good evening it is 6:30 um meeting notice adequate notice of this meeting of the Berkeley Heights Board of Education was given as required by the open public meetings act as follows notice of this special Board of Education meeting was sent to the Star Ledger and The Courier news on April 22nd 2024 and was provided to all schools PTO presidents bhea president and posted at the administration building a cop was also provided to the public library and filed with the municipal clerk please stand for the flag salute I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all Mr secretary may we have a roll call please security here Dr B here Mr hman M J M cona here M P Mr St we have a quorum adjourn to Executive session whereas the Berkeley Heights Board of Education seeks to adjourn to Executive session in full compliance with the open public meetings Act njsa 10 col 4-6 and whereas the open public meeting app provides that a public body May exclude the public from that portion of the meeting at which it discusses matters related to those identified below matters rendered confidential by federal law state law or Court rule individual privacy collective bargaining agreements purchase or lease of real property if public interest could be adversely affected investment of public funds if public interest could be adversely affected tactics or techniques utilized in protecting Public Safety and property pending or anticipated litigation attorney client privilege Personnel employment matters affecting specific perspective or current employees be it resolved that the Berkeley Heights Board of Education adjourns to Executive session to discuss matters related to personnel and attorney client privilege and be it further resolved that the minutes of the discussion if any of these items will be disclosed to the public when matters have been determined in confidentially confidentiality is no longer applicable may I have a motion to enter into executive session second thank you it is 6:34 okay we're gonna move to Executive session I move to return from executive session seconded second thank you public we thank you for your uh patience as we had an extra long executive meeting today so thank you very much for your patience at this time all right so return to public session 8:23 we're going to begin our budget presentation and public discussion so Mr Nixon and Mr jessco witz thank you all right good evening everybody and I'd like to Echo Mrs Bradford's uh thanks we appreciate your patience as we've navigated through some components this evening my name is Robert Nixon I'm the Acting Superintendent of Schools as well as the principal at Governor Livingston high school joining me for this presentation tonight uh will be our assistant superintendent Dr gardano as well as Mr juskowitz our school business administrator and board secretary um so as as an introduction to our presentation this evening uh I'd like to just re remind everybody that we are guided in this District by our strategic plan um so as we consider the aspects of our budget and the budget development um we always like to reference our strategic plan which has student achievement at the heart of the decisions that we make um moving through there were there were five specific goals identified that helped um guide what we were looking to do as we created the budget uh that was to promote student achievement through the support of educational programs to maintain and upgrade technology in support of District goals to develop a budget that retains and attracts staff so that we may meet the needs of all of our students to upgrade facilities maintain equipment and enhance security and to be respectful of the impact on taxpayers in support of this we recently asked um our school Community to uh complete a survey and and share with us their feedback uh in some general areas of the budget uh alog together we had nearly 600 people from our public respond to this we appreciate that um with fairly even representation between Elementary School families Middle School families and high school families um as we look through this here we saw that overwhelmingly um the most important aspect of the budget from the people that responded was teacher investment and and supporting staff um the the least of the issue um concerns that the public expressed was the uh the effort to reduce the tax impact overall we asked if they felt the board was board of education is proactive in school Community engagement during the budget process um 53% said no 56 46% said yes and we asked the public if they felt the Board of Education was transparent in its budget development and 45% said yes 55% said no um overall we were really excited about the level of Engagement we felt we had from the community on this um we this this data is being used to support as we get our um budget to the finish line so to speak this year one of the things we've spoken about um that we're excited about is engaging the community far earlier in the process next year and utilizing um information such as this perhaps much more in depth um to help with the creation of the budget at its at its onset as opposed to uh at this point so now to go over some of the specific budget highlights I'm going to turn it over to Dr J Dan thank you Mr Nixon um so right off the bat just want to explain to everyone this budget currently maintains our current Staffing levels our current programs that we currently have in this school year there's no right now there's no staff riffs or layoffs and anything of that nature in addition to that that we've been able to add a reading specialist to Columbia Middle School which is woefully needed uh myself Mr Kisa now these were these additional staffings came from let me take a step back from when we started the budget process in in in in December and January meeting with the individual principles and the directors and their roles while they were going through while we were budgeting so this came out of multiple meetings um so these are the recommendations in conjuncture with with our principles and our directors and supervisors so additional reading specialist um at Columbia midle School currently all elementary schools have a reading specialist the middle school does not in my educational opinion that is a key place where we still need a reading specialist through our sixth through eighth grade students um an addition of a second District athletic trainer it's not a second District athletic director it's an athletic trainer currently we only have won our Sports programs over the years I'm sure Mr Nixon as as building principal can attest to this Miss cliff certainly does have have grown so we have multiple teams in multiple sites not just on this campus it's a liability for this District not to have an A an additional athletic trainer at different sites when our sports teams are competing according to miss Clifton there are teams that will not play against us if we do not have an athletic Trader so becomes a scheduling problem when they come to our Fields so that was added to the budget all things are not equal we have a single nurse in all of our schools however the GL nurse has I would say almost double Mr Nixon will back that up the student population of everything that's going on in her office so we felt it was it was appropriate to to to provide a 0.5 school nurse at GL for next year and then um with our increase of our our uh elll students our English language learner students uh a current ESL position was increased by 0.15 to make that full-time that person was 085 so we're increasing to 0.15 so that's where the additional Staffing comes from and right now I'll turn it over to uh Mr Jess witz to go through the budget highlights a little bit more thank you uh thank you uh Dr jodano what I wanted to uh go through here is uh the count lines in the budget were compared with prior spending from the last few years uh I went through about five years of budget expend that determined budget figures in about half the budget uh School budgets and instruction were left to the principles and from what I had reviewed they had done an excellent job with their budgets and I left the instruction part of the budget to the uh individuals who knew and had done an excellent job of what they did and knew what they were doing so I left that to their discretion um out of 612 budget lines 4 77 have remained flat or decreased which was about 78% the Excel budget that I created had that amount of lines and thus how I came up with this uh calculation in this budget the there was a contractual increase of 3.2% for the bhea uh contract and I believe that contract runs through next year if I'm not mistaken there's two more years sorry next is the uh contractual increase of 3% for the bhaa and if I believe that's another year or is that two years two years thank you thank you there was an increase to the bus driver contract for an hourly rage uh that was increased this past year in order to attract drivers we were having a difficult time attracting drivers and we were able to uh um be competitive with many of the surrounding districts uh we had an estimated increase in our contribution to the public employees and uh retirement system is at 18% um the business administrators Association had suggested an increase regarding uh to the budget for this pension and what the prior actual numbers are from the state and this is an Actuarial U estimate 18% was what the average that came up from these calculated numbers and thus the 18% is what's being used in this budget Property and Casualty Insurance rates are projected to increase by 10 to 15% uh there are nine different Insurance categories and our broker suggested increases for each category from this range based on market and past claims actual numbers come into toward late June and that's when we'll be getting the actual numbers for these uh uh rates health benefit and prescription rates are projected uh to increase by 11% our health broker suggested to budget based on claims to date when compiling our budget when at the time was February and that was at 11% actual numbers will not be determined until all claims have been examined and review excuse me reviewed and the brok negotiated the final rate when the health benefit company uh with with the health benefit company Sigma and that will won't be determined until the end of June uh we have an increase of utilities at 10% uh the increase of utilities was a collaboration of peers and Market advisers to determine the percentage increase next was the increase of uh sewer and water of 5% and that increase of water and sewer was a collaboration also of peers and Market advisers to determine this percentage increase and adding that to the budget the increase in effective uh School solutions for mental and Health Services the increase in this uh was supported previously by Esser federal funds uh Grant funds from previous years These funds help keep students in the district and needed to be supported by the local budget for uh this upcoming school year I'm going to turn the technology highlights over to Dr jodano super thank you Mr jtz uh good to see everyone again so these are some of our technology highlights that uh Mr Marks and myself along with uh m Mr jwi had been working on uh through this budget process and we and we brought Mr uh Nixon up to speed on um as he came on board as the Acting Superintendent so we're looking to purchase a more durable uh Chromebook they're called HP Forest Chromebooks they're a little bit more Heavy D heavy they're a little heavy dor um so a little bit more uh harder for students to damage so um obviously we're going to start phasing those in it's not going to be for every single student in the district we have a we have a a plan in place where you know we get new Chrome books every year year and we phase the those ones down and and we start replacing those um secondly uh second we have a Google workspace for Education plan currently we we use the free Google classroom and Google workspace this has uh 75 features for our Educators to use particularly for Mr Marx and his team they have enhanced uh cyber security investigation tools that they can use in case we get fished or cyber attacked it also has a instructional benefit for the teachers it's going to open up about um you know AI for the Google classroom with practice problems and feed so we're excited about that improved digital report cards I think our parents will be happy about that um it's a plugin for power school which will allow us to securely create a digital report card and then email to the parents as opposed to printing up paper and then mailing them home and then class link this is for when we're onboarding uh new staff members currently right now on all the platforms that staff members have access to we have to Mr Marks and his team I say the Royal Way Mr Marks and his team has to manually plug in their credentials into every platform for every teacher this class link on sync will be once the new staff member is incorporated into our system we hit go and it and it syncs them to everything that we've we've checked off from them to have access to so that's what we're looking to do from a technology standpoint I will turn back over Mr jitz back to giodo now I want to get into the uh parts of the budget School tax levy um we're increasing the school tax levy by just under 2% for next year uh tax levy increase every the tax levy increases every year since it supplements the revenues of the district it is the difference between the Appropriations less the revenues of the district state aid is a component of the revenues of the district state aid is one of the the revenue components the district has received negative State a state a negative Revenue in part due to the high property assessments that have increased over the past few years the income level has increased also over the past few years and this has equated to the state stating that the Berkeley Heights has a fair share to support its educ education and thus why we have received a negative state aid for this past year Appropriations we are I've in in stating earlier before as we've reduced several of budget lines and also keeping several of them flat we've tried to reduce um the overall budget for this past year um in doing so we've we've decreased Appropriations comparing funds 11 through 13 the budget was reduced by $753,000 from last year the capital revenue and expenditures of 1,758 750 was removed from the equation and a concerted effort was made to not affect teaching positions for the upcoming budget this chart shows what for next year's budget what salaries and benefits are compared to the rest of the budget for next year it's 8 2% 82.7% versus 17.3% and basically what the 17.3% is basically uh uh services and supplies and this is basically the proposed operating budget for next year classroom instruction is about 48% employee benefits at almost 19% instructional support is at almost 133% operations and maintenance is at 7.6 transportation is about 4.2% school administration is 2.5 business office and technology is at 2% and gen general admission General Administration is at 3.4% and that is that that makes up the 100% of the budget General budget that is uh a home assessed that $300,000 would see an average average yearly School tax increase of $135 that average monthly School tax increase would be $11.23 uh per month uh $33.74 is what's being assessed at basically at every 100,000 that is assessed I'm bringing up this this CH this here is because this amount of money was what was in capital projects for last year this amount this these projects that are listed here were not basically done this this past year the only thing that was done was the remove and replace of the retaining wall the two projects that up are up above for the roofing projects those were not done and one of the reasons they were not done is because these are being um partially funded by the state of New Jersey uh we would see 40% of that cost being um given back to the school district but the school has to lay the money out first and be reimbursed the 40% of it one of the reasons why this couldn't have been done is because the state hasn't finished filing the paperwork uh with giving us that paperwork in order to proceed with the project B not only Berkeley Heights but many of the other school surrounding school districts that are having roof work done were not able to do their their uh projects as well this would not be able to take place until the summer of 20 2025 so this money will have to go back into our capital reserve and we'll probably be having to go into the not next year's budget but the following Year's budget so and the two other projects that we have the electrical panel board replacements uh those might be able to be done this year I'm still investigating to look into doing these projects but they may have to uh this money may have to go back for those two projects as well so um just to give letting the community know that these were slated to be done but may not be done but at this point in time we're looking into doing those but with these Roofing projects will be done in the future as far as um maintenance projects I know that there's been some concerns about some of the um parking lot issues that of uh the way the parking parking lots do look in um particularly at Colombia the upper and low uh lower parking lots there are some issues at the governor Livingston high school we have the Mountain Park parking lots there's also there is a uh Mary Kay McMillan pathway that needs some work and also there's the Press Box uh from my understanding that has been money that's been put into our maintenance reserves and what we'd like to do at some point is have our Architects look at these projects and have some schematics and drawings put together so that we have some estimates and some numbers put together so when we do go out to have pricing done for these we have some good numbers and when we do get pricing we'll have um I'm I'm trying to think of the wording for this a a good idea by The Architects that these projects will done will be done and done the correct way I'll give you an instance for the Mary Kay McMillan pathway our facility director went out and got some pricing and they got three or four different pricings but they varied so vastly is because one of them was just doing it a straight um Paving job another one included some drainage and another one included drainage and some other different things to them putting pavers in uh I think we wanted to get them and and do this the right way I think if we included the drainage I think this would preserve that pathway in going a long distance and may not have to do this again so looking at it and doing the right way doing this the right way will preserve this project and having it going a long way and having to redo it so I just wanted to in um inform the community that we do have the funds in a separate account a maintenance reserved and we're looking at getting this done I'd like to thank you for listening to this um uh presentation this evening and at this time we'd like to uh take on some questions does the board have any questions for the presentation Mrs dolly um so I'd like to um just go back to the presentation and take a look at um the statement regarding you know the number like maybe take it from the top and go take ask about the line line items that were less or you know or relative to the other budgets I think based on the um initial preliminary detailed line budget that we received prior to um voting on the um preliminary budget um the comparison for the proposed 2425 budget was done versus the revised 2324 budget and versus the revised 2324 budget I could see that things were either flat or you know maybe even lower however when we look at our what we're actually spending so you know this I go back to um the attachments from the prior board meeting it was the board secretary's report that shows our original budget plus transfers and gives us an adjusted budget um when I look at those numbers and then I look at what is what we actually spent right versus incumbrances if I look at those sum of those two up as our kind of actual spend the numbers look a lot higher so again I it's there are a lot of different versions of you know the numbers and so again versus the revised 23 budget they look you know flat or maybe lower across the line item so I could see where that would be accurate but when we compare to what we actually spend our expenditures both our incumbrances ver look um you know slightly different so that was my one question um you know regarding that because I I I don't feel that it's necessarily that flat um Let me let me answer that question first when when I'm doing a budget I try to do apples to apples when I'm doing budget figures from last year to budget figures for next year I'm that's where I keep apples to apples so when we talk in revised budget um that's where I was talking when I was in a finance meeting I I I think that those figures are kind of skewed and I try to not commingle transfers and re revisions that's why I to have an accurate number I do budget to budget so that's that's where i' I've used my figures and when we had our discussions in our finance meeting I prefer to use the figures and the and the budget materials that I sent out first that gives an a more accurate picture of of what we're looking at and an Apples to Apples um picture of what we're we're looking at first I mean that that's fair enough but again um that's the Apples to Apples comparison but then there's also the reality of what we're actually spending and when we're act looking at what we're actually spending and I also did a historical view um looking at audited budgets right once you know they they've been audited and it looks and I think I I sent Mr Nix in my analysis it looks like when we're looking at proposed budgets versus audited budgets you know year over-year and I looked at 2018 19 budget um as a starting point you know we would UND spend in our audited budget versus proposed anywhere from 8 like 900,000 to 2.2 million which was the 2223 year so there's obviously some I guess um I don't cushion that's built into the budget and that's not necessarily a wrong thing to do because you know things may come up but I'm trying to um understand that um where we are our Appropriations are now less than they were the year before if we were to keep our tax even if we weren't going to increase taxes it looks like by increasing taxes we're some we're missing like 900,000 in revenue or something like the numbers doesn't make don't make sense given that our Appropriations are less and based on our current um you know projected spend if that holds for the end of the year and if we put back in back into Capital reserves the 1.7 million that Mr juskowitz was talking about you know I still see a surplus of about 1.7 to 1.5 million and so I'm I'm still trying to do the math to understand where it's like our budget is lower but we need an additional 900 in tax revenue and to me that would imply that we're losing a lot of Revenue someplace else and the state aid was lower but it was low only lower by like 7,000 so I consider that really flat um or that we are building in a certain percentage for you know a cushion and I'd like to understand if like what that might be because you're because our reserves right now are the same at the same level looking across maintenance and um looking across Capital reserves the reserves are at the same level as they were um at the start of the year we're going to go put back another 1.7 million so our reserves total reserves are actually going to go up and then we have what again looks to be like another Surplus um so I'm just I'm just not seeing how we need that at least like a 2% increase a 1.99% increase um when it seems that we are kind of way ahead this year in terms of what we're spending versus what we budgeted for I think what you're looking at you're you're talking about budget ver versus spending those are two different things budget is put together beforehand and each year has to be treated separately your your comingling years you can't do that maintenance reserve and capital reserve you can't utilize those funds they have to be spent for those specific reasons for anything that has to do with maintenance and anything that has to do with capital uh what happened the prior year in capital was at I if I'm not mistaken I don't have the numbers off the top of my head so don't quote me that was at 2. five or $2.7 million if I'm not mistaken at last year 1.7 was taken out of that which leaves somewhere about $700,000 now that money P portion of it was utilized for the retaining wall okay that and if it leaves 700 or 600,000 whatever the case may be that that 1.7 is going to go back in there to bring it back up to 2.5 and whenever we have to do those Roofing projects again that money is going to have to be utilized for those projects and that electrical panel again so that money is going to go back and it's going to be brought back up to that level again so whatever you're thinking about in terms and I didn't get to answer your question because we were kind of consumed trying to put and finalize this um uh presentation together and finalize it today I actually started looking at the questions that you did send and will have an answer for you but I didn't get to finalize um those answers for you uh but it will be addressed but that's kind of where you were going with with the questions and the answer that I'm giving you you can't cingle the funds I know some of the questions that that I think people are coming up with is that you want to take some of those funds of Maintenance and cap reserve and put it toward this budget and reduce tax levy or not utilize it at all and I think that's what I'm hearing no no that's not what I'm that's not what I'm saying at all um I understand that the um Reserve amounts are meant for specific uses and I understand the putting back of the 1.7 million into capital reserve because it wasn't spent what I'm saying is that after um you know we do that there will still be within the general fund it appears um based on what we budgeted versus what we spent some additional funds right what additional funds are being left um well I like like I said maybe um I until you have a chance to um fully review the spreadsheet it is um in the spreadsheet so you well I I think if you put the spreadsheet together then what funds are left you should know what funds are left you're saying look I'm looking at the Total Line uh like at the total recap uh line right and so what I see as being left um once we move back the 1.72 is about 1.7 because if you look at again if we go back to the board secretary's report from the last meeting um there uh what's available quote unquote is 3.3 million of which 1.72 1.7 has to go back to Capital reserves and I'm just looking at that difference the 3.3 3.4 minus the 1.72 I get 1.7 as being quote unquote available as per the board secretaries report so miss cona we had probably like a half hour discussion on Surplus during the finance and Facilities meeting uh do you want to maybe speak on this one so we spent a lot of time trying to get to you know and I'll put it in simple words I think the and this was my my question Natasha you probably have this version of the same question is if we look at our budget over the past few years and what we have there's a budgeted number and then there's an actual number and we see that we aren't really spending which is I guess you know credit to the administration is we are we not spending as much as we are budgeting I think the question that I have raised and honestly struggling with is how much is is enough in terms of surplus recognizing that it's a budget you need a certain level of contingency for unplanned um uh expenditure that might happen along the way but I think the question was if we have consistently been generating uh you know say a million or more in terms of surplus how should we be looking at the tax tax levy and I mean the easy answer is let's take the 2% because you know that's that's sort of our default answer but if we were trying to be uh a little bit more you know fiscally responsible from a tax levy standpoint is there a different answer and we we've we've talked about it and everybody has a different opinion on how we might be able to get there uh so Natasha and I sort of had the same thought about do we really need to go to the 1.99% the 916k increase in tax levy or is there a different lower answer and could we if we were to operate within the boundaries of how we have been doing so far so I'm not sure that's an accurate description of what the conversation was in the finance and Facilities meeting because we talked about how uh Surplus is used in every budget to budget for the following year because that way we can deal with 18% increase in insurance and uh facilities um utilities and whatnot all right so it's we know that we're building in even for next year we're going to try to build in Surplus because we use that Surplus to help us with the 2% cap right that's kind of the discussion we had in there I know you have a point that you think that it could be lower right which is fine but the actual Surplus itself we build in on purpose now some years we cannot have a lot of surplus because something happens right and we need to use those funds in some way but the point of surplus is to be built in to help us with that 2% cap so when we run into a huge increase like we did with busing when it was 60% increase a few years ago we were able to manage that yes to what you said my point still holds there was a conversation about is there a different answer other than the you know 2% and I think the point that Natasha was just hitting was uh a different way to ask the same question is is 1.99% what we as a district want to do and at when we think about the buildup of the Surplus year-over-year um is there a certain uh is there a certain number that we're budgeting for we are targeting for because this is a multi-year process I understand that you start building the budget well in advance advance of how you are or when you are going to spend it but I think it's just a question for us to think about as a district as a board is what is our long-term plan where are we going to be you know in the next two years three years five years um keeping that view in mind so I have a followup on this it would have been really helpful if we could have seen or if Mr jich can give us what's our current Surplus as of now how much do we have in our account what's our current balance for capital reserve what's our current balance for maintenance Reserve I know there is this 1.7 million that's in flux that they might put back in the capital reserve so what so what are those numbers how much Surplus are we sitting on right now it's what we have in the audit report it's those same numbers how much is that off the top of my head I don't know I have we have a million dollars that I just explained that we had in maintenance reserve and I just said that we had somewhere about 2.5 or 2.7 that was in cap Reserve we took the 1.7 out that left about5 or $700,000 uh balance that was in there now the 1.7 has got to be brought back up so it's going to bring that number back to 2.5 or 2.7 okay so so yeah sorry if I may um because uh I looked at again from their attachments from our last board meeting um what we have in capital reserve at least based on those attachments as of 331 is 2.24 million um we also have and something called uh the sale leaseback Reserve account I think another 2.24 million and then we have in the maintenance Reserve account 1 million so our total reserves across those three categories as outlined in attachments is 5486 million so if we bring which is in line with I think where um if we look at the AMR um that's in line with where they audited 2023 is that the AMR or the CFR um I think they were I pulled from the AMR and AMR is a management report so that's why I'm asking okay I'll go back and I'll pull from the uh more detailed report but I thought the numbers tied out so again based at least on what we're seeing from the board secretary's report we have total reserves go across those three of 5.48 six million if we put back the 1.7 um then that obviously brings that back up um and just just for a bit of context um looking at total Reserve balances um in uh again this is from the AMR so you know take it with a grain of salt I'll go back and look at the other report but um for ending June 20 uh June 2022 we increased um total reserves by 800,000 from prior year and uh in 2023 we increased reserves by a total of 1.46 million and that was our I think fiscal cliff year as well so the reason I asked for the current Surplus and the reserve Amounts is I know we have Surplus every project or every line item has to build in some contingency can we get what percentage of contingency is acceptable like as a district as a board we accept some are we accepting 20% sub contingency in each line item so if we need a million are we automatically saying we need 20% more for some unforeseen like you know just to be prepared is it 20% is it 14% what are we referring to so for in the budget line items we what Natasha has pointed out is over a period of time from 2018 till 2022 2023 we are over budgeting but we are not first off I don't know that because I did not create any of those budgets I only know about the 2425 that I put together and I don't have any contingencies put in that I don't have 20% put in budget lines so but you have had like so you have budgeted some amount for contingency you have not budget I don't put contingencies in my budget um I don't I don't know where you're getting contingencies from and where that concept or idea is coming from in my 2425 I don't have a contingency built in budgets are are a budget it's a number that is forecasted so you're saying if we looked at your business um ad secretary's report from last month let me pull that up so I think it's from the month before so we are seeing an actual spent and what was budgeted and if we are coming under than what was actually budgeted for say Transportation are you going to take that money and what what are you going to do at the end of June at this school year if last year we had budgeted for transportation I can't say that right now because the end of the year is not here and I don't know that if I knew what is going to be left over I'd have a crystal ball I'd play the lottery and i' I'd go out and i' I'd have money to to to win the lottery right now at this point I I really can't tell you that there there's there's there's contracts that are still out there for athletic Transportation right now that have to be still looked at there's still bills that are coming in we're still taking transportations uh transportation that goes on till the spring at this point there's there's other matters that come in um I'm going to say um I I can't even think of some of the there's a transportation that still has to be paid out to parents because those are split into two different P portions of the year they get part of it paid I believe in February and March and their final payment comes at the end of June so that money is still in there to be paid can can I ask a follow up to her question the way I was reading the report and maybe you're reading it in the same way is there is an amount of money that we have already spent you know year to date right fiscal year to date there is an encumbrance um number that's also on the page which I equated to okay this is the number that we have some sort of line of sight to that between now and June 30th we are going to spend over be a transportation or like a whole whole host of you know line items and then there is another amount called available and I think the interpretation of that report was that when we look at what we have spent okay what's the encumbrance and what is left available that number once we take out the 1.7 million that was year marked for the capital projects the estimate is about 1.5 to 1.7 million that we think is going to be in the available column is that does that number I'm going to say this I don't have the report in front of me if we wanted to speak to this tonight I probably could have could have had that I know you have your questions no no no we have the report in front of us I'm I'm not prepared I prepared for the budget question and that was what I was prepared this evening to answer now if we want to go into this today could have easily done this at another time but I'm I don't I'm not going to be looking at what report that you had I could have done this more in depth so Mr jitz you need a little more time I would say yes okay maybe the finance and Facilities committee can look at I believe we had part of this discussion at one another point in time when we did have this I know we we've brought this up at another meeting and I did if I'm not mistaken I did quite a bit of an analysis when we went back and had this discussion and if I don't I do recall I had a quite a bit of an answer that I did give and also right when we look at these reports right what we owe is not necessarily full contracts that have not yet come in yet right so that usually what we know we owe it's like for instance Union County votek we know we're going to owe them 80,000 or whatever but we only that's inum that that's incumbent like I had this conversation withy other other transportation for the spr we would pay 40 in December we know there's still another 40 to be paid so that would be put in that incumbrance right but for transportation where we haven't actually spent that money yet because we have haven't had the boys baseball team go off to their their event yet that's no longer in incumbrance right so when you look at that number you can't say that's what we're going to spend by the end of the year June 30th that's not what that number means that's an assumption that has been made but that's not what that number actually means so Mr just goitz we'll just give you a little more time to look no I would I would suggest I I'll answer your questions I haven't gotten to them yet just as I alluded to earlier and if we want to allude to the the items again let's send me what you have in terms of the report again put it in there and I will answer them like I did on the if I'm not mistaken that was the February into the March when we had the first student uh contract which wasn't included in the February board secretary's report which was what 460 plus the 46,000 which then got into the March brought that Balan down if I'm not mistaken right yes well then that's probably there's something that I would have to look at that probably hasn't been encumbered I'd have to talk to uh Mrs Sheen about whatever might still be outstanding that's probing a transportation or whatever lines that you're also looking at I'd have to look into it as well understood I just want to confirm that Mr jtz did respond to my um query before and that it was um so my analysis that uh the latest version of what I have incorporates um that feedback as well thank you so all right I did um Miss Bradford I have a follow question yeah so we do factor in so from February to March we see like there was in transportation we were left with like 850,000 now the latest report factors in all these contracts and right now we are only left with reserves that we got from the board secretary 5.48 6 million and we might be moving back an additional 1.7 to this Reserve is it a want or a need for the district to increase the taxes by 1.99% which is 96,000 thank you you're not getting this correctly you again we're going back to we're going back to the capital and maintenance and you're putting that all those numbers together and until I get to take a look at it and and explain this that's where you're getting this all together okay and and there's also a a question that Mrs Jolly had had sent today and there's a sale of a lease back or something that that is that is miscoded that's in our board secretary report and it's not put in CSI of what it's listed as and that has to be changed and it will be changed and again I haven't gotten to that and that will be answered okay so when you answer that I have a basic overall holist istic question if Miss whenever you do get to respond to Miss Jolly's questions and if we have been budgeting more than what we project we have been budgeting more than what we actually use and we're coming under which Mrs Kana act said it's kudos to The District administration we're budgeting more but we're actually coming under so maybe we are doing a little bit of fiscal you know maintenance but if we are sitting on 1.7 million in reserves is it fair for us in these times where the inflation has hit everybody to ask a a 300,000 home for $135 and I looked at the survey I wished we added a note in there that those 600 parents who responded to the budget survey were parents of students currently enrolled in Berkeley Heights Public Schools but we do know that the entire community of Berkeley Heights every taxpayer contributes to our taxes so if we don't have to increase their taxes by $135 or if it's a 600 on the average price of a house in Berkeley Heights is over half a million so we are talking about $200 or $270 per household and most of them don't have any skin in the game they're not even sending students they are seniors and I can speak from my own experience I was in between jobs I work parttime I go to buy to the farmers market I hardly buy half of the items that are on my list so coming back to what we are currently sitting on in reserves in our Surplus looking at that holistically Mr Nixon and Mr jco I would really honestly request you and the finance committee to look and see is it a want or a need to increase by another 96,000 if we are sitting on 1.7 million why do we need to increase by 96,000 again capital and maintenance you're referring to that 17 constantly all the time that I cannot touch I cannot touch that you're you're you're referring to it and I've said it three times and you cannot touch we're going to let Mr go back can't touch that no respectfully we're going to let Mr jtz go back and take a look at that M Bradford I agree but I want to correct I'm not talking we have your question and thank you for that I'm not talking about capital reserves or maintenance res thank you I I think the one thing that will help just Clarity in terms of the process right because we are all coming at it from a slightly different angle you have a different angle based on your role the way our questions are the the premise of the question is we see what is the actual spend looking at some of the reports and we see that in all likelihood of the budgeted amount from last year there might be at least a million dollars that was initially budgeted but not spent now on in which account that it might go to be it capital reserves be it maintenance reserves I think the premise of the question is if we budgeted 60 or 61 Million last year we came in at say 58.5 just round numbers just work with the logic here we came in at say 58.5 and we had a plan of 60 is there a way to use that difference in the plan versus the actuals as a means to fund the budget that we are talking about I understand that from a process standpoint that money sort of rolls into capital or rolls into maintenance Reserve right the money that we don't spend at the end of the year that money rolls into one of these accounts is that fair one thing one of the things that's been done is that there's money budgeted fund balance has been utilized for several years now it's got to there's some funds that have to be put aside for that tax stabilization it's got to come from somewhere and at the end of the year money we have to we have to curb spending at the end of the year to at least put those funds aside because it started it started before I got here and if that doesn't happen and you you continue to move on and don't put that money aside where is it going to come from so now when you have future budgets and when you have to put that money in the budget and it's not there where's it going to come from and and when the need comes from with that tax levy your ta are going to go through the roofs okay thank you very much something's got to get funded somewhere and if it's not there past years it's been before I got here it's been one I'm gonna say I think it was 17 and it's been progressively going up okay we're gonna let this discussion continue and we're going to let you take a look at those and if you have any more questions please email them too yes I would suggested if we're going to have these discussions I don't mind having them but I think we need to be prepared and if you want to bring the answers out into the public I don't mind doing that i' i' prefer to be prepared and let everybody meeting on May 7th we're going to move on to business Pam uh Mrs Stanley sorry so um when we were looking at the budget right so when we looked at the budget survey right it came in that we really want to support our teachers um invest in them um I know I've been talking to um teachers in other districts right and we're losing teachers because they don't feel necessarily supported and it's a difficult job and um I just feel like we can put more money into PA Professionals for kindergarten teachers right they are dealing with young kids that are very hard to manage right they're still learning how to be in a school classroom um I feel like we learned about the blue gym right the blue gym here it has a lot of needs and it will help with some of the equity that we see for girls volleyball it will help with getting us maybe possibly a boys volleyball team it will help us to actually put our best foot forward when we have teams come to visit right so everything from padding to volleyball lines to getting the banners up and done and and showing off our amazing teams who work so hard um I know that we're putting in uh a half of a school nurse here at GL I've talked a couple times about having a full-time floating District nurse because not only can we help get that half a district nurse here but then we can also have this nurse go on all the field trips and cover when a when a a uh a nurse is out right and right now we are paying services that are very very expensive to cover for our nurses who deserve to have a sick day right they deserve to be able to go to the doctor they deserve to be able to do those things but we don't have coverage for that and we have to go out right where we can have a floating nurse who covers GL mainly but then they know hey so and so's going out on leave for a week I need need to go cover her post right and they can help as things rotate through um I know the Press Box right it was in the presentation today I think two years ago when I was on the athletic committee it came up that the Press Box was in dire need um I know the band The Marching ban has been asking for new jackets for years because our budget is so tight we haven't been able to do it they just went to the St Patrick's Day Parade in New York City showing off our wonderful District right we need to invest in these kids um the swim team they don't get the same kind of equipment budgets that our other teams do um then we have right here in the lunchroom in G right we have students who who don't feel like they can find a table because this room is kind of on the smaller side right we have the Ed foundation and then the PTO is trying to find funding to build um lunch areas in other areas right to try to help with that we can do this in a budget but we need to invest in it right and so I do want to see us continue to invest in our district we know that our buildings need a lot of help we are looking to hopefully have a referendum in a few years um so I do think that there is a lot more we can do thank you we're going to move on to business now I'm going to read resolution a for all board members a authorizing the Berkeley Heights Public Schools to enter into a settlement agreement with Laura kiniski and Amy mhal whereas Laura kiniski and Amy milal in instituted litigation in the superior court of New Jersey challenging the district's response to open public records act requests and whereas the district desires to enter into a settlement agreement settlement agreement with Miss kazinski and Miss miloff to avoid further litig litigation expenses and whereas the board attorney has recommended the district execute the settlement agreement and whereas the Board of Education believes that entering into to this agreement is in the district's best interest now therefore be it resolved by the Board of Education that the Berkeley Heights Public Schools County of Union New Jersey as follows one the district hereby ratifies and agrees to the settlement agreement and two the board president is hereby directed to execute the settlement agreement and three this resolution shall take effect immediately attachment for any discussion I think we need a motion don't we first yes I I move the uh the resolution to authorize the settlement agreement thank you second second any discussion I just um I would like the I would like to understand I know we are authorizing a settlement amount today and a settlement agreement but how much did the district spend in defending this case I would like that publicly provided maybe at the next board meeting because this is a long longstanding case and if we have come to this conclusion to prevent litigation expenses I think the public deserves to know how much did we spend on this part these two particular cases thank you we'll look into that Mr SEC any other discussion Mr secretary roll call vote Dr forger uh yes Miss Jolly yes Miss Kiri yes Miss Connor yes Miss Stanley Miss Bradford yes motion passes comments from the public on any topic during this portion of the meeting District residents and staff are invited to address the board of education on any topic the board requests that individuals State their name address town of residence or School of attendance for the record the specific action items that are commenting on and ask that all remarks be directed to the board president or designate not to individual members or staff the board asks that the members of the public be courteous and mindful of the rights of other individuals when speaking specifically comments regarding Personnel manners are discouraged and cannot be responded to by the board students and employees have specific legal rights afforded by the laws of New Jersey the board Bears no responsibility nor will it be liable for any comments made by the P members of the public if a matter concerning a District staff member is of Interest or concern to a resident the matter should be referred to the responsible building principal superintendent of schools or the Board of Education either by telephone letter or email although the board may not respond to items raised during the public forum all public comments will be considered please note that if any member of the public becomes disruptive during the meeting the board president May terminate the participant statements continued disruptions may result in removal from the meeting or adjournment of the meeting each speaker's statement will be limited to three minutes in duration is there anyone from the public who would like to speak Serena gabera Columbia Middle School Berkeley Heights hello everyone my family has a history here six of my siblings have gone through Columbia Middle School since the fall of '98 and were Tigers people in this town have a history with this District this week an 80-year-old gentleman said that in 1952 he wore a tiger Jersey in second grade at Columbia Middle School at Columbia school not Middle School that was 72 years ago every year since people can remember the annual yearbook had a tiger on the cover that a student Drew this year the tiger is gone the tradition of that contest is gone the fun tiger mascot costume worn at the sports games and the annual volleyball game is gone the tiger times was the newspaper that the writers of the school put together it is now called the Highland tiger times the tiger is painted on the gym floor this school is ours it belongs to us and it is paid for by our parents taxes and all the people in this town will any of this year's tax money in the budget be used to strip off the tiger from the gym floor would it go to improving our bathrooms and sewage problems will it tax money will tax money have to go for a new mascot costume this decision by a new superintendent and new principal to Rebrand the school without the Public's consent should never have happened all comments from the public are pro tiger not the Highlander at Columbia Middle school as we all found out in the past 6 weeks not enough people were part of this supposed survey that went out about this mascot change can anyone here tell us who the people were who answered the survey in about one and a half hours I found 300 students who signed a paper titled I want to be a tiger again many of them were sixth graders who were in fifth grade had been looking forward to being a tiger knowing now the reaction of the public will Mr Kisa helped by Mr Nixon undo this decision what was the outcome of their meeting last week what did they decide please bring back our tiger thank you thank you are there any other comments from the public Mr Nixon Serena I just want to speak to your comments a little bit and first of all thank you for your your persistence with this topic it's it's it's impressive it's admirable and I think we all have a very good feeling for your passion on this as well as uh the passion that you know some other individuals feel towards it um I have had some discussions with Mr Kisa regarding this um and and I understand there is there is a long history and and a change that was recently made and um one of the top one of the things I've I've had a conversation with our board president about is that um in my role as acting super intendent which goes for a few more weeks now beyond beyond this uh Beyond this date um my recommendation is I think more work needs to be done with this to try and you know devote some time to analyzing the process that occurred and analyze the information that we've been receiving uh in recent weeks regarding this and and my recommendation would be once the board solidifies the superintendent position to charge that individual to work with with Mr Kisa and and put a plan together to really take a step back and and kind of analyze what was done and put together a plan for how we might be able to move forward um to resolve you know this concern may I add something Mr um we know that you're going to be moving on next year to GL we would like to ask you and invite you to come back to be part of that committee to discuss this and look at maybe looking at all our our mascots and our color here in our district um so we're hoping that you might be able to do that for us yes of course thank you Mrs Brad can I add something real quick in that same context I think she brings up a great point and well before great job like this is uh I love how you've been doing this persistently respectfully and very much on point so great job thank you so much um my I think she brought up a great point in terms terms of funding and some of these changes that might be happening at the middle school in terms of you know change of colors or change of you know what's on the gym floor so is there a way that we could pause that not dedicate funding quite yet till we get to a resolution on this so that we don't you know undo something that we should yes I I I haven't seen any plan right now to change any of those things when I walked through Columbia Middle School the other day I did notice in the gym uh the colors remain the same the logos remain the same um so I don't think there's harm in in pausing that while we can get more work done on this topic thank you thank you thank you I see no other um comments from the public so let's move on to new business uh number one annual professional appointments expired in December 2023 who brought this up for new business it was me I think we have other priority items we've been postponing that so I think it got on the top but I think let's move on to okay we'll go on to number two 2025 budget survey planning with the goal of wider Outreach to all taxpayers and include a unique identifier like block Lot number Etc yes so um yeah so this when I brought this uh first to Dr vley and Dr giodo um they jumped right on board about the survey um I had sent them Westfield survey um so I'm just really glad that they took that advice and kind of said yeah we're GNA go so right away they started talking to Jeremy about finding a way to do it with us Westfield uses a really big um program and it's very expensive very expensive program but it's a great program to survey um um the residents and it's very interactive and it's really great I know I believe Dr gono you were working with the Ed Foundation correct to try to maybe bring that system to us yeah I do have a I spoke to the PTO president that Foundation president vice president and was uh trying to set up time to have the rep from thought uh it's called thought exchange have the rep meet with them and and give them an overview what the platform does and see if it's something that's viable for them to support and donate that to the district because they they as entities could use it as well yeah so I just really want to thank Dr giodo and Mr Marx for kind of taking this on uh kind of late in the game um and saying yeah let's let's do it let's find out how the residents feel um so we could get a better idea as a board um and so I'm really glad that we were able to accomplish that so that's kind of where it was I think westfields already does what you're what you're saying and has other markers it was just TimeWise we were late to the game but we still wanted to find a way to do it so they use right what the tools that we currently have and the easiest way to do it was to do it with known right uh email contacts um but obviously in the future I definitely think we'll have a right now that we already did it once right in the future we can do it much sooner get the process started much sooner and if we have this new program in place it will be much easier too so in the yeah excuse me uh Dr forer yeah yeah I think it's a great idea to do community wide survey um couple of points though I mean you need some way to ensure that a member of the community is a member of the community and that everyone has a chance to respond only once and I haven't figured out quite how they do that it would be nice to know what Westfield did uh the other thing is um people have a tendency to ask for lots of things especially when they don't have to pay for it so uh when you ask about payment then they kind of shy away from that a nice way to do it is to ask if I give you a budget how would you apply your budget so it's not unlimited you know then we get some idea of you know how would how would you spend I mean we had lots of uh things listed in the parent survey and of course paying for it wasn't one wasn't a priority but realistically we do have the 2% budget cap so somehow the survey should mimic that there's a constrained problem here not an unconstrained problem I I yield back my time thank you thank you Mrs Ziri yeah so the whole idea behind the survey was um as a board member I was not aware like not a big deal great idea when the survey came in I was like wow okay the district is sending us a survey so but as a public entity I would hope that we have some surveying guidelines that we used who I would like to understand did any Who provided input into these questions and how were these questions identified and the reason I asked these or suggest that we have a survey planning for next year is I was at the other end or the receiving end of uh maybe a lot of people going through redistricting and reconfiguration called it a secured survey the questions asked did not provide an ability to give a negative answer or a different answer so in in light of transparency maybe should the board have announced if this was an idea that Mrs Stanley had brought about and Dr warley and Dr gardano were happy and we were working on it there were no indication that parents were going to be surveyed this year and we working on a survey so for next year my hope is we work as a team we let the community know now that the community is aware okay 2024 2025 we had a survey before the budget came in so like how our neighboring districts do we do a better job at publishing a budget calendar like New Providence saying that hey our budget calendar starts in September October or June and then these are the things that we're going to do we we could even seek input on what are your priorities for next year come up with like a planning process on what the questions are going to be and there will be a lot of people in the community like seniors who might not even have an access to an email so are we going to how are we going to advertise it like is there going to be an option for them to come to the district office and vote on it or is it going to be in the library is it going to be at the senior committee some ideas so I just hope we take this great first step that we have taken and add on to it and surprise is good it was a good surprise but hopefully we're more planned for next year so the finance and Facilities committee did did um get involved in it and they they did put it in their minutes um so and then I believe uh Mr Nixon had sent it to the finance and Facilities committee before it went out to parents but yes I agree all of those things are true we definitely need to find a way to make this a bigger thing and I think getting the senior centers and everybody involved just like we're going to try to do with the superintendent search is great ideas thank you Mrs Ziri good suggestions uh number four publishing committee meeting minutes on District website along with any attachments I think we're going to be I'm I'm gon to skip number three for just a second yeah uh I think we're working on Mrs Bradford I would like to go in order if we going by order so can we go to number three thank you we're going to go to number uh four publishing the committee Mee that's a quick one okay so are we going to do that um I think we are going to do that right uh and then can I can I ask a clarifying question on how we are going to do just so that we are all aware is the idea that we would have the committee minutes as kind of individual documents or in in a you know separate section on the on the web page or are they going to be included in the regular minutes can we just align on what's the method well they're already included in the regular minutes but included uh verbatim What was published in the minutes or like a summary of it just so that what is given during our public meeting is then given to uh Mrs oats who then puts them into the minutes okay so if if all of us as you know committee chairs ask that here is you know we we publish minutes that are circulated within the board right so as a practice we should send that file over to Mrs oats and then say can you please include that on the website so she will then publish it is that the mechanism I don't think she has access to the website but she will if she does then she can put them into the minutes can I for the agenda Madam president can I make yeah I agree with you miss KH I can I just make a suggestion to the board I think once the chair approves those minutes because the way we work work I know with the curriculum I'll send them in to Dr forger once he approves them he'll send them to the committee yeah once the committee approves them then he sends them to the full board once those minutes are sent to the full board they should be then they should be uploaded on on the website wherever Mr Marks can wherever we want him to put it he can put it up there I'm a big believer once the full Board gets the minutes and there and you guys see them those minutes that are sent to you should be the minutes that are be loaded up to the loaded up to the website so I disagree with that because I know for instance there's confidential information in many of my minutes right that's Personnel is a totally different even Finance right there's multiple times but minutes you could take the confidential you could take stuff out like that you so I don't think we can just send that to Samantha and have her just put it on there it would need somebody would need to go through and actually take out confid need to look at that look minutes minutes are made and and I have the there's supposed to be a summation of what happened they're not supposed to be you know certainly as detailed as maybe what you get but the minutes that people see that we held a meeting this is what we discuss you want to kind and keep it General these were the questions asked these are the answers given you want to stay away from personal information personal identifying information um anything like we wouldn't put Security in those minutes for public review uh we would to put Personnel matters for public review you can sit there and say we in personel we discussed the um we discussed the uh um superintendent uh search and kind of going to make a suggestion to the board at the next board you can put things like that but you can't sit there and say we interviewed Mr Nixon Dr joho and any other person is for the superintendent shop those are things you got to keep out that and even ngba goes further and says that anything that hasn't been looked at by the full board yet right would be kind of confidential until the full board has a chance to look at it so I I I do think that we can do that I just think that it there's an extra step there's an extra step to confidentiality and just have to be careful about it I agree right I I just want to make sure that we all you know agree on what is the process we can agree to you know what that extra step is what the timeline is meaning we have a committee meeting you know maybe we'll publish the minutes you know a week into the meeting so that everybody has had a moment to review the minutes and then whatever is is the you know timing that we approve or how we do it I just want to be sure that everybody's you know it's not a surprise I agree particular like what you just said with Personnel because Personnel is you know right well my my point also is that I think in the 18th March minutes I see Finance was listed as hyperlinks because those were the files that I had sent over to Mrs oats but some others were listed more more like an update but not exactly the minutes as they were drafted so I just wanted to make sure that we are all aligned on if they will be included as hyperlinks so be it but just that everybody's doing the same thing exactly so like I said I I actually am concerned about that because those were not reviewed for confidentiality right so and that's where that extra step comes in we need an extra step so if Mr Nixon if you want to go and kind of make a procedure for this um in the next couple of months because I I do think that that is important right we can't accidentally release something okay so um Mrs Bradford this was an item that I requested and I haven't had a chance to say one word yes so if I may please thank you so the reason for for adding this particular new business item is we've heard for the last one year that we've been spending a lot on Oprah the Oprah requests have gone up then what we release under Oprah has to be reviewed for confidentiality does it have to be redacted and I just went back about three years ago our district had committee minutes so if we are advertising to the public that we have created all these committees we doing all this great work but unfortunately not in public because we're a board of committee we can work as a board of committee so technically if you're are an resident who cannot participate remotely on these meetings but then they they hear about these committees and what we're working on the minutes are minutes and except for personnel and finance and even I have looked through each of them this year I've looked at what was published on our district District website previously maybe you you're redacting one word or two sentences so the intent of this is to reduce Oprah requests which will reduce the burden on the business and business administration office all I'm all my intent was I'm to make a motion I move to publish committee meeting minut on District website along with any attachments reviewed within 10 days after the meeting has occurred may I have a second I don't think we can make a motion yet on new business because let's give uh the board time to think about it I I just moved a motion I asked for a second it thank [Music] you I think the 10 days are very limiting right I know right for me as a committee chair right I have multiple committees I know sometimes I have to work with the staff right to get the minutes out then I want to get it to committee members to look at it then I send it out to everybody else then someone else is going to have to look at it for confidentiality before we even get there so I do think that that's limiting um I also don't think that I was made aware that I was going to have to vote on this um I think that's part of the 48 hour thing but either way I I just think that this is again meeting something over the head um and I don't think this is going to solve our Oprah requests I am all for putting minutes on I just think that we need a procedure in place because we cannot have right we cannot have confidentiality put being put out there because that's part of why we're constantly seeing issues right is is that's creating more legal issues so you're trying to say that we need to save money by doing this but we need to make sure we're don't make it worse right so again I'm all for doing it but let's put procedure in place let's take our time to get a good procedure in place Mr would you be willing to wait until the procedure was in place for your motion I'm willing to amend the motion to make it 3 weeks after a committee meeting happens if you are if you want me to do that I could do that because we do this all the time every other board is doing it all we have to do is whoever is documenting the minutes if there is something confidential you can highlight it and tell the District staff that this particular sentence needs to be redacted if it is confidential but the board every board member and the district edmin can see and review for ourselves so I'm willing to amend my motion if you want me to amend my motion I can say I move to publish all committee meeting minutes on a district website along with any attachments reviewed in these committees within 3 weeks after the committee has met would you be willing to amend the motion to the next regular board meeting no I just amended it I'm looking for a second I I'll second that yeah this should be a policy if we're going to be looking at this rather than a motion um let's see if we excuse me oh yes would you like to speak to us do you want me speak to this sorry yes so my in my experience I understand the motion here um my experience where boards can get I I'll tell you my preference you can do this by way of motion my concern is when boards do things like this by way of motion in a few years when someone says why did we you know why are we doing this people have to go back and look at the minutes and it gets lost my recommendation if this is something the board wants to do is to have a policy put before the board therefore it is clear it's crisp the board has approved a specific policy and therefore you never have to when someone says how do why do we do this we could say it's directly in our policy so you may the motion I'm not saying not to make the motion but the motion may be to make a recommendation to amend a policy in place that therefore for settling with thank you for the advice it's again it's your it's your decision I speak not the policy committee is here I have somebody sitting next to me if they want to create a policy that great okay but this motion is here because today is April 24th we have multiple committees have met multiple times there are no minutes out there there were some of the issues that were were discussed in some of these committees were of public concern for example Transportation none of the public is aware what we discussed in a committee and this is not exec session I'm not talking confidential the motion is on the floor and if the commit if the policy committee wants to come up with a more crisp detailed language I'm open to that but my motion is to publish the committee meetings on the district website along with any attachments reviewed within 3 weeks after a committee has met so technically if there were any committee meetings we didn't have any in January I think we only started meeting we created the Committees in February so there are some of the minutes that have already been released should have to be released immediately thank you and I think the motion's on the floor so there can be discussion discussion Mrs Jolly so um given Mrs Stanley's concern I understand um like so if we were to have a committee meeting tomorrow I think weeks is enough time to go through the process of everyone publishing the minutes reviewing them and you know agreeing there's no confidential um information but for I think for the committee meeting minutes that have like already happened for the Committees that already happened I'm not 100% sure like because you still have to do that and as you said there were multiple so that could be a little bit of a timec consuming so I wouldn't be comfortable saying like oh we should release those immediately okay okay that's fine take your time to redact them that could be a statement saying the motion passed we need some time to redact and then publish them I'm just saying going forward for any committees once we meet if we meet on May 1st by May 21st or May 22nd the minutes need to be uploaded onto the district website and I think that's ample time we're meeting on May 7th so by May 30th then three weeks what I didn't I didn't understand your sorry May 7th like the public meeting you mean May 7th right so you're talking about the time when the committee meets this is just the committee only this discussion item is for committee meeting minutes which don't need to be approved I'm saying take three weeks the board can circulate them in those three weeks the person who writes the minutes can say hey this sentence is needs to be redacted in my op opinion which we will we all have to agree with or if they think that that has to be redacted fine but 3 weeks is ample time from I'm just I was just giving an example if there is a committee meeting I think for example um technology we are scheduled to meet on May 13th there's a meeting on our calendar at 3 p.m. so I'm saying 3 weeks from May 13th we should publish the minutes on the district website the committee members have to look at those minutes and approve them which is what we do get that which is what we do yeah any other discussion I don't know I heard a lot of like stipulation like we're gonna have to cross out confidential but she needs to agree with it and I that kind of stuff I I I worry about that there's being more put into this than just putting a minut all I'm saying is confidentiality is bound by state law we are only expected to redact we can't over redact we just voted on a settlement for I don't know the amount if it was on the agenda for everybody that was for over ited action that's a lesson learned for us so all I'm saying is we are all I believe that was confidential information I think we it is it's all on it's all on New Jersey quotes by the way so nothing's confidential because it's a case I'm saying we only a public entity can only redact for a valid reason and there are confidentiality Clauses and we are all aware of it we've all gone through multiple trainings so it's not about me agreeing it's about the entire board agreeing thank you I'm not sure if we all are agreed on what should be redacted or not we need some type of a procedure Mr Nixon if I could just ask a question uh from the board as part of this motion what what's the expectation of the board as to or maybe David if you could even chime in on this who who's responsible for that redacting prior to posting or were were you suggesting that the person who creates the minutes does is is somebody from the business office going to be exp previously Mr I just think we need to iron out proced previously whenever the committee meeting minutes were released they came from the business office okay if you go back to 2022 2023 they're all on there on the district website I think in 2023 people had to opra to get committee meeting minutes so and we have um so the business office looked at finance committee or whatever and then they redacted some words but in 2022 and prior to that all the committee minutes unless they were removed from the district website the old version had them so if you want us to highlight I'm saying to make it easy yes we can highlight if we're documenting something that's that needs to be confidential that can be redacted who is uploading so it's not so if I if you say that once everybody approves the minutes it's up to the committee to upload them sure but I don't think we have those Powers wasn't suggesting that I I heard a couple different things through the conversation yes and if we're not going to do this through policy if we're going to do it through motion I thought it was valid to make sure that we were just clear what the expectations were that's all yeah Mr Jess goitz from my understanding and and I've asked this in my office there wasn't any committee meetings that were ever online from my understanding now again I've only been here five months they said that they never posted them up online uh before 2022 they were on the district website so I don't know what happened with the new website revamp but there used to be committee so like how people were able to search regular meeting minutes exec meeting minutes there were committee meeting up executive meeting minutes never posted online only regular meeting minutes or special meeting minutes that was the only things that were ever posted on the website okay maybe we do need a policy on this this sounds like a lot of discussion going on procedures I'm I'm open to creating a policy but there's a motion on the floor okay Mr secretary Mr Kiri yes Dr forer yes Miss Jolly yes Miss Conor yes Miss Stanley no Miss Bradford no motion passes okay moving on to uh number five student and staff recognition of EV are planned as separate conference sessions of the board instead of being included as an agenda item on regular Boe meetings who suggested this that was me can I postpone this for the next meeting you may uh discussion on legal fees and marketing maximums so this was um this was mine and I know that um in the previous meeting we did not um approve the U maximums for legal fees or marketing so I would like to um bring this back because I had checked with Mr juskowitz and he said without um those limits um it's kind of open-ended so in the spirit of trying to um you know reduce our spending and our legal fees I'd like to propose and put a motion forward similar like I had done at the previous meeting to establish the legal maximum uh spending at 150,000 and the marketing fees at 10,000 so 50,000 not a small you know amount I think what was proposed at the um prior meeting was 185,000 which was an increase from 170,000 so and we know that you know if needed you know if absolutely needed we could always come back to the table and increase like we've done in the past but I think I think like just Auto just increasing the maximum from a prior year is not the direction I guess that we want to to head in that that resolution is going to be on for the May 7th because it's part of the budget so just letting you know as well okay and can you tell me what amount was going to it's the same as that what I had for the uh tenative okay so um okay well there's a motion on the table I did not know that but again oh I apologize so um putting forth the motion to set the maximum for legal fees at 150,000 and for marketing at 10,000 I second it and discussion and what was the the the second part of that again that was the um advertising you said or I called it marketing but maybe it was advertising public relations so I that was at 10 yes for 10,000 so if I can comment I I'm supportive and I just look at it from I think as as a district as a board if we all agree that we want to Maxim ize our tax dollars for the schools and the classrooms we should be setting ourselves uh a little bit of a a a Target to limit the legal fees and an automatic increase is sort of doing exactly the opposite and if there is a requirement that we need more authorization I think that will happen along the way I believe that's what happened the year before so if we think about from setting ourselves a Target I I I think it's better to set ourselves a stricter lower Target than to you know just go for a higher number I also want to state that that public relations also includes employees uh that's correct I talk with our public relations and um we do have some things coming up that maybe a referendum or things that are that may be looking forward to to more publicity in terms of our superintendent search and our Outreach to our stakeholders that may be limiting on this so if I may speak I think back to in 2021 when PR became a big topic was because we hired somebody from Sparta I think we interviewed Dr warley interviewed one I think there was only one resume received it was under Oprah and we hired somebody at an hourly rate and not to exceed some like I think it was um we can go back and look at the resolutions so there was a little bit of a public input at that time on saying what are we actually doing in terms of Public Relation where are we posting what exactly is being done if it is content that's being sent to local newspapers if it is content that's being put on our social media websites and I think uh sorry um I believe based on the input that position that additional position was no longer is no longer there but also in 2022 without a board vote the Berkeley heads Board of fed decided to shut down any engagement from Community but last year we P we approved board goals where we said we're going to seek Community input and engagement so right now it seems a little bit hypocritical that the board goals are we're going to engage and seek Community input and engagement but we are and we also want to spend a lot of amount a lot of money on public relations which technically right now is sending content to local newspapers posting on Twitter Instagram and Facebook for district website anything that you post a parent can't even comment and say congratulations great job nothing we have taken it away there was no board word so if it is somebody if what what is the district doing technically here all we are doing is submitting content so when you're submitting content again going back to Dip's point we need to look at ourselves and say if this is just submitting content how much how many hours are we approving as a board are we just going to keep increasing yes if there is a superintendent search coming we have a superintendent search from their advertising it's not the district if what what is it different what different what is it differently that we're doing and if there is a need yes let the supernet and search firm come in front of the entire board and say hey we want you guys to spend an additional $2,000 in public relations to help us with the search we can do that I think we might have to create a superintendent search page that's going to come up separately what is it that the district does right now we need to look at what are we spending on is it posting on these websites where a parent can't even comment then I think 10,000 is perfectly fine any other discussion Mr secretary oh was it seconded yes it was Miss charie yes Miss Airi yes Dr forer yes Miss Conor yes Miss Stanley no Miss Bradford no motion passes okay um now we're going to go back to District busing plan or Mrs Airi do you want to go back to number one or you're going to postpone that one yes I thank you a District busing plan going forward Mr Nixon do we have an update Mr zir I think that this was your topic do you want to introduce it because um I have some feedback based upon our uh facilities and finance committee meeting as well so if you want to introduce it go ahead yeah the introduction is basically we've all I think the community is very eager to know now that the transportation policy did not pass of for adding the hazard dis routs what is it that we are going to do as a district and you can take over great thank you um so so we spoke to this topic at um our finance and Facilities committee meeting on Friday and there was some um we were trying to drill down to you so where where do we default to from that do we default to District P pass practice do we default to mandate only um so uh Mr jtz U Mrs Sheen and I uh agreed that we would speak to Mr dler on uh Monday morning and and kind of ask that question and and get some legal advisement to that so it actually works out very well that he's here with us this evening um ultimately he said that you know there there wouldn't be anything in particular in the policy that would default us to a status quo so to speak however um whatever we would default to doesn't necessarily limit the board from making a decision about how we move forward uh with Transportation um we talked about a lot of different things that should be specified if we ever wanted to revisit the policy and perhaps um you know develop it moving forward in the future uh so so based upon that conversation that we had with M Mr dler um Mrs Sheen went back and and developed uh three different scenarios um that that she might suggest uh moving forward uh which which I want to share and then ultimately um you know ultimately get some feedback and have some discussion on and and move over there so so um initially there were two scenarios that we spoke about scenario one um was was just absent of an approval of the Hazardous routes policy and identifying students who sit on who are impacted by hazardous routes as receiving courtesy busing falling back to mandated busing uh if we fall back to mandated busing only um then students only students who qualify based upon mileage U would be eligible for busing um then we would have to go out to bid for the bus routes because we'd be reducing our number of bus routes so as opposed to Renewal we would be um uh we would we would have to go back out to bid and and then you know kind of accept um some of what we might hear back based upon that um all and told that would uh um there would be 13 buses uh with that in mind as opposed to 16 buses um with with limited uh with limited seating available um the the second scenario was the board could decide to um maintain status quo which is um you know we make uh busing eligible to everybody who's receiving busing based upon how it's being done this year maintain uh the 16 routes that we have um while we continue to work on the policy and move forward um being that we have budgeted for those 16 routes moving into next school year already give give the district some time to revisit visit that policy and take some of the feedback that we received from Mr dler and develop it further um and then the the third scenario um that we rece that we spoke about was maintain the routes that we currently have the 16 routes that we currently have um offer mandated busing and eliminate courtesy busing but then make all of the seats available as part of the mandated routes um available as uh subscription seats available for students uh ultimately that uh on the by maintaining those 16 buses we would have um over approximately 250 seats projected available for subscriptions and and one of the positive impacts about this particular scenario is um IT addresses mandated busing but it also still gives opportunities available for family to have a solution to um to Transportation uh to and from schools again while if we choose to we can continue to work on uh developing our transportation policy um so we really what we'd like to do is have have some discussion regarding this because uh one of the things that Mrs Sheen shared is is the timeline is getting very close so so typically letters would be going out to families um uh at the end of this week beginning of the week before um looking for waiver requests sharing registration deadlines things like that um around Wednesday uh the 15th would be with deadline to apply for transportation subscription bus busing which is what we'd be looking back from families um so looking moving any further Beyond this meeting um really would limit her ability to have the movement she needs and be able to do the work that she needs uh without any direction um with some of the tight timelines that we have so um those are those are the three scenarios that that we discussed and and talked about as options and um I guess open it up for for discussion so Mr Nixon you're saying we need to come up with one of those three tonight I I think we I think that's what we should focus on trying to do so this way we can give Mrs Sheen some direction on how to move forward and do you have a price on the subscription busing um we we had a conversation we would have to work on setting that as well uh currently subscription busing is $1,000 per route um we had some conversations uh based upon the A and loon number where um that number is 1165 um so we talked about do we stay with the 1,000 do we move to the 1165 number there we also spoke about do we do we work on setting a limit for families um if there's multiple children that that um would be engaging in subscription busing as well um you know similar to how we do with the activity fees that you know there there is a cap for families Mr gisler did you have anything to add no happy question okay uh discussion Dr forer I just had a question is there any uh rebid uh required on options two and three I know you mention rebid was needed on one but not on three uh but yes to two two two needs a rebid correct option three sorry for not incl option three would we would just renew our the current routes that we have renew okay no problem M mandated only mandated only op so quick summary option one is mandated only needs a rebit option two I'm sorry we just got ourselves confused scenario one is mandated only requires a rebid option two is status quo we renew our current routes option three is mandated and open up the remaining seats as subscription also a renew of our current routes so that would be three would be a rebid then too three would not be a rebid no okay so the Reid's only on one correct thank you yeah so by my count it's only scenario one that will require a rebid think the the big difference between scenarios two and three is the subscription uh spots are far greater in scenario number three um where we don't have automatic free courtesy busing available to anybody we will have the mandated uh as you know defined by the mileage that the state has and then any spots beyond that would be opened up for subscription to everybody currently that is not what's happening correct so technically right like if we went with status quo you would still have all seats available for subscription there just would be less seats because you would have hazardous so that right it's not hazardous it's just courtesy busing right so the same the same thing right so two right you it still has subscription it's just there's less seats because some of them are taken up by people who are on courtesy right but when you look at number three you're looking now at subscription seats of 250 seats right so now you're saying the people who can afford it we're going to give busing to as a revenue where before right right we were looking at only right a handful of seats and it was a way for us just to fill the bus and make Revenue where now this is putting it more on the taxpayer of well if you can afford it we can offer you busing I think that changes the dynamic of that kind of busing um I also know that I don't know if it's something we can sustain in the future um right maybe it'll get us through this year but we still would need to look at busing for the following year um the good thing is is that it will keep uh CMS seats available because the most subscription busing we get for CMS is for CMS um where main end it only will not allow a lot of subscription busing to CMS it will also keep a bus going to Mary Kay McMillan and Mountain Park which we don't currently have if we go to mandated only um and I we know Mountain uh Mary K McMillan is a traffic problem um but do think we're also talking right so we're losing 113 um kids getting busing to GL right what did we think did we think that half of them are going to subscribe up to subscription busing like what's the goal because we are worried about traffic here at GL um and that's 113 kids that would now need to spend approximately $1,000 per child to get on a bus hopefully we have spots for them on their buses um so I do think that's a concern and then also I didn't hear anything about the votch schools because we bust 96 children to votek um how is that busing is that going to be changed at all or we're just going to keep it in all three scenarios I I'll have to get that exact answer I I believe it's not impacted by what we're discussing with these three scenarios here um I understand the things you're saying what what we were trying to do here is absent of having um a policy that defines hazardous routes and that also includes that students impacted by hazardous routes receive courtesy busing we're trying to move forward to give direction for scheduling next year and each of these three scenarios are are very different um in terms of what they offer um but we need to come to some sort of understanding of you know which direction we want to move forward with so this way we can give direction to our transportation department for planning purposes so I'd like to make uh a motion on that um you know to moving forward with that um and I I want to make a motion to for the 2024 2025 school year and thereafter um The berley Heights Public Schools would provide only mandated and subscription busing uh along with you know not including any of the special ed routes or the VCH busing that that sort of um stands as is but my motion is to for the 2024 25 school year and thereafter we will offer mandated and subscription busing only that's my motion I'll second it is that is that scenario three that maintains our 16 that's basically scenario three is is my understanding in the way we talked about it so so can I clarify one thing so in your motion you said you're moving for the 2024 2025 school year and thereafter the Berkeley Heights Public Schools provide only mandated and subscription mandated and subscription busing along with any required busing for special ed right so this is nothing changes for that nothing changes for the special ed routes nothing changes for the VC routes this is really about scenario three as it relates to this conversation and mandated is two miles to mandated is two miles to ele two miles for the elementary law yes so I have some questions with that so we're not going out to give me a second on that I just said okay I'm sorry yeah discuss Miss Stanley we would not go out to rebid we would keep the 16 routes I think the word thereafter is a an issue because if we only get right so if we have 250 seats and people don't buy them we are now having buses for no reason on a contract so I do think that thereafter needs to go in this motion because again we would end up with that's five buses right five extra buses that we wouldn't need if we don't fill those seats going in the future so to clarify I'm not saying that we put a certain number of routes on the motion like that's doesn't the motion does motion is not about a certain fixed number of routes depending on what is the requirement for the mandated busing and you know how many our subscription spots that open up as it relates to that is what what the motion is so because every year because every year the transportation team will need to go and check how many students are qualified based on the mileage requirements that number is going to shift every year so this is about just as a matter of principle we are talking about mandated busing and we are talking about subscription spots that are available as a result I just want we do need to be clear on routes though because right it's a difference between renewing or rebidding correct so my understanding one scenario with just mandated um we would be going out to rebid and have a you know a minimal amount of subscription seats available the other scenario is we renew don't rebid and we offer all of the seats that we can identify as subscription seats avable correct correct and I think the distinction that I want to call out is um there is the concept of what sort of busing we um uh provide as a school district and there is the concept of mandated and the concept of subscription but then when it comes to actually uh including or approving the routes I think per policy 8600 that is a separate activity by itself that the board will have to approve based on you know our understanding of the policy and our discussion in the finance committee is we will still need to approve the routes as a board or policy but this is just establishing the principle that we will offer this service right that is the mandated busing but also subscription busing as a service so just to be clear number one is mandated and we would still sell the empty seats for subscription that's why I'm I'm questioning it because number one would require a rebid but we would still have subscription on empty seats so I think again I think the word thereafter needs to be removed because I think you're setting us up that we have to stay in 16 bus routes by saying yes according to what you just said it is if you said you're going with number three we are not going for a Reid and that's 16 routes and 250 seats open right again we don't know how many of those seats will be taken up but the following year what if we have have to go to scenario one right because you said thereafter and that's that's fine so again think of it as we don't know what will happen the year after because we don't know if we will need 16 routes we we'll need 12 routes we have no idea that will depend on how many students would qualify for shouldn't we just vote for 24 25 because we don't know what will happen thereafter no but as the motion is going M forward because the district needs direction we are saying we are going to end this inequitable practice of courtesy busing we are saying going forward we will only the district will only offer mandated and subscription the routes number of students will depend on the number of students that are there for next year or going forward and I'm hoping that the district taking this as a lesson learned Mr Nexon that we will go and re request EST for data so we are not basically saying will 250 seats be filled up how many parents are interested I think we normally we send this survey out asking for the data I think right before spring break or after so maybe we could do it sooner so we have better idea may Mr dler I think that there's kind of two different things we have here maybe we should have two separate resolutions one one stating to end the busing of what you're speaking about and want to then separate going from one year to another so we're not having the 16 routes and I think that's that's what we need to do I think I'm clarifying right I'm my motion is not to say you're locked into the 16 routes because the the number of routes and what that is is it's under a different policy it's a different conversation this is just establishing a principle of what are we as a district offering in terms of a bus service so then why wouldn't we just put 24 25 Mrs Dolly I think she has a point um I just want to clarify um I guess maybe the legal definition of subscription busing because um right now the way it works right subscription busing is only offered to those buses that have open seats on mandated routes um there are folks who um you know and let's assume that everyone who's getting busing for free takes up those uh you know still stays on the bus pays for those seats and you know but there are other folks who are interested in paying for busing but they can't um because there's not enough spots so you know so I guess I want to understand is subscription busing by definition only um a available seats on a mandated route so that is not my understanding of subscription busing I have not done substantial research on it my understanding of subscription busing is that essentially a district there are individuals as you mentioned right the people legally required to right if it's an IP the two two and a half mile those are required there's something called courtesy busing that the district has the option to offer additional busing to individuals and the like if you offer courtesy busing by law you have to offer Haz rout busing and by courtesy you mean free free okay right so courtesy busing is you know some districts I lived uh previously in a very small District in Rosland Rosland everyone is under two and a half miles or two miles but they offered busing to everyone for free right so that is courtesy busing as an example right you don't have to do it but as a district as a board you have the right to do it right we can offer busing to everyone uh where we get to to subscription busing is now suppose we have X number of buses available we have X slots legally we have no right you have no entitlement to free Transportation um but we want to open up these spots it does not in my understanding have to be on a mandatory bus right it say we have spots here they are um feel free to passay us if you'd like and they don't believe have to be District students with the like so under that um interpretation it is possible given once we get our survey results back you know may not this year um not for the 2425 school year but eventually when we you know start the process early Etc we may um based on the responses and based on the software and the planning of the routes could potentially come up with a route that is just subscription busing right like that would just H have subscription kids that's possible right yeah I okay I believe that's the case I just wanted to understand that and then um okay so that's I I have another point but that's more to the pricing which doesn't relate to this motion so and I think the board secretary maybe suggest that there's a way to split these into two motions because I can I think if I understand the motion correctly it's the idea here is courtesy busting Hazard Roots should really be subscription busting is that the but we want to be able to maintain the current busting for this upcoming school year is that the intent or did I not understand that correctly also no if I can so the intent is we've had this discussion um for a year at least now right if we go back and I think the last time we discussed this was the 30th March 2023 meeting so the if if the goal is for the district for everybody to have clarity as to what is the busing service that the district is going to provide it's mandated and it's subscription that that's really the intent it doesn't go into a certain number of bus routs because obviously they change every year and you know that is not what the motion is about the motion is really about establishing a principle that as a district we want to do subscription and we want to do mandated and that's it and I think if I may I believe your policy said the board has to approve the RS right so I think that is the motion it's just well we we they can't approve the routes just yet because that would happen just that that but I think if I understand the board's directive depending on what the vote is you're going to give the information to your superintendent about the 16 routes that will be presented to the board at the up another meeting did I get that correct right two scenarios are mandatory with opening subscription seats the one that I think we're trying to suggest is the one that allows us to renew our current routes and have more subscription seats available for families sorry if I may ask the question then does this motion preclude us from or preclude The District transportation team from moving ahead with that scenario number three no but I think I think the sorry I keep forgetting I speak very loudly so I just assume everyone can always hear me so I think what your Administration need is Direction with regard to two things right courtesy busing none and I think the direction if this motion is there will be no courtesy busing and AZ so that's Direction number one right and that's by way of a motion here before you Mo Direction number two is at some point if I understand correct Administration is going to ask this board to approve RS correct now that's not before you right now but what will happen if they need direction clearly because you can't do that at a later time if they if you give different direction because you just will run out of time so I think you need the motion and Direction and I think what here's here's what the motion is and I think there's Clarity that I I I was trying to establish the motion was provide only mandated and subscription busing and special ed for 20242 and thereafter thereafter is the stipulation where we needed separation because thereafter in 2526 could change due to the fact of change with students where there could be a change from 16 down to 13 routes which is to Mrs Stanley's point there could be a change and we may not want to be locked in with it so my clarification to separate it into two separate motions is because of it locking in and should we use the word thereafter no Mr so as I understand it in this motion what we're saying is the district will only offer mandated and subscription Bing as well as special ed and any VCH I think it only said any necessary special ed for starting 2024 2025 and thereafter that's it there is nothing about routes how many routes you come up with is up to the distri is up to the administration as of now Mr Nixon has the number we are not talking about routes so so in this Motion in this motion we are not talking about routes I want to clarify that in this motion we are only talking about you're right no routes I'm I'm just trying to establish what I just said was was was thereafter thereafter I think we need a motion just for 2425 and maybe just doing away with courtesy busing no I don't why why do we need why you're you're not are you following what I'm saying and and I think you you you my so I I have I so I believe what what we are talking about here is maybe two motions one is the motion that I made that sort of establishes the principle of we will offer mandated busing and subscription busing the second motion going back to the point that Mr Nixon raised about the you know the direction or the clarity for the transportation team is is very prescriptive it is scenario three which does not uh require a rebit let me is that yes let me just let me just make sure I think I think correct on that yes yes that's that's sort of the concern is these specific you know routes so I I my my goal was not to kind of lock us into a certain number of rout and the word thereafter was locking Us in after 2425 and that's what the concern wasse so my yeah so my my thought is this is two motions one is just establishing and that's why the thereafter is important because if you're going to establish a principle of we will offer mandated and subscription busing right there is no confusion anymore as to what the district would do that is one motion the other one is specific for 2024 2025 so that we avoid the rebid that would mean we we are moving a motion to uh essentially approve scenario asking to approve scenario number three no that will so and the timing of that we can debate we do that today we do that you know in the next meeting that me true so what we are our motion is only to clarify what the district is going to do starting from 2024 2025 and thereafter that's it what the district wants how many routes it wants is up to the district to put with them on the resolution as per the policy 8600 route by Route that's it we're on the same page but if a route changes we have to rebid as of now there is no route change for this year and next year we will only offer if this motion passes there will be only mandated and subscription and how many routes is something for the district to come to us and tell us next year if we are following 8600 so that's that's I don't know that's not really where we are but I just want to clarify right so this is 250 seats that means that we're approximately five buses because there's 54 kids on a bus if we have five buses we know these routes are between $480,000 each depending on the route to the school how long it is ETC that means we have 200k to 400k in busing and we're hoping to get about 250k in uh Revenue with ,000 per seat so you can see where I'm a little bit concerned right this word therea is concerning to me because that's if every single person signs up for every single seat and we don't even have that that this year right there's already routes that we don't have total subscription seats filled because people don't want to sign up for it in certain buildings right so I I'm a little bit concerned that where is this money coming from right like this is sorry again Dr forer that's why I said I think if you said if you're doing away with courtesy and hazardous busing thereafter I think that satisfies what you need to say and keeping your provide only mandated and subscription busing for 2425 I think satisfies both of what you're trying to accomplish can you say that one more time um I'm what I was going to say is if T um not um I gotta say this again let me let me just think if you're you're doing away with courtesy and ha hazardous busing moving forward thereafter going on I'm I'm trying to just get the wording and keeping your resolution here provide only mandated and subscription busing uh and special ed for 2425 because then that leaves you to adjust what you need to do thereafter depending on what the status is because you'd have to go back and vote for 25 26 depending on the situation but you're you're moving forward not to have courtesy and hazardous busing going forward would not take care of anything that you want going forward because now the the board will vote not to have courtesy and Hazard as busing going forward so just as a matter of principle we've never had hazardous busing right so but you had courtesy busing we had unofficial courtesy we had unofficial courtesy busing provided by the district for how many other years I'm just trying to make sure that there is Clarity not just for the school year that's starting in September but sort of do away with the confusion right what are we doing what are we offering okay Dr B here there there is uh there's nothing in this motion that locks you into particular number of routes what I think what we're looking for is to provide guidance to the administration they're to provide mandatory you always provide the mandatory and subscription busing and this this not it doesn't even say that uh the subscription only comes from the uh buses that have mandatory on them but there's nothing here that locks you into a particular number of routes and indeed you may have there's nothing that locks you into anything here what so please you don't have the floor okay I think it's so simple it's direction to the administration to provide mandatory and subscription busing I don't like the term courtesy that's the but that's the the courtesy is being misused here courtesy is actually subscription busing okay subscription is a form of courtesy blessing courtesy is anything that's not mandated all right we've been doing courtesy cour y but we really meant free okay this policy is doing away fre courtesy is free subscription is paid what courtesy is free subscription is paid no courtesy is by the state definition anything that is under those two or two and a half mile limits that's courtesy because we don't have to provide it we do it as a courtesy Mrs oh Mrs Mrs Jolly so I I think you know for clarity state I think we have deputy's motion as the as the principal and then we could have a separate motion for the guidance for scenario three for the current uh for the 2425 school year um agree with Tom in terms of how the state defines courtesy busing because based on the dtrs reports uh you know they we for 23 we had 102 students that were um subscription and 300 49 that were under the courtesy so 349 minus 102 gives us the approximate 250 students that were getting um I think free busing essentially so I don't know from a pricing perspective again I would I would love to see the analysis and the numbers because um and I'm sorry Pam I wasn't following the because I if I if people are getting something free and now they're going to pay for it I expect that it's you know a revenue increase at least for this year given that we're not changing or rebidding the routes so I would love to see some of the numbers because I also I'm not convinced that you know we need to charge at the higher threshold considering that we're going to have more people paying in and we could you know maybe soften the blow and keep our budget where it is if we're going to charge more people for busing thank you the other other discussion Mrs con would you restate your motion it's been a while so my motion is I move um to that for the 2024 2025 school year and thereafter the Berkeley Heights Public Schools will provide only mandated and subscription busing along with any required busing for special education students and Vex students the man ated busing here is essentially the mileage requirements as defined by the state that is motion number one and then we can have a second motion as required I seconded this motion I think we need to vote on this one right now yeah okay so Mr jtz do you have that motion down yep and if I need Clarity I'll ask you tomorrow okay I can email it to you Mr jich okay Mr secretary a vote Mrs Connor yes Mr Kiri yes Dr forer yes Miss Charlie yes Miss Stanley no Miss Bradford no motion passes now do we have a second motion can we make the second motion but let me ask you this why the second motion of 16 routes needs to come from the district if as part of policy 8600 that's a district recommendation this is the this is a motion now it's up to The District administration to come to us and say this is the motion do we need 16 routes do we need what that's a district resolution it can come today or Mr Nixon can suggest that recommend it as the district administrator based on what we just voted on if I could just clar we understand that but part of what we were speaking about in the beginning is we need to give direction to Mrs Sheen to move so she either has to rebid or renew and if we don't give her Direction based upon our conversation tonight and she renews and then that's not approved then I have a concern about our direct I mean I think that was part of the discussion because essentially the motion that we just voted for applies to scenario one and scenar scenario three we need to provide Direction about are we going out to rebid now or are we going to renew our routes so we're moving forward with reducing it to 13 routes and rebidding or we're moving forward with 16 routes and renewing we we need we need to give direction on that no but in scenario one is only mandated how does no no no so scenario three no scenario one that you just gave us with 13 routes was mandated only so the resolution that just passed doesn't apply to scenario one no no I think so I think that the idea is that um if it's only mandated you're going to have X number a smaller number or different routes and then you would still open up those seats to subscription busing like it would be foolish not to yeah hold on um Mr Nixon I noted down when you wrote it to me so if you can repeat what is option one you said falling back to mandated busing because 8600 failed 30 buses instead of 16 only mandated option one is only mandated according to what you just gave us is that correct not exactly scenario one and scenario two were the were were the initial discussion based upon policy 8600 not being approved so do we default to mandatory only which would put us out to rebid to reduce the 13 routes and then yes that would include a limited number of seats uh for uh open for subscription scenario two would be to resort to status quo what we've always been doing with with the courtesy busing as we have done it scenario three the difference between that and scenario one was that scenario three is also only mandated but we maintain our 16 routes it gives us the opportunity to offer more seats for more families and and it allows us to renew instead of going out to rebid okay is the scenario 3 16 routes um are some of those pure subscription no mandated students on there um Dr could you uh just wait a second okay okay and Dr por could you repeat the question because I don't think everyone heard okay uh with scenario 3 you had 16 routes mandated all seats were available for [Music] subscription um but does that does that include the possibility that some of the people on a bus are all subscription yes because Mary Kay McMillan and Mountain Park would have no one in courtesy and there is no mandated to those schools yeah it is possible and that was Natasha's clarification with David that once we move pass the motion Dip's motion about offering only subscription and mandated if there is interest on option three we can run subscription only routes can you confirm that Mr Nixon not without speaking with Mr Shan the going to 13 routes instead of 16 routes means she she'll have to do work to reconfigure the routes going to the 16 routes I'm I'm talking option three Mr for Dr forer's question was option three you can run subscription only routes bus routes correct I mean I'm not sure I end in could we decide that one bus is empty and is subscription only yeah suppose but I think that limits the flexibility that Mrs Sheen has in terms of creating efficient routes I think creating efficient routes is part of maybe just a question that solves this is the real guidance you need right now is it the motion just to renew the current routes yes or to then the instruction is to rebid them right does that solve the problem we yes and then once the routes are created and once the routes are created then they'll be presented to the board for approval so how are we expected to renew the current routes when we don't even know what the routes are we just have to go by we have to go to Reid correct that has to be developed there's a difference between determining the number of routes that we need verse developing the routes and and defining what the routes are so let me ask you this on what and I I I think maybe we're using the words routes differently when we're I'm saying 16 routes as a route the specific routes once they're put together in other words you know um which which buses configure to what locations and things like that are something that will have to be approved as per policy 8600 correct David so unfortunately if you look at our contract with the busing company they they specify which bus goes to which building and we cannot change those routes so let's say we have a GL route and then later it goes to Woodruff that has to stay the same we would have to rebid to change that which the finance committee went over a bunch so that means that we will have at least one that we know of Mary K McMillan and Mountain Park that currently right is currently going that would be only subscription because of the fact that they were previously under courtesy right so there was like I don't know 14 kids or in one school that were a courtesy because they lived in on Emerson because we're no longer going with courtesy or hazardous right those kids no longer get those free busing so it would be that route would have to remain because it's we're not going for rebid it would be ention only if we are not re to why do we need to vote on then my basic question is we passed a motion on for this year and going thereafter we are only going to give mandated and subscription so it's up to the district what is time sensitive that you need a vote and a motion on April 24th these routes are so option three doesn't need to be rebid right so we don't know based on the interest B on how many students are coming up and how we are going to go about it so option three doesn't change anything why do we need a motion what is time sensitive about it because we have to go out for rebit if we're going to change the rout we need to do that now right but you need a motion to actually say that you want to not changed the routes because otherwise right we would be we would be saving money by getting rid of three buses but then the problem is is rebid we know that they can come up with a spike in pricing so I'm I'm getting the sense this conversation is actually what policy 8600 asks us to do which is approve the routes and I think right now if we go down this path we have we haven't seen what the routes are we are just sort of giving a blanket approval I think that's where you're coming from so I get it I'm just curious Mr Nixon do we need to have this vote right now or with the motion that we just passed gives the district the ability to move forward I think we've discussed now that we don't expect a rebit process to happen because under the last motion it gives the district the flexibility so I'm worried about putting a very prescriptive motion right this minute without seeing the routes um I don't want to restrict the ability to for for you know Kelly to plan so I'm just asking based on what we already have said yes to that would give the flexibility to go and and you know create the routes which could then come back to the board perhaps on the 7th May meeting for approval because the cost is in the the the concern is you know do we have the money in the budget and the way I understand it that money is in the budget i i i as we've had in these prior meetings yeah and if I can I mean let's let's just default to to Mr dler just on that so so long as we're all in agreement the direction I will give Mrs Sheen moving forward from this meeting is go ahead and renew those routes and begin your planning okay so I do think we need to vote on it because other right like I think we've had some discussion tonight that makes me question it because right like we we can't change the route right we can change who we're picking up but we can't change the route so we're just saying yes we're going to keep the current routes so can we just vote to say we're going to keep the current routes right so we don't have to go to Reit let's just vote on that so Kelly is clear that we don't have to go to Reit just one question um so and the that are is particularly problematic if there is a lack of interest in the subscription piece which would be the Mary Kay um so that's that's the only one I know of that would be subscription only off the top of my head but you would have to ask but based on the analysis uh I think that Kelly did for the finance committee if there was no hazardous routes um well if we had hazardous routes you would have two buses um I think in to uh for maray and Mountain Park was it Mountain Park that would have a total of 27 kids that would be on hazardous and like 81 seats open for subscription so so I almost think that you know we're kind of in almost that same scenario because we would have had majority of subscription seats open so now we're saying they're all going to be subscription my one question is those rout because we do have Berkeley Heights Board of Education buses right and I'm guessing that those are not uh the buses that are running the Mary Kay route is that no we so Nat I have a I don't believe we have to vote on this motion to approve those 16 routes because technically the routes can change because this is for next school year and Toll Brothers one of the example that I'm going to give you is Toll Brothers recently opened for occupancy so there could be students coming in there right and there are multiple developments happen in all over Berkeley Heights so there is no need on April 24th to give direction to the transportation director or supervisor that these are the routes the routes will change if students come so tomorrow Toll Brothers had adds let's say five students and they all go to GL that's mandated because Toll Brothers is 2.5 miles away from GL so are you going to as a district are we going to deny and say we're not going to change the route we're not going to abide by the state law no so there is a lot of flexibility in so we are we have given the direction that the district needs there is no need for us to specify in April 2024 on what the routes are going to be because the routes are going to change based on the enrollment so that's not entirely true because the routes like we said are already right bid and we have a contract that says we have these routes we need to renew the contract or go out to rebid what is the date to renew or re I want to say it was May something but I don't know because you I not the transportation department but these are in the contract we can't change the route right where the bus goes what time it goes when it goes without rebidding which is what the finance department had spoke with multiple times if we do get another 100 kids right and we need two more buses to do mandated we could try to fit them on the current buses if they don't fit we would have to go out to a company and get that which is what we're currently doing this year right we're spending a lot of money to get one bus right I forget what Kelly said it was like 85,000 or something that we're spending for a bus just to answer I routes do matter so I'm not privy to all this detailed information that happens in finance and Facilities I've just looked at the minutes all I'm saying is there is some ambiguity the dates are not available able there is some information that can only be clarified by Mrs shean so I would say if there is a need and I don't see the need because there is no date when do these contract these routes need to be rebid or renewed it's some date in May it could be after May 7th I did hear Mr JT say at a previous meeting if we can get direction until May 7th we can make this happen so let's wait until May 7th if the date is before then Mr Nixon will advise us on the need for a special meeting or whatever need to be because right now we are all Flying Blind here we don't know what is the urgency what's the date for this contract to be renewed or rebid Mr Nixon do we need to determine the price so parents know how much subscription busing will cost when Kelly puts out her letter next week yes I'm that that was part of our conversation as well do do we maintain the current cost and do we change the current cost and or do we create a cap for families those those were the topics that we were discussing Mrs Jolly so um okay two things so with the routes if you said for example option two where we do the exact same thing right how do you know like how do you know that you would after going out to the community and asking for the Demand right it almost seems like we're putting the routes before we actually know what the demand is and and so that's why that's why I think you know some folks here sitting a little uncomfortably right we're uh we're saying yes go ahead renew but we don't really know because you know because we haven't gotten the you know feedback yet if the feedback comes in that no one's interested in you know the Mary Kay route then we're going to have we re renewed a contract for an empty bus right and that that's what doesn't make sense so I'm saying like if we you know if we did nothing we if we did everything the same even you know we'd likely probably have the same routes but we still need the information from the community I also don't know how we can go ahead and set pricing without knowing the Demand right um because youve put up for the price your demand may like people may not want to pay $1,000 right but if you maybe have it at a lower rate you might have more people buying in so I almost think you have to understand what is the demand and how like what people are willing to come in for subscription busing and then see how many people you have um you know interested and then kind of price it out after that so I'm I again not in the transportation office but it just seems that we're approving routes before we know the demand we're pricing things before we know how many people are interested and by setting that price you might actually drive some people away because it's not affordable also um every year I get the survey are you interested in bus you know using transportation for your student and then when parents say yes I think only a a particular amount is requested by the district which is half of whatever we've come up with but because this is this is all new we're starting a fresh we we never had this option before so we need to take I would basically ask the finance and Facilities committee to go and look at what kind of Aid we've got because I I remember last March I asked Julie I think we got some aid for Safety and Security from the state which was about I don't know it could be 300,000 or 400,000 and I said does this have to be specifically used for security only and she said no the state law allows for me to use this for any other line items which is student related so we could be sitting on some of this Aid that we got from the state that can be diverted towards busing so so that we can soften the blow of sorts for parents who are suddenly being asked to pay so I don't think without going back to the drawing board from the finance and Facilities committee to look at what are the available options do we have the same amount for Safety and Security from the state and if if the pre previous ba felt that that could be used towards anything else maybe this is the year to use it toward Transportation so we basically say reducing it and this is the new offer Mr J goitz if there is money I don't know what money that might have been talked about last year I don't see it or I don't have any possession of it so again right we're gonna Kelly will start with mandated right so she sends it out to the mandated parents they come back and say yes I'm going to take it next year so she knows approximately who got it this year who denied it this year who's going to what school next year right so we kind of know that already there right and then once she gets that then she gets how many seats are left on that route on that bus right and that's where the parents come in and she says would you like to volunteer for this but she can only give the amount of seats on that bus to that school because of the fact that we are tied into these routes but it's just like the budget right we are making estimates for September but they have to be done now right she has to go out to parents now right with this information so she can because all summer long she is literally doing the routes on this new system that we have to actually decide how to run the bus most efficiently but there so the one thing that I I can't fully comprehend is what is stopping her from doing that like I we we all agree that we want to move forward with mandated and subscription busing I I what I'm trying here to not not get into necessarily without all the data is locking us into a certain number of routes we we don't know and that's the sort of the the demand conversation I think is really important to understand what is the demand so that we can then you know and that's why I feel like she needs the time to do the work given the parameters are broad enough to yes we want to do mandated yes we want to do subscription to then actually give us the routes that we will eventually you know approve yeah as long long as and the other I think the other component that is uh a little bit of a trigger is does this impact the budget and I think from what I have seen in the budget from what we have repeatedly heard the budget does not have any amount of rebid in you know it it does not anticipate a rebid what the budget cost right now has is we take the the cost that we pay for the routes today we increase it by a certain percentage and we have a certain cost number in our budget and I don't think we are debating that right now I right we I think this is just looking for I think the the blessing it's going to be a rebid because I for for time time it's it's a Time consumption for rebidding that's going to take us out of here no hold how is it a rebid no no no not a no not a rebid think can I speak please I I I think I think what we're trying to get to is by moving toward moving away from any courtesy busting at all presents a major change to our school community and what they've been used to I think what we're suggesting and and and we're not going to have some of that information because we could ask people you know would you be interested in paying for subscription busing and they could say yes but you don't know until you get the deposit or the payment I think what we're trying to do is have our community in mind since we have the 16 routes that we're proposing that we renew budgeted for next school year already um try and create a scenario that um gives gives gives more options to more people as opposed to limiting the number of routes that we have I think that's what we're trying to do we're proposing a major change and what we want to do is is have options available for the families and for students so I I think we have the direction that we need we are we're going to we're going to move through with scenario three that I described before the last thing we have to sit with is identifying what the cost is that's going to put out we've we've what we've been charging for subscription seating is $1,000 per student so not hearing anything different than that that we can get through specifically tonight the direction that I should give Mrs Sheen is to move forward with what we've done in the past as far as subscription seating has occurred do we have a general understanding yes yes yes okay so you're proposing stay to a thousand absent of another specific Direction yes unless we the finance committee and we look at what we got from the state which was the line item from last year and we can ask you to take a look at it we'll have to see if there is that is money and I think my thought is we we look at you know establishing some sort of a maximum and again it will requires some information on what's the demand out there so we can figure out you know what's the what's the optimum amount of money that we want to charge for this service historically we have been you know putting a price tag of $1,000 as you have multiple students in a family that need the service it does start getting steep so I think the the the one kind of idea would be let's see what the demand is I don't know if there's a way to soften the blow Beyond you know the, if we can that'll be great but just let's think about families that have multiple students that will subscribe U you know to see if there's a way to be more efficient also we have a president when we did something different when we did something which was never done in the district like redistricting and reconfiguration I think the board voted to keep the busing the subscription busing cost at $500 for anybody who was impacted by redistricting and reconfiguration in 2021 yes there is a resolution I was one of those impacted parents I got an email if I wanted to bust my child to Hughes instead of Woodruff I would the for the very first roll out for the very first year of roll out it was CED at 500 so if we've done that in the past maybe we can do that now we can cap it for anybody who was currently on courtesy busing routes and not paying maybe we can cap it at 500 we've done it in the past there was a resolution there is minutes the board has done it we can make it happen and we also we haven't yet had the discussion on what is our actual Surplus how much are we going to have we're going to get those answers and if the previous board has done it to make it easier on parents because this is a major change I think we should all work towards making that happen for the community a $500 cap would not be sustainable in terms of our bus routes well we've all I'm saying is Mrs Bradford if we had the will because we are making a change the previous board made a change about redistrict redistricting and reconfiguration we don't want to we can take a queue from there there was there has been precedent where parents who were impacted by redistricting and reconfiguration were charged only $500 and if they had two children it was you can go back and look at the resolution Mrs Khan just so that we don't get ahead of ourselves because I really think we need to look at the numbers Kelly needs time to get the data let's not put a number out there let's not put a cap out there let's get the demand let's look at it holistically and then you know figure out what is the number that that we want to send to the community just so but you know I guess it depends on how you're getting the Demand right if you're saying like are you willing to you know sign on for subscription busing for $1,000 right if you're if you're putting the number out right put put put put a max if we look at historically what we've done it's a thousand if if we if we agree that we will not go beyond a thousand maybe that's a maximum number and then you know again this is the first time we would do this I imagine there's going to be some transition maybe our answer next year might be different depending on what the routes are depending on what the demand is I think this is like for 2024 2025 maybe we we plan in a certain way but give ourselves a little bit of room for next year I mean the year after I just want to remind the board that we are going to be having students cross dangerous roads for roads that were determined hazardous in Berkeley Heights and those students will be walking with Based on blackbox data with no weightage given to the streets Mrs Bradford with all due respect but now you're saying that those people deserve a $500 off compared to other families when we could have had hazardous RADS put in we could have got reimbursed by the state and charg them so I I'm confused at that whole Logistics but anyways I do want to remind everybody that Aiden Lou is 1,165 right so we are under charging already we know that we're undercharging for the seats on the bus so what I'm trying to say is we can go around and around in numbers but I really think the district needs to decide that and then recommend to us and then we say yes or no but again right like this this will bring in Revenue but it's at a loss to what we're paying for the bus route right so we could possibly be busing less students next year getting a little more maybe in Revenue but we're going to be spending the same amount right so it's not like we're we're gaining some just I just don't I so I'll be honest again I don't want to get ahead of ourselves without really having the data right the I understand the eight and L number I also want to you know say if we as a district believe that the busing is a service that we provide then maybe it is you know at a little bit of a loss or maybe at cost at Best right we're not trying to make money off of providing the bus service to the students because like we are not a for profit company it's not it's not like we're not trying to make money off okay we'll give you a bus and we're going to charge you you know 1100 or 1,200 whatever the number is this is a service for the convenience for the safety among many other things so you know just being cognizant of that may I suggest if if there is if there is Clarity needed on how much we're going to price maybe Mr Nixon go back and look at the data and we look at what was done previously from president during redistricting and maybe suggest a special board meeting like we can announce it we can pick a date we can pick a date next Thursday come back with data and then finalize the numbers and everything if you need it sooner then Mr Nixon can come back to us and say well I need a meeting Monday fine we are all open to that Mrs Sheen does need to move forward with with some of this planning and does need a number to base that on so can I'm gonna recommend she moves forward with the pricing that we've been using and and based upon some of the feedback that we're getting if we need to revisit that we can revisit that in another meeting can you uh can the messaging be that at this current point because we haven't looked at all the data it's going to be $1,000 but if the board determines that this can be offered at a lesser rate then that will be updated by May 7th I think we can definitely update the number by May 7 what sorry yeah I'm sorry so so move forward with 10,000 as a Max as a Max board can look at it and revisit it later then yeah based on historical precedent and everything we can come up with a firm number at the next regular board meeting Mrs kaana you made the motion would you like to go back hold on what motion are we talking about the second motion I don't think have another motion okay no no so there's just one motion that is just the motion that we talked through yes all right Mr Nixon do you have enough information to provide Mrs shean with guidance yes thank you very much motion to adjourn I move toj yes all in favor I I nay who second oppos okay adjourning at 1107