uh before we proceed with the agenda I do want to uh take a moment of silence the community and the district had lost uh somewhat important uh a former teacher for riverv viiew or Lake View also parent uh who sent children to the district so if we could have a moment of silence thank you okay proceeding with the presentations uh looks like we have a March 11th presentation which is today the preliminary budget for 2024 2025 Dr Forte um we'll give a moment to get the audio video set up yeah yeah okay we have our preliminary budget and as we said in committies this was definitely a challenging budget um we'd like to highlight some of the things that are in the budget and then we'll go through um where you know the the uh tax impact where the money comes from and some other important Financial things later on but first we just like to highlight a few of the curriculum items in here we have um we have some new stuff new Ed puzzle online education program we have some money for DreamBox online education program we have um K2 Mentor texts the budget for linkit which is a districtwide system wood shop supplies which is um in year four approximately three or four that we had the new wood supply we started in the Summers five years but five years okay and that's that's something in the middle school that we do with um hand tools not not like the traditional wood shop we had when we were kids but now it's a wood shop with hand tools and it's it's a very popular class some other items we do have in the budget we have some money for personnel the possibility of a new position including a supervisor of Support Services that that position may be part-time or full-time we still haven't determined it but the money is in the budget for that position as well as um any other Personnel needs we might want to include um obviously our some of our costs go up like our um health benefits the St Mary's lease is a is a is something that's going to you're doing it for me Rick um the St Mary's lease is something that that is recurring cost we have some increases in our special education and tuition Services the pension system if if you're not aware of this the state pays for all certificated staff but the district pays for all non-certificated staff and that number went up by $82,900 for next year our free lunch cost is now up to $100,000 and just the increases in labor costs from one year to the next is almost $900,000 so we have capital projects and these capital projects are funded with grants and reserves so we have money in the budget that that we've saved over the years and we call them there's capital and maintenance reserve and we have money in the in the budget to be able to fund projects and we've funded over $10 million worth of projects since I've been here in 2014 and this year we have a few projects on the um agenda here and not all of these are are definitely going to happen during the year or not all of them we're we're 100% sure we're going to do it all um like one of the ones I just point out is that the kindergarten bathroom project at Riverview there's money that we have in the budget for a for planning and for the completion of the additional two two single single person bathrooms for the kindergart to make future kindergarten rooms if we needed to um currently we don't have any extra rooms with bathrooms in the district so if we needed to add one for example a prek or a uh a kindergarten we don't have a room so we would have to ask for a waiver and I know we were over the years we've been trying to get away from waivers and not having any kind of substandard space or waiver because we don't have the bathroom so this would be something that we would do over the next year or two just to be prepared for if we do need to add another kindergarten the sidewalk project at Riverview is a safety concern basically um it'll help the traffic flow of the pedestrians and the um motorists that getting from the annex to the main building currently the students walk either through the park parking lot or in front of the parking lot and there's been a few occasions when motorists I guess were impatient and didn't let the students pass and drove into the parking lot while the students were walking and our officers and our administrators and our staff felt like it was um a safety issue there was also an incident on St Mary's place where a uh a motorcyclist ran you know sto did not stop for the traffic and hit uh didn't actually hit but being very close to hitting our class three officer so this project is to try to prevent that and and make it a safer a safer walk across the street um not sure if you've seen it but the back of Riverview the uh stairway leading down to field six and the stairway leaving out of the building in the back are Bol in disrepair and there's money in the budget to um renovate both of those actually replace both um there's money in the budget to repave the small parking lot at Riverview we always have to do brick repointing then we have project we have a budget line in the in the capital funds for security upgrades districtwide that would be for all buildings and that would be a pretty comprehensive upgrade and then we also have some other repairs and maintenance contingencies in the budget so I put in big words on the bottom if you look at it unexpended funds and Grant reimburses will impact these balances positively so it it looks like at the end of this year we won't have much in maintenance and capital reserve but remember um for example dearis helped me with my numbers if I'm wrong we we withdrew $2.9 million for a hva AC project that ended up costing around 1.5 million and we're supposed to receive 75% of that money of the 1.5 million back as well from the um from the grant is that is that accurate that is accurate we budgeted $2.9 million but we withdrew 1.5 for the actual cost of the project out of that 1.5 the district will receive back 75 % and this has to do with the New Jersey clean energy act grant that committed last year this project is estimated to be completed by the end of uh this school year so like for example even though we we drew 2.9 Million and we're only spending 1.5 million 1.4 million right off the bat goes back into the into the reserves plus when we get the the 75% of that 1.5 million that goes back in that is correct so I'm just trying to make sure you understand that we have more money in reserves we will have more money in reserves than it looks and that also includes after we purchased 46 Nicole drive so the preliminary budget with the tax levy we have an increase in state aid this year um just to give a little recap the school funding Reform Act was updated with S2 a few years back and this S2 is meant to provide districts like ours who were short changed in state aid since 2008 we were short changed um millions of dollars over that time between 2008 and 200 I think it was 2008 to 2018 and in those 10 years we were not receiving our full fund funding when S2 was passed the state was supposed to bring our full funding up all the way up to like I said full funding and that was supposed to take seven years this is the seventh year so this year we received 480,000 additional state aid and um this budget does include the use of that 480,000 to fill some holes because as I went through before a lot of our line items went up a great deal and um there would be have to be some pretty serious Cuts if we had to um cut that 480,000 to so we're grateful we got that and um Dem Maris did a great job working on getting um our waiver which was there was an issue with our benefits you wanted to speak about that a couple of years ago the state implemented what is called chapter 44 and that has to do with health benefits um savings a lot of District that uh has switched from private to State sometime they have savings sometimes uh Governor Murph Murphy also reduced the increase in health benefits a few years ago and due to that decrease some District did have savings and health benefits so every year we are required to enter the actual costs and how many staff are enrolled in health benefits based on that information the the department of Education determines if the district has savings or not if the district do have some savings they will uh reduce the tax levy to the taxpayer in other words if we are required to go 2% they might say no you had to go back to decreasing tax levy this year uh we were in JPY of losing $3 million of tax levy that would have impacted our financial um um it it have it would have been a real drastic impact to the financial of the school districts uh luckily we were able to appeal that and rework uh the numbers with the with the county and they uh waved that $3 million and in addition to that after reworking the numbers they decided to give us some health benefits waiver um increases as well as enrollment waiver for this coming year so what I ended up originally we were you we had some Bank up for the past few years which equated to approximately $495,000 out of that bank up after the health insurance waiver and enrollment waiver we were only use we only used 292 leaving about 200,000 for next school year Bank app so we did not utilize 100% of the bank app due to the health insurance waiver and enrollment waivers which uh the resolution will reflect those amount um as well just to clarify to make sure everybody understands we're next year we will go into the year with a $200,000 in Bank cat correct dearis would you speak about the next slide a little bit about um the lines on the the expenditures side sure on on this on this slide most of the expenditures are contract a lot of these are contract cost or other Professional Services that are mostly contract um Services Health employ uh employee benefits um Support Services salaries as well as the capital uh projects and capital and Reserve maintenance uh that we allocated to the budget the total budget for the 2425 school year is $41,988 th000 however that includes W withdrawn from reserves capital and maintenance Reserve in the amount of 1, 157,000 as well as $378,000 from Grant federal and state Grant so technically the the the the levy EX s is is about $35 million or so the levies on the previous slide of 35 m895 th000 and then the preliminary budget tax levy so the majority of our money comes from the local taxpayers approximately 10% comes from from other sources which include state and federal uh state and federal sources this year's budget has an impact on the average assessed home of $179 per year and one of the things that's a little confusing if you don't mind to marage you can explain the difference between how it works um where we have the fiscal year and the school year it's a little different the school year tax levy is works from July through June of each school year and it's calculated mathematically 2% of the last tax levy uh in other words if we had 35 million last year we just calculate 2% to come up with our fiscal year tax levy however the town calculate the tax impact based on a calendar year what is January through December and we are usually behind six months in tax payments because it's get roll over into the next year um so they will just take half our tax levy and pay it during the July through December and the next um tax impact um tax levy will be pay to the district on the next budget year so it cross between fiscal and calendar year it's a little more challenging sometime the impact are definitely different and it has to do with the crossover of the calendar versus fiscal as well as the valuation depending on the valuation of the property if it goes up or down that will have some impact as well too so the next slide is our budget facts so this budget includes funds for facility repairs and upgrades it Contin uh it continues to fund the Behavioral Services Program with St Claire's as a matter of fact that number is going up this budget still includes funds for lunches for economically disadvantaged students however we are investigating the USDA free lunch program and Demaris is working on that now the district continues to partnership with the township for security officers and other services there's a brand new fiveyear lease for the Riverview Annex for grades four and five from Riverview and really the major cost drivers this year are labor and benefit costs increase special ed tuition Professional Services and we um included in the special ed tuition and Professional Services is a increased funds for transportation and that's including uh un unbudgeted kind of emergency situations that we've had to deal with over the last couple years that is definitely changing I would say changing and it definitely having more of an impact on our budget than it used to and that's our Pres presentation for today and we'd be happy to take any questions anything we can uh go over with you again we'd be happy to thank you Dr Forte thank you Miss groski uh really appreciate the time and effort you put into this presentation um before I open it up to the board uh it looks like we're we're we're going to be voting on this budget uh as part of the addendum is that the uh intending goal to have we have to vote on the preliminary budget um by the 25th of March 20th 20th of March we have to subm but it has to be actually in their hands by the 20th of March so this is the uh only meeting we have and then the next me the meet the second meeting in April is when when the final budget so there is the ability to change between now and April we don't really want to but we could change in between them okay um the only reason why I'm asking that is because I do feel like this information is being presented to a lot of the board members for the first time so I don't know how much questions or if they've had time to really digest everything that was given to us and it's a lot of information so I really appreciate um all the work that you did I do feel that um I myself have a million questions that that um I feel like we could spend a lot of time on so but yeah let me let me open it up to the board uh to the board members um any questions for uh Dr Forte or Miss Kowski uh to Maris or and Steve too I guess um state aid we've seen a nice increase in state aid we've talked about this for a while where we were underfunded when it comes to um our our piece of state aid we've seen a nice increase year-over-year of you know this year is about 16 and a half percent but you know last couple years have been 20 plus percent in that bucket um now granted it's a small bucket right so the dollar figures aren't uh tremendously high but but still the increase that we saw this year was that due to the um state budget adding we know it's never been fully funded is it just adding more funding or are we I just want to make sure we're not getting into a place where we're an overfunded district and then we're going to be shocked five years down the road when they come back and say hold on we uh we want to reset something I I guess they're following S2 correct I mean and sorry I'm asking this on the spot I think uh if you don't have the answer we could certainly table it but um just wanted to make sure we're kind of just getting I think it's because they're funding more in that budget line item but let me know if what you think it's a combination of both it's a catchup after S2 but as well there's the formula of enrollment uh increases uh as well as the adequacy but it has to do with enrollment increase based on the numbers that we report on the Assa October 15th of every year so yes it is a uh an allocation of both scenarios thank you and actually today de marish I were talking about the fact that what if we do become an overfunded and they want to take some money back so that's one of those ones like who knows right I that's a tough one I know Morris nulls Morris Hills just lost like 1.1 million this year in their in their um in their uh what's it called state aid but they were we're we're an S2 positive District they were not we're an S2 positive so there are several S2 negative districts in in our in our immediate area like Randolph and uh roxburry there and Washington Township losing money and we're on the gaining end so whether or not they change that and take it back later on uh I don't think anybody would know that at this time I I really don't know it's going to be a political climate thing I would think yeah the only other comment I would make I I know um we talked quite a bit in the finance uh committee about kind of obviously we've got a lot of strains on the budget as Dr Forte just went through um and you know one of the things I had uh dearis put together and it was helpful to me and I I know it was in the committee minutes but if you didn't get a chance to take a look at it I would highly encourage to take a look at the Historical an analysis budget that looks at I think it goes back to about five years um how much you know the tax levy percentage increase has been um as well as some of the major kind of buckets um and how much that increase has been I think the the one that stuck with me as I look through there's some that have high percentages right now like out of District placements as Dr Forte mentioned um they've jumped up this year um some of those are a lot of that's kind of out of our control directly um but that was about almost a 30% increase but it's about you know under $300,000 I think the one line item that I saw that kind of hit me in such a big number for us obviously is our labor costs right I mean Dr Forte says all the time we're in the business of people here um so that line item has gone up almost every year double the 2% cap and it's our largest bucket and that's one I think we really need to continue to take a look at very closely some of that is obviously you know we want to have the best staff so we've done a great job with negotiations and getting them the appropriate uh salary increases but I also think that as we look at new positions we've got to be really careful because generally positions are added and we usually don't remove positions right we always need more which is understandable but um it's a it's a line item that certainly concerns me as as I'm looking at this and it's gone up you know $4 million and in a matter of five years that's that number continues to rise pretty quickly and it's certainly the area that I would highly encourage us to take a look at it's you know out of a out of a $40 million budget it's 25 million so um clearly that's the area I think that we've got to make sure we keep it on doing the right thing in that area and seeing do we you know being critical on do we need additional uh people or can we reutilize individuals we have or you know what's the value in uh in all that because and there is I know there's always value but I don't want to downplay it I just know that that's our biggest area in the budget for an opportunity thank you Mr Anderson anyone else yeah no actually U Mike touched on something that I wanted to touch on first of all I mean amazing job um I feel like every every year Demaris and the finance committee kind of pull a rabbit out of the Hat I know this year was a particularly challenging year so I'm really encouraged that actually by the budget and what we're able to keep in so thank you for that um yeah labor costs you know being on negotiations I have a u you know obviously a perspective on this um we've gone through a couple of negotiation Cycles we have really looked at trying to make our rates more competitive to attract especially new teachers uh you know good uh you know effective teachers and that's obviously cost us more money so I mean to Mike's point I think we have good people uh but I do think we have to be really careful about what we do from here in terms of adding position because it is it is obviously one of our biggest expenses um I think we're much more competitive than we were before um so I think we're in a good spot but it is a cost that we really really really have to focus on thank you Mr capella yeah i' I'd like to uh Echo what's been said so far that I really appreciate um what it took to um keep what we have in the budget but you know each year it seems like a bit of a nailbiter and it's uh it's starting to get concerning you know things feel a little more fragile than uh I would hope them to be and um there's just so many uh moving pieces with um the influx of uh student potentially coming in that we keep talking about and that's also means more Personnel um and you know how do how do we do that um it seems like I mean from from my opinion I don't think that uh we're any we're not a wasteful District you know we're we're you know the money is being spent properly but we're getting Tighter and Tighter so what do we do about it and that's that's a real concern because I want to hold on to um the great product that we have thank you Dr Martin yeah please just add one more thing I think um you know Cliff you you bring up some good points and I think I I think I say this every budget year that you know there's got to be and I think this year may have been the closest we felt to like a breaking point of you can't add you can't have a 2% cap for your tax levy when every single line out of goes up greater than 2% and I think that the reason why this year was so impactful or so difficult was partially because if you look at the general economy we're in nothing goes up 2% right I mean inflation is way higher than that right so every little even smaller line items where maybe like you know fuel or our cost for electricity and natural gas and utilities and everything have been fairly stable over the years the last like two years have just gone up through the roof so I think it it gets more and more difficult um I had a lot of conversations with Dr Forte about the budget and you know I was probably pushing him pretty hard on let's get this out we really got to get it to the to the board to make sure we can kind of take a look at it and and in that conversation he said to me you know in his time as superintendent not just here in Denville but this was one of the most difficult budgets he's had to go through and I Echo the comments that were made from many of the board members earlier that Dr Forte dearis Dr Cullis unbelievable work on what you guys have put together in this budget it's not easy to do it's not easy to find I mean everybody puts their requests in from Administration appropriately so and asking for more resources and more people um want to make sure that they get the best product of their students like Cliff said um but with that they've got to kind of pick and choose as to which they're going to fund and which ones we have to either hold off on or not fully fund so um there's a lot in here and um but it it's it just keeps I I agree with you it keeps getting harder Cliff I mean I think that at the end of the day I was asking Steve is there any talk at the state level of of pushing that 2% tax levy cap a little bit higher with inflation I don't I think it's a third rail I don't think anybody is going to touch it because it's just so impactful to our taxpayers which is understand understandable but it's hard I mean if if everybody had a local budget in your house that could only go up 2% every year I'm you know I mean everything I my expenditures are way higher than 2% higher this year than they ever were so um it does get more and more difficult I think because the the macroeconomic environment we're in now too Mr Cass did you want to add yes I'll put in historic comment when uh Mr perisian was around on the board and we used to go through the budget exercise he used to frequently say that we're going to run out of money sometime and uh I compliment the administration they did a great job on a very challenging uh budget but uh discretionary spending is very important and when you have all the you're locked into making payments on you know the salaries the health benefits um it becomes more difficult to find money from discretionary spending which is not frivolous it's very important the things we do with discretionary spending especially with maintaining our buildings and we haven't done a referendum you we've done probably about $1 million in repairs now in maintenance to our buildings without doing a referendum so that's important too but um more state aid more federal aid um I know where it's going to come from but um Mike makes a good point about going above the 2% so those are all things to keep in mind for the budget we do next time it's uh going to be very very difficult year after year after year thank you Mr Cass we basically have two new departments too we never had a security department and our mental health department has grown doubled so you know even though it happened a couple years ago it still stresses the budget every year because at one point we had to put it in the budget it's grown and it's new right so every time every year when it increases because those costs increase as well or you bring a building like Lake like Riverview Annex on and now you got to put another person in there you have we it is important to note what Don just said we did all this without any SE additional funds like we've never gone to the public and asked for different uh additional funds and adding like two full departments and a building without any additional funds is this is where you're seeing now like this is what's this is how it's coming out so I I brought to the finance committee a a possibility which is to go for a separate proposal put a couple things on it and um maybe go out to the public to to do that it that that might be something that if we want to keep if we want to keep operating the way we're operating that might be more of a need than a want unless we want to make serious cuts to things so that's a that is a possibility I shared with you a local District the way they did it and uh they use our same attorney to say we could work with the wording and uh is something that we could possibly do it would right now the law requires that you do it in November which is good because you don't have to pay for the election makes sense and you'll have a good turnout but the funds aren't available until halfway through the school year so it's it's a little awkward but you could do it that way so I throw it out to the board to as a consideration it might not be I I would I'll go out and say it's not a need today like we can make it but I think that there's going to be a point where we're going to be saying we have to do it at one point thank you Dr Forte um any of the board members who haven't spoken yet would you like to add anything as well I just want to note that we have a very invested community and so when we had our iic plan came up with great ideas and things that they really want for the schools but with every one of those came additional you know keeping the class sizes small and additional programming with mental health and um seal and so forth so all of those we do want to consider and keep those in the Forefront trying to meet those needs as well and almost every extra thing that we do like every assembly every um guest speaker summer programs are all Grant funded like those are all things that we're going out and finding money to pay for those extra things so we're May some districts may include that in ours we we have got out to try to find otherwise we would not be able to do um with like the support of Ed foundation and so forth we would not be able to do all these programs without without those groups thank you Dr Cullis all right if um I'll wrap up by saying a few things um since I'm a numbers person I'll start off with the numbers um you know when I was part of the finance committee under leadership of uh Mr Anderson and Mr Capello you know you know we had an opportunity to reduce the tax levy uh under the 2% cap and you know with the work of the administration we were able to so uh I appreciate the spreadsheet Mr Anderson this is a great spreadsheet so I'm going to be using it um so 2021 through 20 2020 to our tax levy increase was only a half percent 3/4 of a percent the following year now when the finances were uh or when the budget was uh in strain I guess is the word I'm going to use you know we had to go past the 2% and we took whatever Bank cap that we had and we went up to 6% so this year it looks like we're looking at a 3.43% which in my opinion is something that is manageable and it's amazing that we can continue working uh with just a 3.43% increase uh with a over 30 million uh or over $40 million budget the other thing that we were able to do and I think this leads to former leadership and and best practices that that were created over different um um administrations and different regimes actually under the guidance of Dr Forte as well and Miss Kowski we have healthy Reserves our Reserve funds continue to be at a healthy State you know uh we budget a lot but yet a lot is returned at the end of the year due to the hard work of the administration such as grants and stuff like that allows us to put back monies back in however after the result of that committee uh the um space considerations committee and after the Strategic plan one of the biggest challenges that I think we're going to have moving forward is is labor is the head count now I don't mean to create it as treat it as numbers right because as as Dr more you eloquently put we have a wonderful product the the school districts and the teachers and the uh Administration have developed this culture this community this education system that um other people want that drives that drives residents um into our into our district into our community and you know continues to um bolster the community and we continue to get more and more families in so one of the concerns that I have moving forward and maybe it's not from this budget but it's from future budgets uh this is a conversation that Mr Anderson and I had is is the hiring um I'm not against hiring new new individuals I mean we have turnover and of course we're going to need to replace but also we're going to need to expand our teacher base right because if we have more class classrooms if if we do have increased student enrollment then we will have to uh hire more and we have to find ways to hire within a 2% budget right so um your idea or your second proposal comment I think is a wonderful idea you know Mr Capell sent me an email uh over the weekend uh to uh that we might have an advocate in assembly woman boli I believe her name yeah assemblywoman boli so I sent a letter to assemblywoman boli and I also sent a letter to M assemblyman Bergen so that we can maybe take Transportation off of our operating budget so that we can find more rooms to handle the labor but the other thing I I I'm concerned about is the distribution we have staff helping with special ed we have staff helping with General Ed and then we have administrative staff What percentages are going up at what rate uh you know that's something that I'd like committees to think about for future budgets are we looking at a significant increase in special ed uh hiring or expenditures labor costs because you know we have more isps which led to another conversation with Mr Anderson can we have students graduate from isps like uh you know when they go off to high school they they are going to be uh faced with a difficult task of adjusting to the high school curriculum and everything else so do we do enough to get students prepared and get them out of the isps or you know um is there some sort of graduation from isps that we can then um potentially maybe have less staff or you know something like that I'm I'm throwing thoughts and ideas out there because these are great questions that come up with different conversations and you know when they graduate high school when they go to college you know they might not have High asps um you know so is there ways do we have we talked about are there school districts that are doing uh uh figuring out ways to get um students off of isps and stuff like that so um emotional health I believe is an important expenditure yes and we need to continue to fund that um but is that something that should be included in second proposal or second question as well so um all these questions all these things that we as a board board members can think about during our uh committee meetings and seeing if we can challenge the state regulations that are are tying our hands if they are uh you know um and and supporting the administration where where we can however we can so uh uh thank you for the presentation thank you for um hearing me and uh we'll if there are no other comments or questions we'll move on to the agenda all right uh it looks like uh we have the next budget hearing as as mentioned on April 9th as well as um presentations in May and June superintendent comments please okay committees in April so we the way spring break Falls this year um most likely we're gonna have to have we already agreed for the Imp committee most likely our next committee meetings are going to be after the first meeting of the month which is not what we normally like to do but because spring break falls on Good Friday which the 29th of March and our meeting is on April 8th we uh we're looking at doing our meeting the week the the um Thursday after the first meeting which is not the normal way that we like to do it but um we've already decided to do it with imp Finance you guys can talk about it and figure out if there's another way you want to do it we might be able to do a meeting on the day of the meeting like of the board meeting on the 8th if everybody wants to do that so it's another option so who's the chair of of are you Mike the chair you want to just think about it and see what you guys want to do okay um I shared a letter with the board that is going to go out this week to the public um it really focus on three things three important things one is just public discourse with our staff and reminding people that their demeanor needs to be in a professional manner it cannot be um they cannot be inappropriate with our staff in any way and they're just being reminded of that um also a very important message and sometimes this is um sometimes this is like inadvertent but all profanity and in appropriate language gets filtered it will not come to the person no matter what even if if even if you're trying to say like this kid said this to my kid if you write that in there it won't come back now if you put like an asteris in place of a key a key letter or two you can do that if that's the purpose but um they've been made aware of it before but I'm reminding everybody that if you send something to us to anybody in the district that has any inappropriate language not only will it not go through but you won't know it didn't go through so I posted a I posted a statement from my letter right on where people have to get people's contacts so when they get the contacts they'll see any you know language will be filtered out next year the we're also GNA have that added to the Genesis sign off that everybody has to read all the things one of them is going to be if you if there is any inappropriate language profanity anything like that that that you will not know that it didn't go through too um and then the last thing is we're having we're having a little bit of an issue I've spoken to the board in executive session about this with children recording people on their phones or their watches whatever and there even has been some incidents of it being done in the bathroom so I'm reminding everybody that that is not acceptable and that if there is any instances of somebody video anybody in the bathroom that we are going to report it to the police whether or not the police consider it something that they need to investigate that's up to them but it will be reported if they're if somebody's videoing people in the bathroom so policy 5516 it's a current board policy does not does not allow for any of this so students are not permitted to have anything that can um on them during the day in class unless they have permission to that can record record or transmit so a cell phone a watch anything like that they're not permitted to use those things during the day so this is reminding everybody that any devices like that need to be put away if it's if it's uh if it's seen that you're using it it will be taken away and told you to put it where it's you know put it in your backpack put it in your locker if it happens a second time it'll be confiscated and parents will have to come in to pick it up so it's just reminding everybody of those processes uh um the calendar for 2324 we used three snow days so far January well one was a flood Day January 10 January 16 and February 13 we have five built into the calendar the current last day is set for June 19th which is a Wednesday Valley View graduation is June 17th so most likely if we don't use any more vacation any more emergency closing days the last day of school will be Monday January 17th I will put this out I'm sorry June 17 I will put this out to the public but I typically wait until after March I think it's I think it's a you know too much wishful thinking so in April we'll put that out to the public so everybody knows what the plan is and that's the superintendent comments thank you Dr 14 Dr Cullis uh assistant superintendent comments please yes there's so many activities that are going on in the spring I really encourage families to look at the Friday folder and Dr Forte's newsletter because that's a great place to see all the things that are going on a few highlights the blues and Beyond 8th grade residency started March 4th and runs to the 27th if any of the board members would like to attend the final show it's at 1 o'clock in the Valley View gym on March 27th again a thank you to the Denville Ed Foundation because they continue to partner with us on this uh residency and it's it's been incredible for our students right now the fifth grade fifth graders are doing not only the math 24 tournament at Lake View they're also doing the science vocabulary challenge at both schools through March so there are a lot of different contests going on um we also have the academic bowl and the Geo uh geography B and the spelling be there's a lot of things going on the next two months uh the we have a guest author coming at be Riverview on March 22 it's Martha atima and this is one of those experiences that I mentioned that our staff went out in F found this author it's really a cool story one of our teachers was using this book and it's just an amazing book but we really didn't know much about it and it's not published anymore it's only published in one area in the Netherlands which is the story is based out of there but the author lives in Canada uh and our literacy coach found the author and developed a relationship with her and she sold us very economically the last copies that were in English and also agreed at no cost to come and talk with our students about the experience uh in World War II and um living the Netherlands it's kind of a it's a World War II Nazi story um from her family which is really incredible uh conferences this week Wednesday Thursday are conferences but we have an early dismissal Wednesday Thursday Friday so don't forget about that watch out for the middle schoolers there are a lot of walkers on those days uh kindergarten registration is open so please find the pre-registration form at denville.org we currently have 162 kindergarteners registered 74 at Lake View 56 at Riverview nine in the flex zone and 23 preschool that will be placed and this concludes assistant superintendence report thank you Dr Cullis could you repeat the kindergarten numbers one more time please 162 thank you okay and moving on uh to business administrator comments Mrs groski if you don't mind I just want to say thank you to all the boards for completing the ethic disclosure forms everybody has completed is 100% submitted thank you and also thank you to the finance committee for their input and all hard work and uh guiding us through this difficult preliminary budget great thank you very much and at this time we open up the uh board to uh public comments at 8 20 p.m. thank you so there is no one on the virtual meeting and there's no one in the chambers so we will close public comments at 8:20 p.m. okay moving on to Old B old Bas old business no action to be taken uh Mr Capell could you take us through old business please I'd be happy to uh at the next meeting I or someone else will be moving items uh a b and c under old business a are the reports from February 2024 treasur of school monies and board secretary B are the education reports report of student enrollment and the report of the health office for February 2024 and finally uh the minutes from our work session and executive session meeting of February 12 2024 and regular session and executive session meeting February 26th 2024 thank you very much okay and then uh we'll move on to the new business action to be taken Mr or Dr house if you want to take us through Personnel please sure uh if there's no objection I'd like to move for the following items um under a new business action to taken a um one is uh new hires resignations retirements leaves uh extra pay salary adjustments there are there's one item uh a uh on the main agenda and then there is B and C in the addendum um and also there is a um school bus driver um approval to to be hired and trained and uh item number three uh to uh the board to approve the substitutes three okay thank you Mr delis so second the motion uh questions or comments if anyone would like to get to know on the agenda Mrs Thompson Sadia Thompson you can watch on Wednesday she is a contestant on Survivor this season so it's pretty cool but she started it started last week so on Wednesday the kids will love it that's awesome um it looks like uh we have a new potential new hire for for school bus drivers then that that seems good thank you correct uh we will be training this individual and hopefully they will obtain their CDL and we can hire them just to share with the rest of the board um uh Miss Kowski and I had a meeting with Miss green Haagen Stacy greenhagen who um dug a little deeper into the CDL um requirements and apparently about six months ago or a year ago they loosened the restrictions on the CDLs uh as well as um um what it mean uh their responsibilities as a school bus driver so um my personal hopes is that uh we might be able to get more CDL Drivers or school bus drivers because of the changes that they made at the in Trenton so that is correct all right if there's no other comments um roll call please Dr de Mo yes Mrs Adelis yes Dr Aruna tasson yes Mr Cass yes Mr Anderson yes Mr Capello yes Mr Kim yes and under instruction and program Dr Moore can you take us through that please uh yes I like to uh approve the following resolution under uh instruction and program uh that the board approved for uh summer programs the extended school year esy and the Denville accelerated Learning Academy dolla second thank you Dr Moore thank you drasen any questions or comments roll call please Dr Moore yes Mrs sidellis yes Dr arunas yes Mr Cass yes Mr Anderson yes Mr Capello yes Mr Kim yes before we move on to finance I realized that we skipped an item on the agendum under Personnel so M Kowski can we revisit the the Personnel section got it oh forgive me forgive me okay I think um my mind is elsewhere so in that case and we'll move right into Finance Mr Anderson if you want to take us through that please sure if there are no objections under uh C Finance I'd like to move item number one uh Let It Be resolved that the board approved the agreement with kid Therapy LLC to provide occupational therapy feeding therapy consultation for a student not to exceed $ 5,320 for the 2023 2024 school year and number two let it be resolved that the board approved the following students changes and service for the program listed on the dates identified uh and this program is commissioned for the blind dates 2023 20204 school year cost of $2,642 and finally on the addendum item number three which is the uh tentative budget to be approved for 2024 2025 school year um and all the information uh as far as the numbers and information has been provided uh via the presentation earlier from Dr Forte I I'll second thank you Mr Anderson thank you Mr Capello questions or comments roll call please Dr Moore yes Mrs sellis yes Dr Aruna datass yes Mr Cass yes Mr Anderson yes Mr Capello yes Mr Kim yes okay on the onto the next item operations Mr Cass would you take us through that please oh actually no I don't see anything for us to vote on tonight under operations do you agree Mr Cass or oh I see later later okay so since we're not voting on anything for operations we'll move on to new business no action to be taken uh Dr rein tosson can you take us through the Personnel that we will be voting on next week uh next meeting y um the next meeting either myself or one of my colleagues here on the board uh will be moving for the following items there is uh again new resignations retirements leaves um extra pay salary and adjustments items number one uh a through e and then there is uh several leaves which is item number two three four five and then there is uh item number six is uh for approval of a 12- month uh staff holiday calendar for 2024 2025 school year any questions or comments okay uh moving on to instruction and program Dr Moore can you take us through that please uh sure uh at the uh next board meeting uh either myself or someone else will move to approve the following resolutions under uh instruction and program workshops and expenses number one we have uh item a which is a annual convention and uh number two is to approve uh marot's uh professional development at Mars Catholic High School yeah I just um I always like to point this out because I think it's important for the public to understand um those title two funds are passed through is that correct because the um Catholic School cannot accept that money directly so we act as a pass through to them thank you for clearing that up Mr curiosity what would happen if we voted no no so for the record nothing uh yeah for the record it might be a little difficult for the administration but um interestingly we do have to scrutinize their like their orders and you know it's always a little odd for me because it's not it's a high school and so I'm saying okay I think that's a good product for the high school you know and uh do my best my diligence but they always ask for appropriate things so it's been not too B Cliff it' be the same thing if we all voted no on the milk like Don we would just have no [Laughter] milk there you go thank you for that um all right under C policy revisions it looks like there would be no policy revisions that we will be voting on for the next meeting so we'll move on to D Finance Mr Anderson if you will sure at the next meeting myself or someone else uh will be moving um first item will be obviously our our check uh checklist second would be to approve the um publish of an advertisement for bid solicitation for the sale of a um a piece of equipment that one of our special uh Services students had to use no longer uh the district is no longer in need of and we um believe there are others that may need it so we're going to look to sell that we talked about that and finance uh accept a donation of $2,500 from the Denville Education Foundation to support the blues and Beyond program at Valley View Middle School Dr Cullis mentioned that earlier uh about the date that they have the final residency that runs pretty much through the month of March my daughter actually already came home from school and talked about it so um and then uh we're the board to approve Mathnasium of Denville to provide tutoring services for select students for the remainder of 2023 2024 school year at the cost of 20 uh $ 23,34 funded through the high impact tutoring Grant a monthly fee of $600 per student will be split between the participating families at $100 per month with the grant paying the remaining 500 per month Financial scholarships are available for qualifying families and then uh next resolution will be that the board approve the donation of new books valued at approximately $1,000 to the r review library from par from parent Alexander Morano who works for Simon and Schuster publishing company and then um to add on to that the board approved the ongoing donations of new books to the review Library by review parent Alexander Morano uh who works for Simon and Schuster publishing company thank you Mr Anderson questions uh actually I had a question about the Mathnasium tutoring Services is that a budgeted amount of 23,00 340 or is that uh an actual line item because we have that many enrolled in the math museum that's the amount that we dedicated from the high impact tutoring Grant towards that so that's 11 students that's 11 students because we pay 500 and they um and they pay 100 a month for the rest of the year and what happens if we exceed 11 students uh who have interest in uh using these services the it's um recommended so we select the students we offer it to them and I I I would put it at like one person at a time and then they would decide just so I could because I couldn't go over however the other part of this grant we have not those are the in school tutors that are there five days a week we have not started the third tutor has not come on board yet they've G still going through the hiring process so we may have some additional funds that I might re um allocate to Mathnasium but right now it has been a great relationship and our students are doing quite well there so yeah fantastic I've heard great things about that and I was wondering so it's By Invitation Only and um on the side you have other tutoring services that you're going to offer like sort of in school then we do we have three tutors between 20 each one has 20 to 25 hours a week um and they're before school after school and then during the day too where they're pushing into into classrooms and working with groups of students all have that have been recommended through the TSS teams thank you do we and all in math I'm sorry all in math all in math great thank you do we um last question do we often get high schoolers to help tutor or whether it's over the summer or during the school year uh my daughter actually tutors on uh Con Academy uh when she has time but uh um I'm wondering how often do we reach out to the high schools to have them tutor our um our students we have not um we we have only gone through programs that have a um a security proog protocols in place only because that means we would need to hire or have someone on staff to supervise it at our site we went through back and forth of this just like if we do virtual we don't want to give access virtually to other people and we also didn't want to give in person access to a student if we didn't have another adult there and that is why we have it however the high schoolers do come in the building and help out so we don't have any like out of school tutoring but they do come uh the classes so the gifted and talented class at the high school the teach like teach for or future teachers group comes and also Vocational School comes so regularly they come every week okay great thank you you answer my question thanks awesome I had a question too on that it's a great program you indicated the uh children are doing well um do do we have any like specific metrics and and also are they categorized you have kids that are struggling in the math they're probably below average and then you have kids that are doing average in math and then you have kids that are excelling so how is the breakdown in terms of the demographics uh in the tutoring program I do receive a weekly report so parents signed a um a release of information to me so that I can share it with their teachers so we they had an assessment at the beginning and I get a weekly report of what they worked on and where they are and how because they get little assessments as they go and how far they're moving on their on the standards um so I get that Weekly the only students that we recommended were students that were below proficiency so we used four different measurements to determine if they were below grade level those are the only students that this grant is covering there are other students there but I don't get their reports I only get the ones from this particular one and the grant is set up to be third and fourth grade primarily we could do some fifth grade so it's third three four and five and we were able to get a like two sixth graders in because the the state Grant is really targeted at that middle grade for that particular for this program all right thank you okay thank you so um moving on through the agenda e operations uh Mr Mr Cass you want to take us through that for our next meeting certainly as of now nothing under Number One Transportation under building grounds we have item 2.1 for the board to recommend on the recommendation of the school business administrator the Board of Education approves the membership and the following National purchasing Cooperative Keystone purchasing Network in Milton Pennsylvania and there's a little biography there about um key purchasing Network it's Cooperative P purchasing organization that coordinates many public sector contracts approved by lead agencies throughout the country the board is permitted to purchase from vendors and contractors who were awarded contracts by lead agencies of the Keystone purchasing Network the school business ad administrator would recommend all purchases awarded by the lead agencies in full compliance with the New Jersey local Finance notice 2012-10 item 2.2 that the board approved the attached lease with Lakeland Hills wam s to provide after care and before care September 1st 201 24 through June 30th 2026 rental fees per fiscal year are as follows 2024 2025 $32,000 annually and for 2025 2026 $34,000 annually item 2.3 is for the board to approve the attached proposals from EI Associates for professional Engineering Services for professional Design Services the Middle School site development feasibility study and the amount to $18,000 and item 2.4 is that the board approved the attached proposals from Lake Lakeland surveying Incorporated for survey services and topography in reference to the Nicole Drive property in the amounts of 13,500 uh we discussed this in detail at the committee meeting so we probably should have some discussion on that we uh with the tight budget we're experiencing um I guess the consensus at the meeting was we could do it or not do it there wasn't anybody really pushing for or not to do it so we want to benefit of everybody else's input on that under technology uh asking the board to authorize the business administrator to dispose of the attached list of obsolete non-functional District equipment let just go back to uh 2.3 and 2.4 so they work together I know it says middle school that's just the way that they that they identify or they labeled the uh their proposal but it's it's a feasibility study of the ire property at um uh that we own on on Nicole drive so it's including the new piece of Nicole drive and the other 27 Acres the first part of the project would be to have Lakeland surveying complete a more comprehensive survey the survey they have now is basically just the kind you get when you buy a house and it puts out the different uh Corners this would be topography and it will identify different land forms and wetlands and things like that on the property then our AR would St the study includes them seeing does would a middle school fit would an elementary school fit would the bus garage fit you know in a combination of one of the two schools and a bus garage so it's it's a feasibility study to see whether or not that that property is actually what it would actually be feasible for for example if you know we know we've been having problems with flooding by the bus garage but we most likely would want to move the bus garage up there if that meant there's no longer enough room to put a school at some day so this this would be the first thing in the committee I noted that it's not something we need to do immediately we could pull this off and I'm okay with it but I think we just need to remember that this is probably something to start in the next couple years to see whether or not this is something that that we I think it would be good to know what we could actually do with the property and um right as of right now considering our presentation from the space committee the uh instructional space committee we're not at the point now where we need to do anything at that space this is really just a preliminary thing but remember if we get to the point where we actually need to do something we're probably about five years from the point of uh planning to actually having somebody move in there so so just just keep it in mind I'm okay with doing it now the mar is okay with doing it now I'm also okay with delaying it it depends on you know the feelings of the board uh yes please I agree uh I think there's no real reason to wait to do this study um the Topography is not going to change you know barring any you know land Falls or whatever um so I think it's in our best interest to do it now so that we can answer the questions in the other committees so the finance committee can approve it moving forward and then the space consideration committee and the transportation committee will have all the information that they need to move forward yeah I agree with that it's not like the budget issues are going to change next year around right it's it's it's going to be continue to be challenging so I think we we'd rather do this this is an important one we should get it done and then use that data so the only the only flip side of that coin is we've gone way further down the road about 10 years ago where we actually had architectural plans and now architect is saying those are irrelevant so if we do it now and then we don't need to build for 10 years we may need to do it again that's the only downside now that being said as Dr Forte is explaining it today and I actually had a conversation with Mr Kim about it earlier today just kind of how my feelings were like well if we don't need if we don't know we have a need for to build anything right now why do it now is part of my feeling the flip side of that coin I guess as and it literally changed my mind a little bit as Dr Forte was talking tonight we actually have no idea if that space is usable at all so if it's not usable at all we may have to have a serious another discussion because we have no idea what properties in town are buildable at all period right and I know that years ago they went through and look at Mr Cass because he probably was the only one that was on the board at the time over a full look at every property in town that was available because they were much further long I believe they determined at that point that that property was buildable whether it was ideal or not I would want to know Dr Forte like what level of detail are we getting out of this my fear is we would spend $188,000 and then it wouldn't give us the level of detail that we would want and then we would be in for another you know $188,000 for another study of like oh I didn't realize you wanted to know how many how big of a school you can put there or something along those lines so I would just want to understand like are we going to get out of it how big of a school could we build there could we put a bus garage and a you know a lot of different questions on what are the potential options there um but I guess I'm I I said at the committee meeting and I guess I still kind of feel this way I guess I can go either way on this but we are in a really really tight budget time period so I in general I feel like let's take a deep breath and at least get through budget season and revisit this a few months maybe but if there's another feeling on it that we need to get it done then I'm generally okay with it but I'd want to see more details on what the study would give us I I have a an idea why don't we why don't we pull it from March why don't we put it on May and in the April in the April uh operations finance committee I'll start a Google doc so that we because I don't want to like ask five questions and then there's five more you know like let's let's decide what all the the questions are I'll send them to our architect have them answer them and then we could have something to work from does that make sense absolutely because you you back in the day if I recall and you should have the uh the architect sketches drawings of that that site somewh I know I turn some of them in but um we got more achorage now than we we had before which is a good thing but but my recollection is we had uh slope issues that uh restricted some areas we could build on and you have that well that's been capped there's a lot of wetlands up there in that area of town uh like my daughter's property has two one you know Wells with slabs on on them so it uh you could have some Wetland issues up there too you know I've been up there so good the one thing is that you know we're dealing with space so um if the they do the right type of study you would know what you can do there and like repeat what Mike said Middle School you know a school only whatever Elementary or middle whatever it is uh or or the bus garage or you you could do both I mean there's a there's a lot of uh acres here now 27 Acres but be prepared for some uh some push back from the community up there um they weren't happy about a school going up there 10 or 12 years ago and or and if you're a conservationist like I am I mean I'm watching all this acreage all these fars just being destroyed in Devil for the cluster housing and everything so I know it's a necessity um that we have adequate space for the students and and get the bus garage out of there but um you're going to get some push back from from people when they see that area being cut down Mr capillo yeah the only thing I I would add is um I I was also thinking about it we could do this on a rolling basis um you know with budget concerns um the Topography is not going to change and you can get an absolutely clear picture of what the wetlands look like and what the Topography is this year and we could do the uh the second phase next year or even a little Beyond but I think that would also give us some clarity in terms of what are we thinking we might need um so in terms of budget split it apart also from uh just spacing it out and giving us some time to think about it um I'd be open to that too as a possibility I was just thinking that too like maybe we should leave the the topography study on for approval in March get started that's going to take a while and then um probably we'd like to approve the other one too though this year just because we know we have the money in this year's budget and next year's budget if it gets too tight and we have to come up at 18,000 and that that 18,000 will probably be more by next year too that was just my thoughts so why don't if everybody's okay with it what we'll do is we'll pull the second part the EI study from the next agenda we'll we'll leave the Lakeland survey on the agenda we'll once we approve it we'll tell the Lakeland survey to get started on a topography that then I'll in the in the April Finance Ops committee I'll start a Google doc with the group share it out so everybody has a chance to put in some questions I'll get those questions answered and then we'll put it back on the agenda later in this school year hopefully I'd like to use this year's money and then have that project approved maybe later in May or June for a project over the summer yeah it sounds like that's a good proposal so um one last question we can't use Reserve funds for this no okay all right okay so Dr Forte I think your suggestion is a good one so um and move moving on to the rest of the agenda for the good of the cause committee reports correspondence discussion items uh just a quick uh announcement from a liaison perspective on the liaison for the Denville Education Foundation um they are having a uh fundraiser on May 11th at Rockbridge Country Club it's a Spring Fling uh band night with a couple of local Denville bands that are going to be there so um their website Denville edu.org I believe it is um provides a link to purchase tickets if you're interested or if you know others um so uh that was the only thing I wanted to report from the foundation May 11th yes M I just wanted to say thank you to the parents and teachers and students for uh read Across America last week um or two weeks ago already was it two weeks ago already was last week right Friday the 1 that was oh my goodness that was yeah um there was a line to get in it was you know nowhere to park so I'm glad that the community could come out and um you know visit their children at school and read so thank you everyone thank you thank you especially to the teachers one more thing real quick um Mr Kim uh earlier uh gave a moment of silence for a Community member and a former staff member of ours who unfortunately passed away this past weekend I just wanted to remind everybody the impact that our staff have on our students two of my kids um had Mrs greno as a teacher and um I could personally tell you my kids were telling me stories from second grade class on the impact that she had on them so um obviously our my condolences to the greno family um but also you know thank her and the family for the impact that she's had on the community commun and our students and just another note with that um even Beyond she was my daughter's first kindergarten teacher in another town so it was her very first job and my daughter wanted to be just like her because she got married then and was had a beautiful wedding dress and she said she was a beautiful princess and she want to be just like her so just a very special person thank you okay there's a few uh things I just wanted to touch upon um my daughter came home the other day coming from the blues and Beyond concert and she couldn't stop talking about it uh so I really encourage any board members who haven't had the chance to sit in and on the um sort of that presentation that they have uh if they have time please check it out because it's a great experience uh I personally felt it was a great way uh for uh for them to connect with with the students and to teach them something about history as well so music history Jazz history Etc um Steve the one request I have is the governance committee now that the finance committee is done with the budget and stuff like that if we can look to maybe get the first meeting for May uh for the ad hog bance uh uh adhoc governance committee that would be uh something that I'd be interested in uh doing and uh finally the unsung heroes award ceremony the it's it's the nomination ceremony is what I should call it is on March 20th as a reminder there there will be a Denville student being nominated as well uh so his name is Mark ton Jean Louie so from H Valley View he will be um honored uh as a nominee for the uh awards that they would be giving out later this year so this is sort of a nomination ceremony and once again that date is March 20th uh between 5:30 and 8:30 pm. on Wednesday March 20th at College county of Morris any other uh comments or additions in that case we'll open up to public comments at 8:52 p.m. no one's online as well so and no in the chambers so we'll close it at 8:52 p.m. uh Dr Fort do we have a need for executive session yes but I just me go over my my board notes oh yes please I two things I have a foundation of Denville fundraiser when I give the link to the web page and that the board approved the preliminary 2425 budget and the final budget hearing will take place on April 29 what do you yes should we add something about the moment of silence I was wondering yeah all right I'll do that too okay Miss Adelis can you take us into executive session please sure uh I move to convene an executive session in accordance with Section Eight of the open public meetings act the purpose of this closed session will be to discuss negotiations legal security and Personnel issues minutes of this session will be made available to the public when the need for confidentiality no longer exists I'll second all in favor I any Nays extensions so we will be going into executive session at 8:54 p.m. for purposes of this uh for the public online we will no longer be voting when we come out of executive session so we will be adjourning immediately after thank you for joining us tonight