you are live good all right good evening everybody and welcome to our Board of Education meeting for month of May um we will start with a reading of the open public meeting statement then the Pledge of Allegiance and we will get right to uh recognizing our many students of the month and educators of the month so the New Jersey open public meetings law was enacted to Ure the right of the public to advance notice of and to attend the meetings of public B at which time any business affecting their interest is discussed and aced in accordance with the provisions of this act and Order of Education policy 0162 boorder of Education of the buau of Bound Brook has caused notice of this meeting to be posted to the Fort office at Bound Brook High School and mail facts to The Courier News Bound Brook bur cler South Bound Brook Board of Education and any person who has requested individual notice and pay the required fee please stand for the [Music] here Mr Dawson here M gazino here M Carlton here Mr zco here miss m Mr Minos Miss H Mr vmer here Mr Januzzi here Mr board president you have a quarum president this evening thanks very much uh for president's comments tonight which I will politely suggest our president and vice presidents in case you have anything you want to add Mr B um I just want to say thank you to everybody who is here tonight to celebrate our students and educators of the month but also a special thank you to everybody who participated in our third strategic planning meeting this past Monday I think we had over six attendant including representatives from our South Brook Community and Board of Education many teachers administrators parents students and I'm really excited to the conclusion of that process as it culminates with our new fiveyear plan for the district so thank you again to the community for the participation and thank you to all of our Board of Education members who work to show as well anything special no you got it the spot all right Dr Freeman okay great good evening and welcome everyone to our March meeting boy how the time flies yesterday we open up school at this time I would like to call Dr s forward to speak of our students of the month for lont and lont an School [Applause] good evening congratulations to Gomer Plata sidin um Gilmer is currently in preschool um his teachers Miss Sebastian Miss CL his favorite school subject um he likes to play in the dramatic play area um Gomer likes to eat and go to the park he also likes to play with his friends and little brother Gomer wants to be a police officer when he grows up Gilmer is student of the month because he's a sweet boy was always trying his best gilar has made a lot of progress since the start of school year he's always participating following directions and listening to his teachers he plays well with his friends he's always kind we are very proud of goer and how far he's come congratulations [Applause] goer congratulations to Diana Jose tbio currently in kindergarten class her teacher is Mrs formoso um her favorite school subject is math favorite hobbies to play with toys and draw career plans is I want to be a vet when I grow up because I have two pets and I want to take care of them Diana is an excellent student she's respectful responsible and caring Diana's always tries her best and puts tremendous efforts in everything she does she's a great friend and she's always willing to help everyone in the class congratulations Diana congratulations Diana good [Applause] job oh filmer is here's here come on Round of [Applause] Applause he one more good job [Applause] perfect next up from school we have [Applause] miss our first grade student of the month is melan cabero [Applause] Hernandez yes Melania is in first grade she's in Miss peron's class she has a sibling Michelle in sixth grade her favorite school subject is writing she loves playing with her toys and when she grows up she wants to be a doctor congratulations sweetheart another round of [Applause] applause our second grade student of the month is Sophia Calderon [Applause] Santos Sophia is in Miss Nelson's class and Miss Nelson is here today uh Sophia has a sibling Jimmy and Diego she loves writing she loves to play soccer art and drawing and reading and she wants to be a hair stylist or Sal a nail girl when she grows up [Applause] congrat congratulations and next up from SMY School Miss Carbone [Applause] okay first up we have nicolasa Alonso mahija [Applause] um nicaso was nominated by her teacher Miss pelino she has three oh four siblings Eric adalo Jefferson and octaviano um her favorite subject in school is math because she learns new she likes to learn new things like multiplication she likes to draw pictures at the beach and when she gets older she wants to be a a five firefighter we're so proud [Applause] of [Applause] congratulations our second student of the month is Helen mandz come on down [Applause] Helen um Helen has two has one sibling whose name is jacen and what how old is Ja 19 um Helen's favorite subject in school isart is Art her favorite hop is outside of school well because she loves art is drawing and the other one is tto and one gets older she wants to be a a v [Applause] congratulations good job um our fifth grade student of the month is Anthony melgard Anthony Anthony [Applause] Anthony was nominated by his math teacher Miss kefir and his Ela teacher Miss laosi Anthony was nominated for student of the month because he's a very polite and tries very hard in class he's a great model for role model for other students because he is so kind and tries to include everyone he is a very talented artist who truly excels in drawing he loves soccer and even chose Lionel Messi as his wax museum figure congratulations Anthony good job [Applause] I'm so sorry I'm so excited we're so excited Shelby Lopez come [Applause] on yes you're just you're just so ready for middle school he's ready to put you there um Shelby Lopez is in sixth grade and was nominated by her Ela teacher Miss Petrus and her math teacher Mr Bayer all of her teachers said that she puts a great deal of effort into all that she does they say she was the sweetest person and she truly truly cares about her classmates she is commended for really focus on her studies despite a lot of other things going around in the school and class they say that her reading has grown so much over the past year and she's become so confident in reading out loud and they are so proud of her [Applause] congratulations [Applause] okay next up Dr s the Middle [Applause] School hello everybody and thank showing up here tonight I know must have been a tough call with uh this or the playground because it is our first real beautiful day of the year and hopefully a lot more to come enough with the rain so Community Middle School tonight would like to recognize as our first student of the month Abigail Nelson [Applause] Abigail was nominated by her teachers Kelly Barrow and Jennifer gond um Abigail has two older brothers and favorite subject in school is film so anybody who does log on to see the CMS Nightly News K with nightly get it Nightly News broadcast on our website Abigail is partly responsible for putting on those daily Publications favorite hobbies are softball volleyball and basketball and when grows up wants to become a psychologist and [Applause] therapist next up for the Community Middle School is Aon Castro [Applause] fallis Aron was nominated by his teachers Miss gold Rosen and Mrs Bennett Aron also has two brothers one older one younger and favorite subject is math I know you said that because it was me I know thank you um favorite subject is video games on computer I'm sorry favorite hobby video games on computer which I know a lot of parents are saying oh yeah but in this case favorite subject might be coming in handy in the future because you want to work in cyber security when you grow up [Applause] congratulations that's how you get the smiles that was that was a good one that was a great smile good [Applause] job Mr [Music] [Applause] Smith good evening B Brook SCH Community Crusader citizen of the month is Lily Baker bil has two siblings Emma Baker and Jonathan Baker her favorite subjects in school are math and science her favorite hobby is volleyball and she wants to study pediatric nursing as her career expiration so [Applause] congratulations [Applause] our next recipient is Grant gazino okay Grant is an only child who has no siblings his favorite subjects in school are art and math his favorite hobbies are football and spending time with his friends and his future career plans involve Athletics and Engineering so congratulations [Applause] Grant [Applause] our next recipient of Crusader citizen of the month is matiba [Applause] s all right mativa has two siblings uh one brother and one sister her favorite subject in school is English her favorite hobbies include painting sketching makeup reading books helping others cooking and doing henna designs her career aspirations include nursing and to further her education in the medical field [Applause] congratulations [Applause] and last but certainly not least our final recipient of Crusader citizen of the month is mai Edwards all right mikai is an only child and has no siblings um his favorite subjects in school include science and Ela because he's excels and in reading and writing fields um his favorite hobbies include reading because he loves he loves improving his heads space with new knowledge and vocabulary and his career future career plans include becoming a veterinarian because he adores animals and his he is a strong admiration for Animals as [Applause] well [Applause] okay next up we have our educator of the month he couldn't be here with us thisday today because she had an event with her child son Adam Jackson so we asked her to join us virtually so we can still share the great things that she's doing recognize her in front of [Music] our so ladies and Gentlemen please uh join me in recognizing Maria Endora as the March teacher of the month for the Bound Brook School [Applause] District so miss a is a seventh grade math teacher at the Community Middle School and exemplifies what it means to be an outstanding and dedicated educator every time I walk into her classroom I never know what to expect students are either working in groups creating projects sharing ideas presenting to the class working on individual math education learning Pathways and most importantly are always engaged miss a regularly volunteers to teach summer school Extended Learning programs at the middle school home instruction she's an educator for the high school alternative after school program and works with high school seniors on their graduation portfolio yet miss a always manages to set each week to offer extra help to our students at CMS miss a can often be seen cheering her students on at sporting events and Club activities throughout the school year miss a chaperon dances school trips co-host events like tomorrow's Pi Day assembly volunteers for fun raisers like the Washington DC adult dodgeball tournament scheduled at the high school gymnasium at 6 o00 on Thursday March 21st registration is still open I'm sorry Mr Bo president you need 6 o'clock March 3 March 21st Thursday high school gym gymnasium for all of you who want to attend a few weeks ago Miss A's math class reached a milestone in theirl Virtual individual learning math pathway miss a students were the first to complete 100,000 questions this school year and have logged over 500 hours into the program I think that [Applause] deserves and thank you to Dr Freeman who celebrated our students in Miss A's classes with the pizza party a midyear party this month they most welld deserved and for the record Miss's classes have just surpassed 120,000 questions answered recently the Community Middle School was invited to participate in the inter girls spring math tournament at the end of April this is a math competition for female elementary and middle school students at Ruckers University miss a will be training coaching and chaperoning a team of Bound Brook students from grades 6 through 8 last month the Community Middle School was also invited to participate in the Statewide survey or Statewide study from the New Jersey uh Public School uh of New Jersey public schools that demonstrated learning acceleration through the covid-19 pandemic specifically our school was identified by the New Jersey Department of Education the New Jersey state policy lab and the Joseph C Cornwall Center for Metropolitan studies at Ruckers University for our outstanding achievement and progress in math language arts and chronic absenteeism Miss and a team of teachers and administrators from CMS met with researchers from ruter University whose goal was to identify the outstanding teaching practices and programs taking place at the Community Middle School with the hopes of sharing our strategies with underperforming schools throughout the state and Nation definitely a round of applause for that for our [Applause] teachers it was the pleasure to hear Miss A and her colleagues enthusiastically discuss their teaching practices and experiences to hear the pride in their voices as they share their students accomplishments as well as their personal sense of responsibility and duty to help our students develop and succeed miss a is a teacher who makes a difference every day and finally in the spirit of always striving for academic Excellence miss a recently submitted a proposal to myself and the math supervisor for considera for a before school enhanced enrichment program dedicated to the development and acceleration of students enrolled in math honors miss a never gets complacent never settles for mediocrity and instills these values in every one of her students on a be on behalf of the Community Middle School and School District families I'd like to thank Maria aandora for her dedication commitment and service to our students in school Community thank you [Music] thank you I hope you're watching like wanted you do thank you apprciate you okay at this time I would like the students and their parents students the their parents to come to the stage to take a group picture yes you have to come e e e e e e e e e e e e that's [Music] they just check the audio eating or drinking in we might have we might have muted it as you can see Mike is very excited yeah it is so ready okay good evening everybody and welcome to our annual budget presentation we're pleased very excited to present to you our 2425 budget which our entire team including our Board of Education our directors our principal supervisors staff who I forget I don't want to forget anybody our teachers every everybody collaborated together to put together what we think is a masterpiece of a budget a budget that um not only that meets the district needs facilities and such teachers staff and also most importantly our students the other thing is I think it's important that we take time now to thank the people involved this was four months of hard work meeting after meeting ironing things out going back and forth debating spirting convers things to get to the point where we are today so I want to thank the Board of Education let give them a hand Committee of the gentleman with the shirt and tie there dress [Applause] very our principles for their hard work here our directors of course Business Office business office and our wonderful VA m [Applause] g it back on me but he did a really outstanding job last year we worked from a zero base so we didn't have to go that far this year however there still was a lot of time work put into the budget so I wanted to thank everybody before we started the other person or uh that we have to thank are people one is the governor and the Department of Education because after many years of being severely underfunded we finally are getting to the point where we're catching up we're getting the money we need to put things in classrooms that we need to do what's best for our students so I wanted to thank the governor if you're watching right you're watching to let you know we appreciate it and it's going to make such a difference here so now I'm going to turn this over to the person who's been waiting for this for months to enjoy himself Mr G thank you Dr Freeman members of the Board of Education Griffin principles and all the stakeholders here tonight welcome to the 2425 budget presentation and as Dr Freeman said this has been a four Monon project one of the largest group projects we have in the district and the culmination is the presentation tonight and then the final adoption in April we're pleased that confident that you'll appreciate what you see tonight and one the main of this year's budget is as Dr frean has said boundbrook was one of the most severely underfunded school districts in the state if not the number one underfunded School dist in the state so since the school funding Reform Act of 2008 was designed back in 2007 we have not been receiving our fair share of state A that has changed under the Senate Bill S2 that went into law seven years ago and it's designed to take underfunded school districts like Bound Brook and redistribute state aid from not only the overfunded districts but also the state to bring all school districts to full funding this year we have finally hit full funding and you will see in the categories of state aid that we received it wasn't all just monthin of one number it is actually run through all the different categories in importance with form it so it's working as design now back in 2007 as I was talking to a colleague before it's still very Antiquated and I believe the state has intentions to ring formula at some point and B Brook would uh be wise to be first in line to Lobby on our behalf because that was instrumental and us being one of the biggest beneficiaries under S2 so certainly I would like to thank Dr Freeman superintendent of schools miss Robin Griffin director of curriculum instruction and Miss Christine Lee was with us H for the material contributions to this year's budg ra your also thank you to the Board of Education members uh this is a tireless endeav of evening meeting and board meetings and weekly confidentials over the weekend and a lot of deliberation that has taken us to this point with the budget and most notably our board operates as a board of committees and the operations committee is the one that handles most Financial aspects of running the school district as well as facilities the mission statement for Bound Brook Bound Brook Public Schools is a supportive Multicultural community that provides an innovative of an academically challenging educational program while offering a variety of extracurricular and social opportunities that encourage lifelong learning and citizenship the vision statement is how we achieve that mission you can read that this budget was designed to satisfy board goals and District goals the main board goal that we established this year was to have a new fiveyear strategic plan and as Dr Freeman mentioned we just concluded our third meeting and we're waiting for the compilation of all that data uh and the board will take action on that the public meeting to adopt the fiveyear Outlook plan of where this district is going and that's not just an administrative decree that comes from Grassroots Community contributions and the Strategic plan and we believe we've heard from regularly about 40 to 50 people from this community have contributed greatly to where we we want the district to go and here's the district goals to create a safe environment where students and Staff feel comfortable taking risks and working collaboratively toward a common goal and a fully utilize data through professional development to inform instruction and strengthen student achievement this is our executive summary to prepare a comprehensive budget meeting the needs of all students within the revenue cons straints that we still face meeting the needs of a projected 45 additional students allocate an increased amount of resources into program and instruction that area in particular has been stared for the last seven to 10 years and we are pleased to say that last year and this year we are infusing a lot of revenues into the classroom where they belong expansion of curricular programs and Staffing to broadly improve student performance that's our number one goal is to push the needle on student performance here we believe that the resources last year and this year will provide the fertilizer for that to occur budget for capital outlay projects required for health and safety um it's a responsible Endeavor to appropriate monies every year to maintain the facilities so that you're not dealing with a major repair issue in years to come and have a bond referend just dealing with repairs and maintenance we do that in installments every year budget for inflation this budget has been affected more by inflation than anyone that I've done in the last 25 years every single account in this budget has been we've been presented with supporting information taking the increases anywhere from six to 15% and that's every category some more than others and we'll get to those and develop a budget strategy that supports an educational program that meets the needs learning needs of all students while giving strong consideration to fiscal efficiency and the impact on the local tax payer we believe we've achieved both of those here and all students goes to the comprehensive design of this budget it's not certain areas or wasn't specific goals it it's taking a fire hose to all the areas of the district that have been underfunded for so long and provide all the resources that are needed for Success we had a county budget efficiency review where about p received a lot of accolades for a lot of the cost savings initiatives that we were able to discuss and our cost savings from our shared received relationship with south bound adequacy is a state um calculation is a hypothetical model that represents the state's design of what a typical School District should need for funding to meet a thorough and efficient education that is quacy in the nutshell and you can see 2223 this District was $3.5 Million under adequacy meaning we needed $3.5 million more Revenue that year just to be adequate some districts are above adequacy tune of 10 million $20 million we are doing what we can here to catch up to at least reach adequacy last year we cut it to 1.5 this year it's cut to 1.4 what is the budget creation timeline how this four Monon process begin with the establishment of a budget philosophy we met we heard from them we provided them with data on what our expected revenues were for next year what our facility needs were where we needed resources so desperately in the classroom and the board heard and gave us the authority to budget to cap and meet the needs of of all students special education especially bilingual ESL we have 70% of our students who qualify for Bing PSL students we have a fantastic director we have a whole new R design department and a lot of resources in this budget are going to that area we studi the enrollment patterns and projections we never just prepare or work on one budget at a Al loone it's always three years at once and there's been more forward looking orientation to the budget process them I believe in the past we've review staffing needs and Miss Griffin did a fine job here not just budgeting for additional staff where they're demonstrated to have been needed in schools but also to review the enrollment at the other schools to see if maybe one area of town is growing more rapidly than another maybe staff can be relocated from one school district one school to another and that uh creates efficiency for staff and reduces costs then we U meet with the principles and the supervisors and the teachers as we talk about the budget we express to them the board's goals and desires for the next budget uh we put them through budget defense rounds once they compare their school budgets we look for consistency for parody amongst the schools for and then Bo the district goals are being met we then wait for the Governor's budget address state aid is released two days after the budget address we receive our state aid award that then defines the revenue picture and we know exactly how much money we have to spend and we have to match Appropriations to revenues because unlike the federal government our budget has to balance revenues and Appropriations we can't carry a deficit and then um the adoption of the tenative budget hopefully we'll we'll reach that level tonight and then a public hearing tonight and then the final adoption is in April so if there's any areas of this budget that the board feels to be defined better for the next meeting we we still have an opportunity to do so where does the money come from this is a pie chart of our revenues and you can see this is all funds and state aid is approximately 60% of all funds Revenue contributions to the district's revenues local taxes is only 24% and I know everybody in this town is paying a high amount of property taxes but compared to the total revenue needs of the district it's only about a quarter that's coming from the local taxpayers and in fact this year uh out of of of respect to that we actually budgeted slightly under cap and we'll talk about that in a moment federal aid federal government has always felt that it's the state's obligation to support schools this is mainly Grant pass through one area that we can control is fund balance the active management of our budget from preceding years creat carryover and surplus that rolls over into subsequent years's budgets designed to be a revenue in Li of taxes and we've grown excess Surplus by at least $500,000 from last year which was an impressive number then so that's the revenue makeup I handed out a revenue sheet and an appropriation sheet which comes right from our department of education software but some of the areas of revenues that are noteworthy is number one state a we received over $5 million of additional State a this year 5.4 Million last year and about four and a half million the year before these are the heaviest installments under S2 where we're being brought to full funding in a very rapid succession of seven years with most of the concentration being in the last three also uh tuition revenue from South Bound Brook has increased by about $500,000 the reason for that tuition increase is our state certified costs which have been approved by the state for the 2223 school year normalized our tuition rate per pupil for the high school at approximately $19,000 because of the application of all of the normal funding that bring us to U full funding so that has CAU up and has increased our per pupil tuition rting school from approximately 14,000 to 19 which is a significant increase because of the limited number of enrollment that we have and also a very large infusion of state aid that's finally catching up we appreciate all the efforts of south bound BR to to balance their budget under those difficult circumstances and reconcile tuition the general fund tax levy is calculated by taking last year's general fund Levy adding an automa enrollment adjustment that the state calculates ours was about just under 30,000 then inflates it by 2% and that is the 2324 tax levy cap now there is one other figure that could be added to that cap which increases taxes and that's a health care adjustment we could have increased taxes by another $269,000 for a healthcare adjustment but out a sensitivity to the local taxpayers and planning for subsequent years needs especially with S2 and state a expected to be flat in the future we have chosen to let that money go into bank C where it could flow into the next three years budgets if needed or it will expire in three years here's some reading information about S2 but basically it was a seven-year aggressive installment to get districts to full fund who are underfunded and it take some revenues away from those who have been overfunded for decades key facts on state aid Equalization Aid is the largest type of Aid that we've received and it's designed by the state to support a District's adequacy budget which we talked about before and there's a calculation in the state aid print out called local fair share and that's where the state of New Jersey looks at the ratables and the income levels from the from a community and determines how much they can actually actually contribute to their adequacy and in situations like B where the ratees in the income are not as strong the state will pitch in and bring you to adequacy through State a categorical Aid is another type of state aid designed to um offer incentives to school districts to improve security uh special education to Opera efficient Transportation Fleet and all of those categorical areas of Aid um we awarded and we have applied general fund state aid is almost two3 of our total revenues and here is the breakdown Equalization Aid you can see went from 27 million to 31 and all of those individual categories special education security Transportation preschool education Aid school choice Aid um that's an interesting one where we receive students from other school districts who choose to be here and state aid follows the student which offsets our cost Debt Service Aid is where the state of New Jersey is paying a portion of our principal interest on outstanding bonds and um you can see that our our total aid for all funds went up .1 million 16% that's a huge increase to adjust a budget to in one year where does the money go about 60% of all expenditures go directly to program and instruction 46.87 per is direct instructional categories within the budget and about two-thirds of that benefits category is direct instructional sta so that's about 60% of the budget Administration is only about 7 and a half% we're below the county average capital projects are 6 per curriculum development grants Transportation Athletics co-curricular and custodial Services ground Security main there's another handout for appropriation detail but I would just like to go over some of the highlights for Appropriations number one salaries are going up throughout every category not only because of a very fair labor agreement that was just reached and retro pay that's coming but also because we're adding staff we're reducing classroom people teacher ratios as best we can with the facility limitations we have and there are more staff and reasonably comp compensated staff um special Edge Transportation we're a walking School District but we're budgeting $1.2 million because of the extreme spike in Contracting Transportation cost districts are fortunate to be able to even get bids anymore and when you do these prices are coming higher than I've ever seen before um utilities is another area natural gas electricity double dig increases projected for next year maintenance we have a lot of older facilities just to maintain them costs more than more modern facility janitorial services are outsourced this decision was made years ago and we have now received about $1.2 million in that appropriation line facility we are improving facilities every gang bathroom in this building is going to be replaced in next year's budget those are the original 1970 or earlier bathrooms textbooks instructional supplies out of District tuition and health insurance are all areas of heavy increases next year and health insurance is just one that we'd like to share our progress with because that's one of the largest items in the budget because of claims experience turning negative this year sharply Horizon gave us a proposal for 17.45% increase in premiums that's unable it's it's almost impossible to fit a number like that in a fixed Revenue budget um so we asked our broker to go out and get competitive quotes and to continue to monitor the claims experience hoping for improvement unfortunately that didn't come but an aggressive carrier EET came in and they they gave us a proposal for a 9.6% increase learning that from our broker Horizon then reduced their 17.45% to 14 and then down to 9.32 which is where we are now it is still a work in process we still have about another month to get additional competitive quotes and hopefully get this number down lower but I will say to you as a business administrator based on the claims experience that I reviewed and the loss ratio running of 140% 9.32 is a very fair percentage albeit High just going from 1745 down to 932 that's the savings of $586,000 we're not done what drives spending certainly it's enrollment from our state report known as asssa which is where we count every student on October 15 and reported to the state and it's AED by our a the only one that's not asssa is the 2425 year and that's been projected by our demographic study from Russ Haber Associates but you can see we're consistently picking up between 50 and 70 students a year and our facilities are at capacity now so as we discussed in the Strategic plan it is not too early to begin discussions on school extension because as dwen told us that is not something you can snap a finger and have that occur at one budget that's a probably a 48 month process that has a lot of requirements in order to cut the ribon on the school what programs are uh in the budget I'm going to turn it over to Rob Gordon and there is a there is a lot there's a lot of resources going into this category okay so there's lot on here but I'm going to kind of summarize of some of what Mike said so one of the um biggest things that we did was uh I got from all of the schools principles the supervisors um really looking at what we have been lacking where we need to focus specifically regarding uh curriculum and curriculum updates we have uh new math and Ela standards that have come out this year that we need to make sure are part of our curriculum starting in September so we have to uh put a lot of effort into curriculum one of the places is the high school we haven't spent a lot of money at the high school a lot of things are coming um contracts are coming up that's where a lot of improvements are needing to happen we have um some coaching needs academic coaching needs there's been there's a need for support for the teachers in implementing the new standards implementing the new programs um you know more modern uh practices uh there's a science of reading push that's uh coming through so just just some supports and some education so we have some coaching that is on this budget um we are enhancing our um intervention at the high school we didn't have any interventions staff at the high school so we're LA and math intervention to support those students um we want to specifically Target the freshmen who uh tend to struggle when they transfer from the middle school and provide extra support teachers to help uh the students and um last year we improved and enhanced our um enriched gifted and talented enrichment in the elementary so we're moving that down to the K2 with an addition of the um a gifted and talented teacher um so let me go to the next slide so like you can see there's a lot of staff so we have the interventionists coaching um gifted and talented ESL and bilingual coaches um we have a PE teacher for the high school um right now we have two male correct me if I'm wrong we have two males and a female fed coach right three male female so we wanted to you know add another teacher there um it's always good to have another female if possible um but also for the the needs of the students um and then we have a need for in special education we're hoping to get somebody who's bilingual we have a lot are in need of bilingual services and ESL in addition to special EDS so um want to make sure we meet their needs and um that is also in the special education department a bilingual learning consultant our psychologist so for textbooks like I said High School is a major area we're um updating the entire High School science department everything's updated they need new materials they are asking for it and and it's time history at the high school as well same situation and high school math and then when you implement new textbooks new programs of course we also have to um update our Curriculum maps and make sure that they're ready for our teachers while infusing our new standards and then um at the very bottom there all of those besides what we're doing at the high school we also have to do updates to to all of these areas uh K to8 Ela K to8 ESL we added French too smly so we need to make sure that that's set up um we need to update the Spanish at the middle school and then all the other ones that I already mentioned and then here so like I said we have to make sure that we have our standards updated we have to make sure that we are um using the new math and reading standards we want to make sure that we're in compliance with gifted and talented with our Ells um we have we've also enhanced our before and after school programs providing enrichment especially at the lower grades in um enhancing our summer programs we worked on that last summer we're going to continue that this summer and then we have some assessments new assessments that we did so we still are using Linkin for the data warehouse but we've added in the um I Exel and I ready testing this year we have a Dibbles Universal screener for everybody in K in grades K to3 um keymath is is similar to the dibles for math um and some of the grades were're still using Dr for students as needed and then with all of this has toal development so um workshops we're sending people out to professional development we're bringing people in we're bringing coaching in and professional memberships there's a lot of uh staff from all areas not just teaching that want to be a part of professional communities so we want to make sure that we give them the professional membership so they can go to conferences they can connect with other people in their uh departments in their fields and then Avid we have that program at the high school we would like to um and the middle school we would like to bring that down to the 3 to six to kind of build on that for um and strengthen I think that's it right and thenk so here's a little more information about some of the spending categories special education Transportation we've been transferring money into this account throughout the year because of these incredible price increases and we contract most of our special education Transportation through the Somerset County ed Service Commission and the the bids that are coming in through that commission have been extremely high and that passes through to the member districts we did buy a new 54 passenger this year thanks to the authorization of the board because it wasn't budgeted and also a 204 passenger bus those are helping our Fleet and we'll take back some of these routs what's included in the budget well from a capital Improvement and Equipment U standpoint we are as I mentioned renovating every bathroom every gang bathroom that's in this building and U ignore that price for now because it's a very conservative number when to go out the bid it's surely to come in under that but we don't know at this time bids have been all over the place also so I was told by the architect plan a little on the higher side he could always just both the so BS um High School Fieldhouse Paving High School flooring High School field grooming machine where you where districts have a turf field like we're fortunate to have serves very well to have a grooming machine which is kind of like a zambon and it goes over and and it Smooths the pellets and it uh beautifies the and fresh the field and also increases its longevity when maintained fre High School servers upgraded cafeteria sound system retractable backboards and panning instructional teaching monitors snow removal and grounds tractor replac the pickup truck security equipment it equipment Community Schools getting bleachers scoreboards retractable scoreboards and padding Lafayette schools getting a new sign G and room partition Small's getting a copy machine travel AED and Lamont's getting iPads and interactive panels which are those PR boards that use for instruction that's about $3 million of capital Improvement and here's some pictures you can see the bathrooms in the high school that is that um grooming machine on the top tractor is down below in green and that will be used to spread mulch um eliminate the need for Contracting and also it would be integral and snow removal if we are to have some again because there were there's limited space to pile snow here in the school district so we're paying a contractor move it with a with a dump truck and a bulldozer this will help us to relocate it somewhere else and get it out of the way and roofs throughout the district have needed some address and that's also in the budget we save a lot of money from shared services and I'm not going to read these to you but you could see these in the slides it's also part of the user friendly budget when we post that to the website we make every effort here to share costs with other school districts and the municipality especially now we're going to get to um how this all concludes with taxes what influences the tax rate number one state aid the fact that we've been getting more state aid has suppressed the need to go to full tax ly cap fund balance life we've been working very hard through the year to maximize uh savings and efficiency in the previous year budgets so to close the year with unspent Appropriations and revenues in excess of what was in the budget we've accomplished that to a great extent that carries over recycles for the next budget year in Lu of taxes ratables the tax school tax rate is calculated by taking the School tax levy and dividing it by ratables in town and the ratables are being reassessed every year in B and they continue to grow that suppresses the school tax rate and increased student enrollment certainly has an effect on Appropriations especially when you get to the Tipping Point you have to plan for school extension we're very pleased that this year's budget because of the increase and ratables because of the district's intentional um banking of $260,000 and not adding it to the L we have a school tax decrease from 1.2 last year to 1.65 for 2425 and that will save the average assessed home in the burrow of 48,51 $140 of school tax and that concludes our presentation it's a very comprehensive budget it's providing a lot of resources in program and instruction curriculum it's also meeting the needs of maintaining the schools responsibly and it does it efficiently and under count with a school tax reduction so this really is a beautiful budget and I want to thank Dr frean for his vision with all of the areas in the budget and his uh support through this challenging process [Applause] now we can go back up to the table we have a resolution that's part of the agenda we'll need a first and the second on the resolution but before that we have an opportunity for a public hearing which is unique to the tenative budget and also the final adoption so if there's any members of the public that would like to State specifically to the budget uh the floor is yours if there are no takers Mr the videoo did anybody submit anything online specifically for bu check everything and everybody's encouraged to ask any questions you have about the budget this is your budget and we're here to serve answer question I am not seeing anything online then that closes the public hearing if no one is interested and we will resume our spot thank you must be you must you'd like me to read it I'll be happy to read the [Music] resolution bear with me this little Lon as recommended by the superintendent of schools be it resolved by the B Brook Board of Education that the 2425 tenative general fund budget be adopted in the amount of 55 m269 120 and a tenative general fund local tax levy in the amount of 139655000 an ATT tenative Debt Service budget in the amount of 1,663 864 and a tenative Debt Service local tax levy in the amount of $777,500 m245 4 and whereas the balber board of education has been notified of state aid amounts and whereas such state aid amounts are for the 2425 year Equalization Aid is 31,38 1,837 and for the 2425 school year school choice Aid is$ 12634 and for the 2425 budget categorical special education Aid is 2,241 787 and for the 2425 categorical security a is 1, 49,4 $44 and for the 2425 budget the categorical Transportation Aid is $155,400 and for the 2425 budget the preschool education a is $2,796 and for 2425 The Debt Service Aid is $886,000 extraordinary Aid amount is $300,000 whereas policy 6471 and njac 6A 23 a7.3 provides that the Board of Education shall establish in the annual school budget a maximum expenditure amount that may be allotted for travel and expense reimbursement for the 25 2425 school year now therefore be it resolved that the B Brook Board of Education hereby establishes School District annual Travel maximum for the 24 25 school year at a total of $57,500 and be it further resolved that the school business administrator shall track and record these costs to ensure that the maximum amount is not exceeded and whereas due to consistent student enrollment growth instructional Staffing and program needs facility needs and other priorities set forth by the superintendent of schools the board of education is budgeting to maximum spending Authority which shall include an automatic enrollment adjustment to cap of $2,755 shall not include the $269,800 health care cost adjustment which will instead be added to the bank cap the district is not applying any previous year's Bank cap to this budget now therefore let it be resolved that the superintendent of schools and the business administrative board secretary filed the required documents with the county executive superintendent of schools may we have a first and a second and then open it up for board discussion motion second Mr zco and and Miss Carlton thank you Mr janzi i' turn it over to you for board no any questions regarding budget not a question but just a congratulations again for all the hard work to the administrative team and uh to the business Blown Away by everything that you guys have done and really appreciate it uh thank you again I do have a question sorry I'm just curious going to the the health insurance quotes how how does that rate increase affect the coverage that's being proved the rate increase has no effect on coverage uh the coverage is defined by the policy and a lot of the labor agreements for coverage types those are maintained it's just the carrier that we're soliciting quotes from I of like for an example we'd have to provide a cola and we're shopping between C and PBS okay thanks any other comments or questions from the board i' just like to say that now that we are fully funded that I hope the state doesn't forget it's a fair they have fulfilled their Duty right and let's let's hope we continue agre yes and I think in in general terms we look at our budget and we realize that 60% of our funding is coming from state aid I think it also means that really sh relax in terms of revenue streams and sources and we really need to continue to partner with the bur to understand how our local entities can actually support the school budget as well because if were you change their mind at any point you be heavily dependent on that back in a similar situation and hug shout out seeing no other comments or questions do we want to do a roll call vote please yes sir Mr B yes Mr bson yes Mr Ceno yes M Carlton yes Mr zco yes Miss M yes Mr minus Miss H yes Mr bulmer yes and Mr Jud yes motion passes and let it be known for the minutes that miss musen and miss high are here so thank you thank you motion pass so we are up to item number three student board member two things so this week is NGP testing and I just wanted to um just basically say that um that the admins of the bom High School have been um putting in a lot of effort towards making sure our students succeed and I hope it pays off in the coming months when the results come and second um I went to the Third strategic planning meeting and I just want to say he was really happy seeing the amount of student turnout there was and I just hope there's a similar turnout if there if there were to be like similar great thank you all right so we are up to item 4.1 uh committee report from the education committee Mr Dawson thank you Mr President we met uh yesterday recently uh couple key items in our committee we reviewed the calendar for the upcoming uh school year which I believe is on tonight's agenda we also reviewed the midyear assessment data from Exel and I ready um and looked at some areas where we're really proud of the growth and some areas where challenges um still persist and we also spoke about you know the benefits and the drawbacks of assessing students online practicing work online it's always two sides very good any questions regarding the education all right Mr B for govern okay we spent um most of our time talking about very boring policy stuff a lot of them are mandated um they are redefine some of the protected uh classes and categories so that's most of the updates that were there um we also discussed a proposal for a club um that you may have noticed was pulled from tonight's agenda because it's a national organization that has a pretty specific mission statement so we just want to clarify things a little bit more and uh we're thinking quite possibly from now on that um new clubs will will be brought before the committee before they're put on the agenda so that we can review what they are and you know what their mission is going forward thank you Mr any questions for governance heing none we are at Human Resources where you at Joanne is doing the committee report for human resources so um I took limited notes um we reviewed all positions um reviewed there were three War CL comp issues that have been reviewed um I believe it was Dr um at K how many seven there are seven seven seven prospective employees showed interest in coming to join us uh in book they're working on um an ongoing process using front line can you just repeat that will be 95% down with my notes say 9 95% done with the retray retro pay got it thank you yes ma'am all right any questions for human resources Mr Z operations so Mr President this the shortest operation that's good because we just spent 45 minutes Mr my entire Thunder operations basically budget and uh that's it any questions for operations Mr J yes um we also discussed that operations the final approval and execution of the four rods that we have applied for been notified that we were going to get word from the state so those are fully executed now signed off by the state signed off by the school district and the next steps in that process now are to work with professionals to put together bid specifications for the replacement of those boilers and related water heers um go out to bid make the awards and hopefully get all of those covered in this year's budget great thank you for the addition it's really exciting to see that all coming to fruition any other comments or questions on operation all right so for cc we have our meeting next mon first Wednesday of April so we are now reports uh we are at item number five open to the public for agenda it only oh okay so before we get to questions in public we let's do our M car thank you Mr President um we discussed providing an update on what's happening in South D in the spirit of transparency so there's a few items I wanted to share that we're proud of um Dr gouki has a quilting Club in school she takes her lunchtime and she has about between 20 and 30 students who participate and they were recognized um in the first quarter edition of quilt fold magazine there's a nice little write up about them um so if you go online and you Google both there's there's scroll down look for the volume 29 uh New Jersey version It's all about New Jersey quilon um South Bound Brook was also recognized by the state and by recors for the student achievements postco um ruter came to the school I believe today to eval to to speak to them to to see what they did to to help the students uh recover so quickly academically um on our fourth certification with Franklin cby Lighthouse uh status so with this certification this puts us halfway in Legacy status um this is a leader and meain program and finally the eth grade worked with the friends of stats house to do a witness Stone um they they did present research and presentations and they chose to research Henry stats who was a slave and then together with the witness Stone project they had a stone leag so that's it thank you very much uh so now we are open to the public agenda items is there anybody in the room that would like to approach microphone make a comment see none nothing online uh not the last time I checked okay all right then we are up to item 6.1 which is the approval of the meeting minute so be it resolved that the bo education on recommendation of the superintendent approves the minutes for the following meeting regular and exec February 26 have a motion motion thank you Mr B second second thank you miss m any discussion all right hearing none can we do aoll call please Mr B yes Mr dawon yes Mr yes Mr Charon yes Mr zco yes M mus yes Miss H yes Mr Homer yes and Mr janzi yes motion pass thank you item 7.1 be it resolved that the superintendent recommends for approval the resolutions as outlined to District Personnel resolutions this is 7.2 through 736 I have a motion motion thank you Mr B a second second thank you miss m any discussion yes Mr bmer on a couple of items on 7 16 7:32 7:35 we're approving conferences that have already taken place is there any reason why these cannot be done before that's our intention sometimes what happened is uh ni is new so he uh he found that conference after here come here and submit it but in one we had someone find the conference and pay for it we wanted to get on the bo agenda but that's one of the things we working on is is making sure we approve we get it approved before they actually go to the conf okay and the other two 73235 middle sex there no cost I think $200 cost but they were February 28th and 29th right same concept um originally originally because it was part we wer going to put it on as Prof we saw uh after we spoke to Representatives that we should put our professional development so the teachers got credit for it so that's what we did 7:31 do we pay for these in advance or they buil after the after it takes place 7:31 7:31 the had a conference that Danielle Rodriguez has approved to go to but she submitted a letter of resignation and she won't be so are we paying for her to go to something that she's not be here for she she won't be here so we're not we'll have very good thank you thank you Mr any other comments questions do we need to do anything specific with 731 or just do that um I would recommend if it's the intention not to vote on 7.31 we will vote on all Personnel items exclusion I think have still do it before training that's correct so then with Mr Fulmer's clarification we are going to remove 7.31 from the vote and if we would like we can move the remainder the item 72 through 730 and then 32 through 36 can we aoll call please Mr yes sir Mr B yes Mr Dawson yes M Gaz yes M Carlton abstain 7.8 and 718 to 737 and yes to everything else thank you Mr zco yes m m yes Miss High yes Mr colmer yes Mr janzi yes motion passes thank you item 8.1 it resolve that the B Board of Education approves the resolutions as outlined in District education resolutions this is 8.2 through 8.9 have a motion motion thank you Mr Dawson second second thank you Mr Z any discussion yes yes one question yes uh I believe it's 812 we have a class trip for preschool going Toton they taking 155 students on a class trip yeah the entire pre we have many pre yes yeah okay thank you Mr bmer any other comments or question just a comment on uh know I can't let this go incubation program for the school chicks love it phenomenal I say every school should have it I just wanted to say no it's it's great until this is the cost my kids experienced this and it's really um you know if nothing else it Fosters kindness kids are realizing these are creatures want to say Kudos very job and I just wanted to add to just saying you could tell it's spring because all the class trips are coming around and just love to see Mr Mr B yes Mr bwon yeso yes M Carlton abstain 8.10 to 8.19 yes anything else so not thank you Mr Zill yes Miss M yes Miss High yes Mr bmer yes and Mr Ji yes motion passes thank you item 9.1 be resolve that the B Board of Education approves the resolutions as board action resolutions this is 9.2 through 9.2 have a motion motion thank you Mr second second thank you miss any discussion I just love the fundraiser ideas I just think it just brings everybody together and what fun yes just wanted to appreciate the donations from St Martin that's very great appreciate thank you so much thank you for any other comments or questions right roll call please yes sir Mr B yes Mr Dawson yes M cazino yes M Carlton abstained 9.2 9.8 yes for everything else thank you Mr Z yes Miss M miss high yes Mr bmer yes and Mr J yes motion passes thank you we are up to other matters to come before the board to be discussed and that brings us to new business so is there anything that wasn't included on this agenda that any of the board members would like to discuss we are open to the public for discussion nope all right then we are moving to go into executive session so be a education enter executive session ased by NJ for the purposes of one and three than you I have a motion motion thank you Mr B second thank you miss all in favor e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e you're unmuted you're good to go welcome back we are up to item 14.1 be that the B Board of Education approves the resolutions of outline approval h school this is item number 1422 have a motion motion thank you Mr B second second thank you Mr Dawson can we have aoll call please Mr B yes Mr Dawson yes M cazo yes M Carlton yes Mr zco yes Miss M yes Miss H yes Mr bmer yes Mr J yes motion passes thank you it 15.1 be it resolve rep of Education proves the resolutions as outlined approval of HIV cases under middle and elementary schools this is 15.2 15.3 motion thank you Mr B second second thank you Miss roll call please Mr B yes Mr Dawson yes M Gazo yes M Carlton Mr Z yes m yes M High yes Mr fmer yes and Mr Ji yes motion passes having exed the agenda for this evening I will entertain motion to motion thank you Mr B second thank you miss all in favor