forgive forgive me. Uh full-time students enrollments those numbers they give they the county I guess give you uh parameters as far as in what they increase when we are projecting. Yes. Okay. And then I would say this the state because it's in the state of software, right? And I guess one of the other concerns that I have and I know that we as a board have talked about this before and that's the ongoing construction residential construction that's going on in the town which is rather substantial. Yes, it is. Um and and just to make sure that that we allocate um what's necessary for do we
038have figures from the construction? I guess maybe I shouldn't jump ahead too far, but um about projected numbers of students that are coming in because you can do that reasonably whether you have a condo, a town home, a single family home that's coming in, what the expected amount of children coming into the school district, you know, on average per unit. If you're asking me if we need another building or additional space, I'm going to tell you yes. I'm just asking if this I'm telling you. Well, just like you said, you can ride and see. Oh my goodness. Yeah. You know, these kids right now in some of our school, we have teachers on park because there's no class. Yeah. And we did do a a large addition to school 4. Um, and you did that
039by squiring money away and, you know, it didn't impact the tax. Um I don't know how long that I can name at least one taxpayer I would think but you can you can see that there is a need out there. Yeah. And and I guess that's my concern with all the ongoing construction. Like you said, it's no surprise. You'd have to be almost see but as long as we're making strides to properly budget realistic student projected student population numbers. Yes. But they will only let's say a development came and all these gets flooded in and we report out in October. We won't get that change until the following year and then we have to budget it in. We will not get we will not get revenue for those students until probably the following. That's exciting.
040Yes, that's it. So and right now we have the district has service. you take that off. We may have to go out and apply for death services in order to um build a school or an addition to the school or addition to a couple your township. Yeah. Yeah. Thank you. If there's no more questions, we can motion to close. Peterson move for approval to close this session on the budget. Questions and answers. Mr. Clark, yes. Mr. Eden, yes. Miss Floyd, yes. Miss Martin, yes. Mr. McManis. Yes. Miss Peterson. Yes. Mr. Thomas. Yes. Mr. Shaw. Yes. So, board members, if you want to go back up to our seat, So, Mr. President, I believe we're on we're just on page two. Yes. And we're at the uh the point to if you want to advertise a
041motion to adopt the budget. Um um you ready for me? Can Can I have a Can we have a motion to adopt the budget for 2020 the district budget for 2025 as M does uh it's on page nine. Yeah. From uh Mr. Boil our business administrator board secretary recommended for approval. Peterson move for approval of adoption of the budget proposed budget for 2025 2026 based on the business administrative board secretary recommendations found on page two going to page nine second roll call please Mr. Clark no Miss Dreaden yes Miss Glo yes Miss Martin yes Mr. McManis. No. Miss Peterson, yes. Mr. Thomas, yes. And Mr. Shaw, yes. The motion has carried. Moving on to public comments. Can I have a motion for to open public comments? Peterson move for approval to open public comments. D
042second. All in favor? Mr. President, we have nobody who signed up for public comments. Do we have anybody on the line? Not at this time. Not at this time. Um, do we have a motion to adjourn public comment? Peterson move for approval to adjourn public comments. Second. All in favor? I. Then at this time, can I have a motion to adjurnn? Peterson move for approval to adjourn this meeting. Second. Um, all in favor? See everybody next?