e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e I call this meeting of the East retherford Board of Education to order at 6:06 PM the New Jersey open public meetings law was enacted to ensure the right of the public to have advanced notice of and to attend the meetings of of public bodies at which any business affecting their interests is discussed or acted upon in accordance with the provisions of the act the east Rutherford board of education has caused notice of this meeting by having the date time and place thereof provided to the record and South bergenite newspapers to have published and posted in the vestibule of the burrow Hall and Public Library copies of agendas are available 48 hours prior to said meetings in the board of education office and are posted on the east Rutherford school website www. erboe.net um at this time please stand for the flag salute and remain standing for a moment of silence in honor of the members of our Police Department fire department First Responders and our Armed Forces I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all roll call Mr Banker here miss Caruso here miss colie here miss Mena here Mr segalini here miss shmy here and miss laruso here uh fire exits are located out to your left and to the front of the room um at this time I will have our students present good evening we are back back with our njhs Representatives they are here to deliver the monthly school reports we have kavish ganger who will read for f School Hannah alac will read for Lincoln and tenzen seang will read for McKenzie this is the monthly report for f f school students attended the Internet safety presentation on March 27th F school students enjoy cat reward Day on April 12 to celebrate their accomplishments for markting period 3 students earn time to enjoy socializing with their friends play team building games and enjoy a piz pizza party F school students and staff participated in the spring pep rally on Wednesday April 24th the te the theme of the event was Hawaiian luau students and staff participated in various team building activities great school spirit wild casts special thanks to miss Muse Mr Cito and F school student council officers and representatives Mr tanell and the an njhs brought school spirit to the hallways with various spirit days this month spirit days included Disney day baseball Spirit day pajama day and light up blue day for autism all F School faculty and staff attended the annual njsla training session on Tuesday April 23rd congratulations to miss masher and F School Arts students for the outstanding achievement in being part of the local youth our month month exhibit shout out to our fou school science teachers for bringing various activities into their classrooms to teach our students about the solar eclipse and Earth Day this is the monthly report for Lincoln fifth graders are starting to wrap up their lead program with the erpd sergeants Alberta and Feldon Felton are planning a fun closeout ceremony to celebrate the success of the program for May 10th 2024 Pi Day Challenge was a great success this year's Grand Champion successfully recited 228 digits of pi thanks to all of the staff members who are willing to take a pie to celebrate the Day the month of April began with the staff with staff lighting it up blue for Autism Awareness a spirit week followed during the the week of four of April 8th starting with our total eclipse of the heart day and continuing with other fun themes to celebrate the lead up to spring break fifth grade ELA classes has the pleasure of meeting with Mrs Becker a teacher of the blind with the NJ doe to explore the work that goes behind creating content in Braille and supporting individuals with disabilities our Greenhouse is up and running as a part of our fifth grade science and steam programming programming check Twitter or X for updates on what's growing future happenings spring art showcase May 30th on the radio building wide field trip patter Patterson Museum and Great Falls negro league museum jackal's game June 5th field day June 6 this is the monthly report from McKenzie MacKenzie School continued to celebrate readings by welcoming our school Community during the month of March McKenzie school was proud to welcome over 170 guests readers during the month of March that included that include and are not limited to superintendent of schools Boe members business administration mayor and Council District administration chief of police firefighters former staff members and parents McKenzie school also collaborated with beckon High School F and Lincoln's National Junior Honor Society to come into McKenzie School classrooms to conduct read alouds and literacy activities please see Twitter or X for all images of these wonderful visits and activities April 2nd we blue shine a light for Autism Awareness during the month of April students read facts and quotes for Autism Awareness across the month during morning announcements on Thursday April 4th each grade level was part of an Autism Awareness assembly and created an individual puzzle piece that res represented them themselves and their differences and then put all the pieces together as a grade level McKenzie school second grade students and staff won the PTA coin District challenge fundraiser by collecting 982 98 and being rewarded with the grade level Pizza Party by the PTA on Friday April 12th McKenzie faculty had Prof professional development and training on the njsla during the during a faculty meeting future happenings McKenzie school will be facilitating our annual field day for our students on Wednesday May May 22nd rain date May 23rd McKenzie school is excited to announce our first and third grade concerts held at Mackenzie school on Monday June 6th in the evening and that ends our monthly report we enjoy coming each month and delivering the the great happenings in our schools and we look forward to seeing you next month right all right thank you and we enjoy having you and we I get all my information from you guys I wouldn't know what was happening um all right thank you at this time I would like to introduce uh Mrs barali who will then introduce um Mrs macheri and the local youth um art month exhibit thank you thank you for having us here tonight miss Basher our talented art students thank you Mr tanell and our njhs students for coming here every month and putting your time and doing all the community work that we're very proud of we have two presentations here there was in March a youth art show in Maywood it was beckon East Rutherford and Maywood and students were recognized for their artwork which Miss misher will show and our students will display and in June we have the New Jersey aspo uh presentation of our artwork in AC so we've been really busy and I'm very proud of all my students and they love going to Art every day and I want to thank the board for giving us the Arts the theater I mean everything that the dance the music it really does brighten up our students day and and ours as well they really enjoy it so without further Ado I will hand this over to miss Maser hello all right I have Sonam my lovely assistant gonna come up here and help me Miss maeri just so the people at home can see if they could stand this way and have the projects face the back so that we can Vis the PE our guests at home can see the wonderful work that are students are doing all right thank you all right first I'm going to show the artwork that will be on display at the njs a asbo conference uh first is melen graas you can just move to the middle here and then show your project facing away from us there you go so that it picks it up on the video all right just stay there for a moment next is Daniel Mayhew his was actually on display for the Youth art month and is also going to be on the other show okay next we have da L hers was up for the Youth art month exhibit yeah you could put the certificate behind and then finally we have Maria Pacho thank you Wildcats if you can just turn around and show the board now so our board can appreciate the wonderful artwork that you do all the time beautiful absolutely beautiful thank you very much all right you guys can actually take your artwork home with you yes of course all right thank you very talented besty e all right moving right along um School business administrators report Mr verra thank you madam president uh this evening myself and superintendent Jan Casper we're going to present the 2024 2025 school budget so you got to project that Madame President with your permission of course if um we can open up to the public afterwards any any questions that they may have on the budget uh to answer any questions that they may have sounds good and the presentation for everyone is at sp1 if you scroll to the bottom it'll open up as a PDF oops okay okay good evening board members and good evening public those of you that are at home we're proud to present the 2425 school budget as you see before before you so as we start through the process of building the budget um a school budget usually starts back in November as we start preparing for our budget there's a lot of work that goes behind that process where the business administrator and I will sit we'll discuss the vision of the district uh where it's going to be going uh and what with we talk about Staffing we talk about programs we talk about curriculum um and from there uh the business administrator meets with the assistant superintendent build buildings and grounds building principal supervisor of Technology just to see what their programs are going to need to sustain it throughout the the next year which is a 2425 school year um at that point the finance committee chair um at that point would meet with the superintendent of schools of course and the business administrator where we go over the proposed budget um which is then presented to the board at a work session uh to um look through each of the items and I will tell you I'm very thankful to of this board um that has asked us and challenges us with you know from dayto day on things that we need to do to make sure that uh we as a school district provide a fiscally sound budget um for our students and our taxpayers uh of East Rutherford so at that point at the March 18th Board of Education meeting it was our proposed preliminary budget uh was approved by the Board of Education and then was executed and sent over to the executive county superintendent of schools for his approval uh and we received a full approval on that green lights moving forward and we got that approval in writing on April 9th um and then the final budget by law we have to have the budget hearing prior to April 30th uh when we submitt it to the county office by law we have to submit it prior to the March 20th deadline um that's why the board was very good at uh moving our last month board meeting a little bit earlier so it gave a little bit more time to the board members to look it over um you know ask questions that they needed and I will assure they the town and um anyone listening to this is that the board did the due diligence and really looking at um every line of our budget and ask for answers um by Administration so I want to leave it at that which was uh very telling of our board okay U Mr vachi if you could talk a little bit about the highlights sure thank you Mr Jen CASRO so some of the highlights the district tax levy will increase for the general fund we are going to .9% over the 2% cap which amounts to $867,000 the district tax levy increase for Debt Service fund is increasing by 4.58% which is a total of 42,000 $693 the district did take advantage of the enrollment adjustments which is the reason why we went over the 2% cap and that amounted to $513,500 received good news with our state aid our state aid did increase by almost 18% a total of 175,50 4 our debt service Aid did increase by 2.56% which totals $ 7,245 also some highlights in this budget is we did withdraw from our maintenance reserve for future maintenance projects in the amount of $165,300 we also went ahead and withdrew for the 2425 budget 1,532 and those Pro those are to fund the two Rod Grant projects the roof replacement at McKenzie as well as here at the annex and the other uh Capital project was the exterior door replacement at fa which totaled the $1,532 there was a use of surplus that we are uh obligated we have to use this we have to put it in our budget it was $616,500 monies because if we remember we wanted to try to keep the referendum as low as possible for our taxpayers so that we were able to try to utilize our own Reserves so that we don't have to go out in the future for another Bond referendum it's really important that we capitalized on our investment and we continue to make sure that our school district's facilities are state-of-the-art clean and and and and um Cutting Edge again so that we don't fall behind um at the bottom part of the highlights uh what we're going to continue to do is instructional coaches in the area of mathematics language arts and science as well as social studies and World Language uh and this is all utilized with Grant and local funds funds um this is one of the things that came from our teaching staff um we're constantly collaborating with them as an administrative team about what they need uh in their classrooms to help us meet the needs of our students as well as hit all of our standards that we are governed by uh the district is going to continue again to increase student capacity and rigor of our curriculum but we're also looking at special education which is one of the things that we said way back uh when we were going out for a bond referendum was to try to keep our students in District as we possibly could you know based upon their individual needs our students have individual needs and accommodations that we have to make sure uh that we address so with every possible strength that we have we try to keep our students in the district amongst their peers uh and that's why we need that budget there to sustain these students and not only you know I just don't always want to paint the picture that it's special education students it's both General Ed and special education students and we have to meet their needs whether they are a special education student or a gifted and talented student so all together we always have to make sure that we're aligning everything to our individual students okay so what we do is from year to year we develop our goals now in the current school year 23 24 whenever we do District goals District goals need to be sustainable and they need to be current as we go through and sometimes you'll start to see the same theme throughout like if you look at goal one is is always the supporting the positive culture of our school and accountability of our students and our staff that's always something that you will always see here in East Rutherford uh making sure that everyone's held accountable to our students to our taxpayers and to this board of education uh number two we'll always see in any good District you'll always see curriculum instruction and assessment because that's what drives everything right drives our test scores drives our funding that we get it's really really important that we continue to keep that as one of the beacons of success here in East Rutherford uh District goal number three is diversity and Equity as we you know embark on more in diverse cultures that we have that we educate here in East Rutherford it is important that we stay current um in diversity and Equity as uh things constantly keep changing at the state and trickle down to the individual districts and of course last but not least more now than ever since postco is our mental health Wellness not only for our students our staff and even our parents uh we've seen covid the out of Co right now just really hitting um all walks of life and it's uh it's a shame but you know we have to rise to the occasion and address the needs of our students especially in the area of mental wealth mental health Wellness now the next couple of slides I'm don't want to read them Orba them but when we prepare a school budget we're held accountable for every component of our school budget has to be aligned to a an account number that's aligned to programs and curriculum and instruction otherwise it doesn't get approved by the account so we have to be very they're very meticulous on it and we have to prove the point on how we're utilizing money so not only does the board do that here for the administration but the county also holds us at a high standard on how we spend money we just can't be spend thrifts and spend money however we feel that we want to spend it right so two documents that the administrative team has to uh create and submit with Mr verac's uh final work that he did on his school budget on our school budget is one is the statement of priorities which we're going to go through in a couple of slides and I'll try to go through as quickly as I can not to bore everybody um so that's the first part and then the second part is how does our budget align to the New Jersey student learning standards which we said before drives everything right our Student Success is what we look at so we'll go through the first couple of slides so statement of priorities of the first couple of slides I believe it's the first five slides and then we'll go into the curriculum so and this is where our budget is aligned and later on Mr verace will show you where those are in the budget and how that's broken down um so we try to do it as simply as we possibly could so that if you're not in the field of Education you still understand the process of how a budget is created okay so first thing is to maintain our school community so our school system so the first thing we look at is we really look to align all of our standards and our curriculum as well as assessments okay again like we said that's what we're held accountable for and making sure that we have adequate staff um one of the questions that had come up was when we were building the new 4 five building was oh my goodness now we're building a 4 five building we need more teachers we have to spend more money so what we would did this board and education the administrators really looked at how we can take teachers from one building right and move them into the four or five building and from foul School how we can move them over so we were very you know careful on how not to expand the budget as much as we could not not that we could so that we can keep the tax dollars as low as we possibly could um so another thing we looked at is we were're looking at implementing a uh phonic program in the district and that's starting from uh kindergarten uh to two grade to prior to kindergarten we have created a curriculum which really sets the tone for our young readers if you want to call them young readers right especially because you'd be surprised we do have children that are in kindergarten that can read words in preschool it's before they even get into preschool which is really nice and kudos to those parents that assist us with that um we do have our funding for our summer program our extended school year program our tiered support system that we have for those students that may be struggling that are not classified students but we try to work with those students that are in the mainstream that were able to assist them to move on their way um so that we do not have to look at special services as as a um intervention professional development uh nine years almost 10 years ago when I came to the district one of the things that our teachers were looking for was for professional development in the content areas as well as new curriculum and instruction uh revisions um one of the things here which we needed to do was to make sure that professional development was ongoing and consistent because you don't learn if you hear it one day and then you don't see it another year and then you forget about it you come back and it's not consistent and the teachers can't really implement it if they don't have the support of the administration and the board um the other NE next sections were stem program which is our science technology engineering and Mathematics we do have steam as well which includes art the Arts in there our gifted and talented program which is Rec that is mandated kindergarten through 12th grade so we do have that from kindergarten to 8th uh and we do do enrichment programs little enrichment pieces within our Elementary uh preschool we we do that as much as we could there to implement that as well as expanding our technology and our infrastructure to support all of the technology IES uh that we have here as well as our social emotional um initiative okay statement of priorities we also when we look at this we are governed by academic advancement and what we look at is we look at the demographics and it's set up by ESL students it's so um special education students or students with disabilities we look at economically disadvantaged any homeless students as well as gifted and talented and by utilizing our coaches and our teacher leaders it's it has we've come Leaps and Bounds where we're empowering our teachers to make these CR critical decisions in the classroom and share it up to the administrator so it's not just top down all the time like it used to be years ago now it's bottom up right and that's a good thing because our teachers are on the front line right so they know what's happening the intricacies of what's going on with student learning and and and that's what we look at and then we just Thrive with that we go in and it becomes we look at that in our Skip and our DC Comm and we branch that out to the rest of the school district which I just said Skip and DC we look at our diversity and Equity initiative in the district we also align with um universities Felician University which I sit there on on the board over there not board of education but their their board uh of students that are becoming teachers we do use alician University Monclair William Patterson and Ruckers for our student teachers that come in but also they turn key a lot of the trainings for our teachers they'll come in and sometimes with grant money we could utilize that title money we can use um to bring the professional development opportunities to our staff which is a lot cheaper so there's a little bit of you buy in there when we work with current universities that you know we're all have the same vision of Student Success and then I can't how could I not mention PTA has been phenomenal our educ our Education Foundation has been working with helping us to fund different events that we have here in school beckon Regional High School kudos to Dr sza cross the public schools this Ally Evans and Michael Jordan who's over at the May School Maywood school public schools a mayor council at police and fire department in rescue protecting our investment which we just said we constantly have to make sure one of the things that the board has charged me with since my time I've been here is making sure that we can maintain the security and wellness of our students right our infrastructure number two with technology and exterior which we now did with a past referendum um as well as our district maintenance plan uh one of the concerns that the Board of Education had was well if we're spending all this money on our infrastructure well we better then maintain it not Let It Go by the wayside that we have to then go back out for a referendum let's just make sure that there's maintenance plans in there um so with the board's decision to bring on a supervisor of in of um buildings and grounds Leaps and Bounds the district has taken where now we have heels on the ground knowing what's boots on the ground knowing what's going on and then they inform us right away um the administration so that we can make those sound decisions and then bring that to the Board of Education who then will um sign seal and deliver right um we said investment we did that let's move on to mathematics so now we're jumping from priorities that was the priorities of our budget and now we're honing in on curriculum curriculum and instruction so when we look at mathematics now there is a lot if you actually looked at our um student learning standards that we have it's the document is like four pages it's along so I try to bring condense it to one slide for each subject so again we're looking at newly revised standards K8 which was mandated by September 2024 implementation date we are so far ahead um like we said earlier we went through qac we did a really good job it's not official yet we have to wait for That official letter but I am 100% confident that we did a really good job on in qac District scores which I'm going to talk about when I get to my portion of the of the presentation tonight the district we see the score nine out of 10 in mathematics alone for the 2223 school year so that doesn't say okay we're good so we could sit on our hands and relax we still have a lot of work to do because we want to increase right so if you're at the top of your class you want to be the top of the top right so we're not going to keep fight stop the fight we're going to keep moving forward our teachers are driven our administrators are driven the board has been so supportive um so that we can continue to show academic growth in mathematics based upon um the 23 24 data that we have now we're going to still focus on deficit standards so when we get our test results we look at the individual questions that are linked to standards and then from those we hone in on those deficient standards and create lessons and units that will constantly keep hitting those areas and we say deficient our students aren't deficient right they just didn't master that standard so we want to make sure that they are now know that standard they test out with that standard and then we're ready to move on so when we look at test scores we look at students that have not made it there yet to the standard so we look at those students those are very important then we have cusp students those are the students that are just made the effectiveness right they're they're proficient but those are the ones we really looking at because they could drop right so we don't want them to drop we want to sustain that and keep bringing up the students that are struggling and then maintain the ones that are Advanced proficient so we got to make sure we maintain that and keep increasing that yeah right open that open that number up um also uh that's that's mathematics in the area of language arts literacy same exact thing looking at K8 standards which the Mandate was for September 2024 and look at bullet three 10 out of 10 when we met with the county you don't see that I am proud to say East Rutherford shining 10 out of 10 for academic growth not the individual scores academic growth okay so that's huge um so the indicator when you look at the actual reports it comes up purple so when you see purple administrators love the color purple right because that means that there is a lot of growth okay within a a grade level okay so again we're looking at the standards we're looking at the ficient standards identifying those individual students and we'll know my next part of my presentation during my time we know where those students are and it might only be be three to four students which is 2 to 3% of an increase or decrease but we know those students we know who they are we know what their programs need to be and we know how to support them with the programs that we have phonic first like I said K2 and then all staff getting professional development especially in phonic first program okay one of the thing that the district did which was great prior to coming to the district one of the things that I had looked at was teachers that are not in general a special education programs teaching special education students we were looking at those those teachers are usually certified in Orton or Wilson and wow wouldn't it be a great idea if we can train our jet teachers right so that could help all students in in that area right so and we have that preschool kindergarten first grade second grade so we have those teachers now that are understand U Orton Gillingham understand Wilson and that assists them so much with the teaching of our students science area so again we're looking at njsla science data which is separate from English language arts and we're looking at elementary middle school and the intermediate when we say intermediate that's Mr vard's building the four five Building at Lincoln School we are trying to roll out open science Ed science curriculum new curriculum we're looking at that um that's coming from the county so we're looking at that and we're trying to implement that uh teachers will attend a two-day uh training Workshop from Ruckers University so Ruckers university is known for their literacy I mean they're fantastic and they're great partners with us we have great relationship with them uh so that's that area social studies again the district will continue to implement State mandates in the areas of grade six through eight contributions of lgbtq plus individuals persons with disabilities inclusion of African-American contributions across all grade levels and I want to hone in on contributions from that's the key contrib contributions of those individuals um specific historical units in in in Middle School we're looking at seventh and eighth grade uh curriculum for unit of slavery uh sixth grade would be the Diary of an Frank to discuss the Holocaust Native Americans and the genocides and Civics in grade seven and then of course grade eight we look at honors Ela uh and we look at students uh the study of Holocaust in social studies career readiness now this is lengthy but this is just to give the public an idea of just how important our school budget is so that again when we formulate a budget we have to take all of this into consideration as we present this to the county office so career Readiness life literacy and key skills so this area here is media arts which I have to tell you is a breath of fresh a to be here in East Rutherford because we really cherish the Arts and you know in Bergen County we are not just teaching the College Bound student it is also the non-oled bound student that may find themselves in a trade someday or a trade school so we really have to develop all of our students and and that's what's so wonderful here and the board you know Embraces that and you don't really see that a lot and and it's and kudos to the board um for allowing this to happen as you heard Mrs barale say that today with the student presentation continuation of innovation time and this is where the M you know middle school students are really engaging in enrichment programs gifted talented really looking at real world applications and applying the the the standards based learning that we have that's going on as well as looking at you know critical thinking skills right and how to use those problem solving that's what we're always trying to instill in them kindergarten through fourth grade dance and theater music and art and our Middle School same thing art media arts and dance and theater Comprehensive Health and physical education a lot of work we did on this uh so we call it if you see CHP e that's what that is Comprehensive Health and pH so this is where we're looking at um newer statutory requirements which is mental health New Jersey safe infant protection sexting sexual abuse Assault Awareness and prevention education through our existing curriculum you know working with parents working with parent trainers you know it's really a lot on Boards of educations and and institutions now where we're really trying to assist parents in developing their child uh to be constructive well-rounded individuals in society today World Language this has been ongoing revisiting uh k6 curriculum and revising that in our new Ela and math so so even in our Ela and math we're trying to not isolate the individual content areas but merge them together so you'll see math and science you'll see you know English language arts you'll see social studies you're trying to really there's a little bit of everything because there's every single teacher is a teacher of language arts whether you're an art teacher is Ed teacher music teacher so we're trying to really merge all of those content areas and put them together um to make a well educ a well um program a well oiled program for our students and then we have computer science design and thinking skills which we have in our Steam and stem programs and computer science and now I turn it back over to Mr verrai Veri thank you Mr Jen CASRO so in this slide we are showing the 24 425 budget we're breaking it down by the local tax levy and the total budget so when we look at the local tax levy of 18 m576 384 that comes from mainly the uh the tax re the tax levy well oh sorry which wait yeah you did sorry the one before one prior one prior yes the the local tax levy as well as The Debt Service which is $1,551 634 the column to the left is the total budget when you look at the general fund we're looking at revenues from local sources state aid Medicaid reimbursement budgeted fund balance as well as withdrawals from the capital and maintenance Reserve which comes up which adds up to that $22 m94 773 the special Revenue fund that's coming from our fund 20 that coming from our ESA our title funds as well as idea I I do want to remind the board members as well as uh those in in attendance as well as home that we could no longer depend on Sesser funds Sesser funds are now gone so that was a challenge not just for our district uh but for every District around the state of New Jersey so we had to face that that challenge and The Debt Service fund is the the repayment of the debt for the referendum is 2,215 195 so the total base budget is 24,6 76,800 one next slide please the next slide shows the increase the tax levy increase from the current school year to next school year as you can see in the general fund this has to do with the tax levy so we are going 2.9% over the cap and the difference of that Al together it's 800 6 7,724 the additional 2.9% was able to give the budget an additional $ 53,55 we were able to take advantage of this because of an enrollment adjustment last year or the current budget uh the board did take advantage of a medical waiver so this next year we are now taking advantage of an enrollment adjustment due to the enrollment figures increasing in the district next slide and this is a 10-year history ladies and gentlemen of the tax levy increase from 2015 to 2025 it'll show you the the tax levy and the for that fiscal year the difference from the two years and the increase so the current fiscal year we went 3.5 next fiscal year is 4.9 the next slide is the estimated tax impact on the average assessed home value in East Rutherford the average assessed home value didn't increase from last year last year the averaged assessed home value was $462,500 368 well what does that mean to the the the homeowner of an average assessed home the increase is $165 per year broken down to $13 .75 per month or 45 cents a day Mr rajy can you just explain to the public where you get those numbers from assess value and tax where do we get that from we received this from the burrow and with the assistance from our auditor we were able to determine what the what the um what the increase would be at the 4.9% thank you you're welcome so the next few slides this table coincides with with the with the piie chart this is our revenues comparison so uh I do apologize if it's a little small as you can see our tax levy the change is comparing our current budget to next year's budget so one of the biggest changes is the tax levy an increase of $867,000 the tuition there is no change uh miscellaneous it it is going up 109,000 and I did want to point out re that money is from interest that we gain from our bank accounts as well as now that we're absorbing technology fees as well as rents and royalties and one of the biggest ones we receive is the YMCA just just interject so that's really important for the public to understand is that because when you see 12111 per that's like whoa so if you don't hear the explanation behind it it makes it much more clear Mr verrai had said so it's important for the to the public and the board to understand why the percentage goes up and if it's a good thing or a bad thing right so it's important and to piggy back off that we did speak to our Auditors and the Auditors were in complete agreement with when we were creating the budget the revenue side for miscellaneous they were supporting uh our findings next is Medicaid this comes from the state there is a change of $537 extraordinary Aid we kept the same uh very happy to to announce the state aid did increase which is a good thing for us by $175,800 and the exterior door replacement project what I do want to point out to the board members is that we were approved for the rod Grant but part the stipulation is you have to put the money up front and then they will reimburse you 40% of the cost so of that million dollar from the state is a little less than $275,000 so we will get that money back so at the end it'll cost the district $4,490 but part of the the agreement is that you have to put the money up front and then as the project goes along they will reimburse you but we will get 40% back throughout the duration of both uh roof replacement projects here as well as McKenzie uh the maintenance Reserve we are withdrawing $165,300 balance this is something that is required that we have to do it did go up $16,578.84 total operating fund I did mention in a few slides ago the 22 m94 773 that's where it comes from so there is an increase of 2,345 187 but what I want to point out is a million of that is going towards capital projects where we hope to where we are going to get going to receive about $275,000 back from the state uh special Revenue fund uh that was in reference to now that Esser funds are going away uh we project that the revenues are going to be less so those are our title funds title one two three four as well as idea that's just a projection we could possibly receive more but we were trying to be uh cautious with that and the last part is The Debt Service fund as you can see the tax levy increased $ 42,69367 uh additional money that the burrow gives us so that stays the same The Debt Service Aid increased by $ 7,245 and the budget of fund balance went down by a dollar so altoe our Debt Service uh fund did increase by $ 49,93708 you get grand total the total budget is24 m67 6,801 which is a an increase of a little over $2 million the next slide shows the breakdown as a in a as a pie chart as you can see 75% of the revenue is coming from our tax levy that is our biggest uh Revenue source is the tax levy all right next next slide so when we have appro when we have revenues we have to have Appropriations well how are we earmarking These funds how are we going to spend the money how are we going to spend these funds next year in 24 25 so when you look at regular program instruction this has to do with salaries contractually our salaries do increase so if you look at the regular program for instructions we are looking at an increase of $263,400 special education again this is salaries an increase of $24,275 school sponsored activities are after school after school activities our co-curricular activities we are project we are projecting uh an increase of $7,850 tuition this is our outof district students that is one of our biggest drives the change is $573,500 at Administration an incre the Administration has to do with the administrators their salaries as well as to to help run the the district district is an increase of $556,500 that that also the administration includes attorney fees our Auditors The Architects stuff of that nature that's what that includes Mr rashy if I can just interject real quick just some clarity so with bringing students back to the district if you look at line number two instruction which is salaries there only 0.97 so one of the concerns was oh my goodness we're bringing students back we're going have to hire more teachers we're goingon to have to and it's it's very Min minuscule compared to when you look at the full book when you look at the full budget um one of the things too is just to so for better understanding is when we prepare a budget this board nor meia superintendent we don't know um what students are going to be coming and what their abilities are notice I said abilities what their abilities are right so we don't know and we have to make sure that we can address their individual needs we don't know if they come in and they have to be sent out a district for certain we know that right but we have to anticipate that because we can't you know say oh my goodness we didn't anticipate one to two students coming in or going out of district and now we don't have money to fund that right and we have to find money and then you know that's something that we never want to do so that's why when we we do this we really sit down with child study and figure out you know and look at our our Trends and look at our programs and look at how many teachers need to support the learning needs of our students so that when we do make a projection that it's not astronomical or off the charts so we really have to look at that and I can't tell you how many hours we spend as an Administration to look at gen Ed and special ed and their individual programs thank you Mr you're welcome Mr J CASRO uh moving on to operations and maintenance this includes salaries as well as supplies being able to maintain our buildings that increased by $162,800 4 student transportation that includes uh uh salaries for our bus drivers our AIDS maintaining our vehicles as well as our outer District transportation contracts so that's also included that only went up $1,425 uh a big increase is our employee benefits it went up $126,500 and brown they're anticipated a double digigit increase what we just don't know yet uh Food Services interest in the maintenance reserve and capital reserve are the same as as the current school budget to next year capital outlay I know you see the change is a little over a million that refers to the three capital maintenance projects that we have planned uh the two roof replacement projects as well as the exterior door replacement at fa and Charter Schools we do have an increase in amount of students going to Charter School we do we are we are looking at possibly three or four students that's an increase of one to two students uh this information I've received from the state based on the Assa counts so that's an increase of $ 26,45 so our total operating budget has has increased by$ 23446 187 and then when you look at our special Revenue again that is the reason for the the negative change is because we no longer have Esser and I'm projecting what the district will get for title funding as well as idea funding and then the next line is our debt service fund that was a slight increase of $ 49,93708 communication by you your office to the county office um to secure 400,000 more for our students yes thank you Mr Jen Casper for reminding me so when the state aid came out and I looked to see I was taken back to when the state claimed that we saved $400,000 on chapter 44 I was a little taken back I'm like no it's not that's not true so we challenged it and I worked very diligently I have to thank my support staff uh Miss Baron and Miss Alfaro for helping me out getting this information to me we worked together we did get the information out to the county I wouldn't say Friday the numbers came out Thursday Friday it went out and Monday we receiv received the good news that the $400,000 was reinstated that $400,000 would have been taken off the tax levy but we truly did not save money we it actually cost the district money so we didn't save as the state claims for chapter 44 or actually cost us money and the next slide is uh just a pie chart of what I just went through and the last few slides is the Appropriations category the first two lines take up the huge chunk of the budget we're looking at about 68% 68% of the budget is between salaries and employee benefits that that is your biggest chunk and then you could go down the line operations and maintenance is 4.25 instruction th those would be like supplies uh 3.11 Support Services 2.15 tuition 4.22 Administration 1.67% student transportation 1.14 uh Capital outlay 4.21 those are the capital projects that we have planned for next year Charter School 0. .24 special education instruction this has to do with supplies not their salaries uh 0.11 basic skills and Bilingual 0.08 School sponsored activities these are supplies for those activities so not salaries is 0.07 Food Services is the same and the interest for the maintenance Reserve is the same so as you can see our revenues and our Appropriations they must match so so in our total operating budget we have 22 mil 94773 when you combine it with the special Revenue as well as The Debt Service fund our total Grand budget for 2425 is24 m67 6,801 the next slide just shows you more of a visual as you can see salaries are more or more than half 54% and the employee benefits I I apologize that the percentage is not there it's 14.73% of your budget is already spoken for with salaries and benefits you have to try to spread that money around to ensure that East wer continues on the path that they are with with supporting the with students and staff and okay um board members any questions coms conerns I do question um for the the increase um it's a rather large increase and we just discussed this in detail um if a lot of the budgeted items or some of the budgeted items that we we anticipate that are anticipated but may not come to uh fruition if those do not come to fruition is it possible that we could be flat next year if we don't spend any of those anticipated that's that's the goal Mr Banker that that is the goal and and actually I actually already started with next year's budget because I myself and Mr J Casper we heard we heard everyone and my our goal is not to go over the 2% that is our goal I we don't want to come to you next year and say oh by the way we want to go over the 2% no we don't want to do that so that is our goal we heard you loud and clear so that is certainly the goal for next year and one other question uh those those budgeted items for such as out of District cost can they be transferred out of those accounts or no no un not unless they're spoken if for some reason uh Mr Jen Casper you could support me those out of District tuitions if that doesn't happen and funds are needed elsewhere can we transfer funds yes during the course of the Year yes as long as we don't go over the 10% correct then that would require County appr okay corre um okay but let's try not to do that yes we're gonna try not we should try to keep that absolutely we don't use them there absolutely absolutely abely you said it in a much more eloquent way than I did uh I I noticed that there it is question comment so I will add a comment um obviously the board is we're we're I can I only can speak for myself but we are aware of of the significance of a 4.9% increase right we're aware of going above 2% um and as Mr B and the rest of the board had uh had talked to Mr Vari about is obviously there are some light items including special out of District cost that make up the majority of the gap between 2% and this 4.9% agree right actually I think I think the I think it's like 571 vers is 515 so it actually exceeds the the Gap so we talk about this differential and again you put a much more OB could be blunt right the we are anticipating and with things such as out of District cost we have to anticipate we have to over project right we have some prior board members in there planning right proper planning that prevents fires in the in the future with the with the knowledge that yes not even keep it to 2% even potentially going below 2% If We Hold that money right and and you know if that money is unspent in the categories that it is allocated for right our I'll speak for myself the thoughts are that it does not just get redistributed ACR the budget and other items right it is recognizing that we are going above at 4.9% right we need to have tell people tell the public that we understand that it's a large amount we understand that it we're exceeding it and it is due to kind of extraordinary scenarios that we are planning for and if those those things are not taken to account right that money will not just be spent willy-nilly instead it'll go towards future years to help alleviate future tax levy accurate right so I said it was like borrowing from the future because we're in a scenario that is extraordinary right but we still are responsible to the taxpayers and need to maintain that for the long-term future and just to reiterate what you just said Mr Banker said which is 100% accurate everything you said uh is one of the things that we're tracking that that increase of that money if we don't send students at a district or you know things that we're allocating these monies for I know the board was very adamant about I know Mr Banker you were one right wanted to make sure that okay how much money of that that we increase how much of it did we use and how are we using it so that's important to you and it's important to us so we appreciate that yes thank you just want to thank thank you your staff I you you were diligent we you know you were you always do a great job Mr V but we appreciate it thank you you and I do want to go on record by thanking the board members for their support for their feedback because as you alluded to Mr segalini this is not just for next year it's for future budgets it it's going to help us in the future I have a quick question yes so well said both of you thank you um mine is more in regards to you have mentioned an increase in the enrollment figures so I was wondering why we are estimating such a drastic increase for from 2023 to 2024 in the actual enrollment I can't that I can't that so basically what we do is when we prepare a budget we sit down and look at Trends on how students are coming in at each of the grade levels so it's a projection that it's not 100% accurate that that will definitely be the number of students but based on Trends from year to year to year we look at that and then we make a projection about how many students can come in in each building in each grade level and then that's sent out to the to the to the uh the county office and they'll say okay yes or no if if we can never project too many because they like that's ridiculous they'll send it right back to us and deny the the budget they'll say that's way too much but what we do is we're held accountable to our Trend So based upon what we've seen in the district in each grade level that's it's a projection that's the best I can say so it seems accurate though that estimate we believe that there's going to be about 130 additional students that could be but depends on how many students are going out of District how many students are staying in District so we not 100% but that's what we've done in the past to look at but remember any money that's not utilized there it goes back into Surplus so it goes back into our fund we don't ever lose that money no and and to Mr Banker's point that money then we would hope to use in future right future because we don't know like you know we may have a student that comes in um that might need services that we weren't we aren't sure you know and some of the tuitions as I share with the board members can go anywhere from a student at a district without transportation is anywhere from about $66,000 up to $145,000 um which is it could look at any public member could look at it looks at tuition rates out of District tuition rates it's it's public knowledge so we're not saying anything that's a lie um you know staff members and parents and anybody can just look at that and you'll see it it's we just don't know we don't know so we try to make these projections and okay maybe if it's not going to be utilized for gened students well we can utilize that money it might be for we can transfer money throughout the course of the year to help substantiate the money or the money that we need for special education services or we've had a situation where we had to look at behaviorists or we have to look at somebody in District that we have to utilize and we need that we need those funds too you accurate I mean excellent question this is that you know that's this is what we're we deal with and and we're not the only school that does you know when you talk to other board members and you talk to other you know uh superintendents and Bas I mean we've had this conversation right Mr R too many now you know we've been pretty comfortable with that number we've been pretty comfortable but we can track it for you and see how accurate we are from year to year that's something that you like to see you know do that for you that's not a problem any other board members questions comments no okay now open to the public un budget only just so parents at home just make sure the light screen Mr Weiss no no it's not on It's gotta hold it Weiss 207 River Renaissance East Rutherford New Jersey 07 73 uh can you refresh my memory as far as the term charter school and where that money goes Charter Schools we have two students going to Bergen Arts and Sciences and one student is going to Roseville Community Charter School in Newark so when the student if they're a resident of the district then and they go to a charter school we are obligated to pay that tuition yeah if need be Transportation but we don't pay Transportation they apply to these schools yes sir yes they have they apply they have to be accepted and those schools have to provide documentation to our office that they are students that they are enrolled and we do ask them periodically to give us evidence and proof that they are still enrolled in that charter school because we are sending them money so we want to make sure that those students are still there understood second question on one of the uh early slides on the science it it was very quick um it said an additional instruction hour how how could you put that into the day second what the day is full right now right second so what we're we're what we're looking at is increasing the instructional time where needed because we do have in there we have um uh enrichment section in there that we can look at whenever there's not um state required minutes like like bed you have to have a certain number of minutes wherever there's not a mandated number we can tweak the schedules to and one of the things that we're looking to do which we did in mathematics and language arts is increase the instructional time and and as an educator everybody knows that sometimes just increasing time doesn't necessarily mean it's going to reap the benefits of Student Success right so it's a little bit of increasing time and professional development on teachers and looking at um deficit standards right the children aren't doing so well and and really honing it on there but we're trying to increase it it may not be by much but increasing some of the instructional time during pacience thank you you're doing a great job everybody thank you thank you Mr R my name is what is it Jose a e mans okay v r t v a r t two things I I want to bring out one is people that have seen and have been at this particular time for the budget hearing have been used to at 2% 2% 2% 2% okay just an awareness all of a sudden you see 8.96 now I know that it really isn't that much but the average person is gonna say what the heck is 8.96 doing in there you understand at the very end it says 8.96 oh yeah 8.98 .98 well service because it's The Debt Service it's the debt service so when you add that up Mr Varan with the special Revenue fund the percentage and the operating fund all together it comes out to 100% what is the actual number as far as percentage of what it was last year to what it's going to be this coming year 18 the actual one no he's talking about Debt Service de service no just you're talking about the debt service Mr I'm talking about the budget period 18 okay this slide Mr V this slide no was it this one 4.9 yes this is the one you're talking about right yeah right is it a 4.9% I thought you said 8.9 that's why we were but that was the uh Debt Service the Deb service is 8.9 got it I'm just saying be aware of those spin numbers because that's what they're going to ask you they're going to look at there and then how much is it going to cost me the one good thing that I saw and I'm glad you did it that way was that you showed people this is how much it's actually going to cost you out of your pocket yeah all right and that's what they're interested in they don't care about that they're not gonna look at any of this stuff right this they're not they're just GNA how much more money do I have to take out of my my pocket to fund the school that's accurate and what what's the percentage from this year Edge just be careful to be aware of might be coming down I wanted to make it three slides but they said no we need to explain things I want to just include this slide and that's [Laughter] it thank you Mr V thank you Mr Bon than any other questions comments okay I will close to the questions and comments on the budget e are you ready agenda I mean does that conclude your report or that's only the budget part of it yes just the budget part and we do have three addendum items uh from the last time we met pf3 a is the approval of the district use of facilities this is from the the east Rutherford rec department for the summer what they're doing is being proactive just in case of inclement weather they want to be able to have a place to stay inside in case of inclement weather so they requested that they can have McKenzie school from June 26 to July 31st and that's what the board will be voting on tonight uh f1a is bills list number two thank you Mr Banker for coming in for reviewing it I greatly appreciate that sir and the last addendum item is we are looking to we are going to switch our eay company uh and speaking with our it department and speaking with Mr valard and Mr Jen CASRO uh they supported my my my vision and my decision to switch over to a new EV consulting company that the name of the company's EV consultant they're actually in New Jersey based company I have experience working with them in terms of e- rates um their customers service their support has been phenomenal based on my experience like I said they're a New Jersey based company and on top of it they're going to charge us a lower rate for category one and two so I I figure let's give them a let's give them a chance they offer more support than what e2e exchange does we just feel like we we do too much of the leg work and my experience has always been that these Consulting companies they take the weight off the district so we're good to give it a chance so I do have to support I would have to say thank you to Mr Jen CASRO for supporting me uh with this decision and that concludes my report Madam president okay any questions okay thank you Mr verace a superintendence report thank you Madame President so student enrollment to date March at McKenzie school 381 students down two foul School 237 up three Lincoln School Down 2 156 and uh number is one 774 students totally up one fire drills and security drills were done for the month of April and completed um harassment intimidation and bullying we have three HIV investigations that I'll be discussing with the board um in executive session um discussions of closeout payments and paperwork um for the district's construction and renovation projects will be discussed with the full board in executive session um from our our board attorney um long range facility plan was there's continue updates to the 2425 school year which Mr Veri had mentioned in the budget hearing uh let's see in the area of special education I'm not going to take the wind out of um on a minute nope we're gonna go right sorry we're gonna go right over to special education so a monthly students 139 students up three students of special education uh in District we have 124 up three out of District 8 we only went up one that's currently right now Behavior threat assessment I'm going to be attaining attending an all day training tomorrow uh to look at threat again threat assessment for the school district to come back hopefully a little bit more information than we already have NJ 4S so the assistant superintendent of student services attended a meeting for nj4 s on April 9th to gather some more information regarding platform uh tier one tier 2 and tier three services uh the district has been leveraging support for our students and staff I know you're very familiar with that Miss Crawley uh extended school year uh was was going to be held at McKenzie school this year we're preparing for that meeting with beckon Regional High School CST team meeting with beckon Regional High School and East Rutherford CST uh was held to discuss the current eighth grade special education program to make sure that it's cohesive transition as they transition over to high school in the area of curriculum and instruction our Greenhouse is up and running it is great so if board members are ever around come and look the children are growing things with tomatoes it's it's fantastic uh it's great so I appreciate the support of the board with our Steam and stem program for grades four through eight um we we went through our spring break which was successful we came back we're preparing for our school um student uh sorry our state assessment which is coming up we just did our pilot last week this week and we're ready in a week and a half to to uh again hopefully score high I've I've I'm committed uh to our students our students are going to do a great job kudos to our teachers for preparing our students for the state assessment um as part of my presentation is the New Jersey school performance report for the 2223 school year which the board has in front of them I'm going to stop sharing here so I can go to the public so you can see what they have um parents in the district already received the Genesis blast as well as it's on our web page so if you cannot find it um it's I'm going to show you how to go in you're going to go on our district you're going to come down and you're going to go to New Jersey school report card our parents all parents received this already and the Genesis BL about a week ago uh my letter is there but just to walk everyone through so the district which I said before you know this is why is it not coming oh there we go it's coming up again when we look at student growth we're looking at where they were and where they're going where where they're at now right so we look at Trends and in English language arts and Mathematics districtwide look where we are exceeds the standard okay this is why we really did well on qac um I I can't take all the credit on this this is the students did a phenomenal job working hard our parents is helping to support us at home uh with homework and projects that they have our teachers really professional development is working our coaches are working my administrative team my principals uh Mr barach you know the board really helping us grasp where these deficient standards are and really working hard so in mathemat in language arts 81 exceed exceeds 62 again this is growth looking at individual scores we have a lot of work to do we still have a lot of work to do so we're not just taking this lately so that's the first one that's districtwide uh let me just get down here okay and how did we perform on the assessment meet the state we are right where we are we are meeting the state in mathematics this how we performed on the assessment and this is the progress the growth that we shown so again we're great we're in the green we want to see green and blue okay back that's districtwide and now we're going to go to foul School English language arts exceeds 88 standard right exceeds the standard and again exceeds the standard just at 60 we made it in mathematics okay when we look at performance on the assessment 76% which we meet the standard now I don't want everybody to freak out okay we're at 36.4% just shy of 38.2 you're talking possibly about two students okay two to three students so we're looking at that not to get too nervous about that we've identified students that again where the deficiencies in the standard we're addressing that there is a plan that we have in place which I presented back in April uh not April when did I pr test scores that was back in October uh about a corrective action plan on what we're going to be do to address this need in mathematics okay then we're looking at Lincoln School in English language arts student growth compared to other students that are taking the same assessment exceeds the standard in English language arts and exceeds the standard in mathematics compared to other students how they actually performed on the test met State again we're not happy we want blue we want all blue that's where we are and and our teachers want it our students want it our students are psyched up about this stuff you know we don't want put a lot of pressure like oh my goodness you got to pass got to pass like we want you to do really well like high-fiving the students and having pep rallies about you know academic success and we really try to promote uh an environment of learning scholarly discussions this is what we're looking to do because they're part of it they have to know what they're held accountable for right but we do it in a way that promotes it which is really really nice and over at McKenzie school okay here how they performed on the assessment and this is something that we looked at about two students two to three students again we're looking at that level which is not much from 48.0% to 51.3% we're not talking about a large number of students but again it's a red flag for us we've addressed it we said it in our in our in my meeting with the board and publicly when we we presented our test scor so we know we know where it is it would be scary if we didn't know right so we identify our students we track our students we see where they are we see where their deficiencies are and then we address them okay then and that's it so I have those again staff members if there's if there's a parent that's concerned about some of those things I urge you to contact your building principal who can address this individually with their child regarding how their child performed on the actual assessment please don't hesitate if you have any questions direct that directly to the building principles that can assist you further uh let me stop sharing this let me go back to here um here and that concludes my report oh I'm sorry concludes my report but I have agenda items you want to hear about those yes right agendum items I'm sorry all right so so my report is complete but I want to go just to the addendum items that the board did not see and if they have any questions please ask so in the area of curriculum these were some of the uh so c1a1 is East Rutherford c as beckon Regional High School dress rehearsal for their Spring Showcase I'm celebrating Partnerships with the east Rutherford police department and that's a bolero bowling alley uh again bowling alley again for students to tally compare contrast again one of those Community Based instruction trips Lowe's and Grove Street playground so that we do have uh C 2A curriculum writing thanking our two teachers three teachers that stepped up for uh area of ela writing for the 2324 school year that's the set rate at the board we haven't changed that number that's been looked at by the board for we haven't changed anything there that's consistent with years in the P years past Personnel actions these are new ones so um so before the board asks where this funding is coming from this is already allocated for the next school year when we build in the budget Mr Mr verrai knows that this is numbers these are contractual so these are negotiated teacher Association stiens um that are part of their collective bargaining unit that's all of these make sure I didn't miss any uh yes except for Mrs delinsky who also has human resources which the boort is aware of that's the only ones that I have there and we are currently looking for a part-time Human Resources person right that's what we're still looking for we cannot find anyone that has the experience uh it's part-time um so if anyone is interested please get a resume to me ASAP so yeah and accounts payable too we're looking for that so we have those things so anybody looking for a position part-time no benefits uh please apply here p3a travel expenditures so it's CDL training right for one of our bus drivers and of course the training I'm going to tomorrow um with regret motion before the board um is uh Carol mcera uh who is the secretary in Mr barrows building is leaving the district uh again with regret we wish her well on her journey at our next Endeavor uh this is p7a uh this will be a discussion that we had in our less executive session uh meeting that we had regarding Mr vra's contract um so that will be approved tonight so that we could send this I can't send it without the approval to the county for their final approval but I have to have a resolution uh and certified minutes that will go over to the county superintendent Mr Lou delesio leave of absence again medical leave of absence one of our teachers that's you that's you I think that's it and that's all I have Madam president any questions uh I just have a quick comment I think p216 I think there's a typo unless we're paying our Awards assembly person $111,000 wait give me one second 2 a 2A it's it's one comma 1560 so the Personnel yeah or it's the it's the addendum item p26 P2 a16 I believe it there's it's probably one50 Z I imagine or one yeah 1100 got it Z I gotta get zero Okay so just before we approve it I don't want to beh be beholden to uh paying someone $110,000 more $1,560 yep that's that's all I got thank you there we go yep I have a question while you're on that section yes and I could be I I may have missed it in past years all the way down yeah down down down down uh public relations yes uh can you explain that just a little bit that's part of our newsletter that goes out all that that's Mr magia who handled they he's been handing that for years for um the district for actually Mrs br's building okay public relations y yeah there was two there so I was just wondering yep you know okay uh and then I do have another question but it's more of like a personal question on C it's in the addendum items but it's up a little bit uh not that one yes that one okay C1 A.1 and two one one and two the uh dress rehearsal and the Bolero yes um Clifford is in both of those can I vote for that can your child is yeah I believe you can Tom right that's okay all right just the only one is the police department I would say no right she these field trips aren't there they're field trips yes it's okay it's fine all I just wanted to no that's good yeah and [Laughter] that okay I do have one qu and again this is like a silly question I guess but like in your report you mentioned that we are collaborating with beckon and their child study team and whatever do you ever collaborate like with carlat to see like because we both send our students to beckin like collaborate with them as well what we do is what we do is like um the superintendent in carlstead um Maywood not so much because he'll go directly to beckon um but with carlstead we are always looking at like um uh programs instruction how we can help each other maybe like do a shared service kind of thing um I know in years past um the previous superintendent Mr kok had helped us when we needed a place to stay house us so we're always in communication with them um how we actually do our training our Danielson training that we do for our administrators we housed it at carstead calls come here so yeah we do we do we do that's an excellent question no we do yeah Mrs Evans is is Mrs Evans is a breath of pressure and so is Mr Jordan which okay uh so at this time I need a motion upon the recommendation of the superintendent the board hereby approves sp1 and SP2 as follows sp1 adoption of the 2024 2025 school budget and SP2 adoption of Maximum travel expenditures 2024 2025 I'll make a motion with the caveats that Mr bank had put in uh the notes that he had put in on the budget right second repeat that again to make a motion to approve both of these with the additional notes that Mr Banker had made you Mr Banker yes Miss Caruso yes Miss colie yes Miss Mena yes Mr segalini yes Miss shamley yes Miss laruso yes okay MO passes 70 at this time I will open to the public comments on any agenda items only uh state your name address for the record address the board president each person wishing to speak we'll have five minutes each anyone wishing to speak we'll given the opportunity to do so okay seeing none I close the hearing of the public uh correspondence to the Board of Education none adoption of Prior board meeting minutes upon the recommendation of the superintendent the board hereby approves the following Board of Ed meeting minutes March 14th 2024 work session meeting minutes March 14th 2024 work executive session meeting March 18th 2024 public session meeting minutes March 18th 2024 public executive session meeting minutes so moved second well Mr Banker yes Miss Caruso yes Miss colie yes Miss Mena yes Mr calini yes Miss shley yes but I have to recuse from the March 14th dates I was not here but yes to the 18th yes thank you and Miss laruso yes uh superintendent resolutions on the recommendation the sup of the superintendent the board hereby approves the following motions S1 through S5 S1 approval of fire and emergency drill report S2 approval of enrollment report S3 approval of harassment intimidation and bullying monthly report S4 resolution affirming the superintendent's decision relating to an alleged harassment intimidation and bullying incident report dated February 8th 2024 S5 resolution affirming the superintendent's decision relating to an alleged harassment intimidation and bullying incident report dated March 15 20124 second second B call Mr Banker yes Miss Caruso yes Miss kie yes Miss Mena yes Mr segalini yes Miss shamley yes Miss laruso yes uh curriculum committee Miss shamley thank you Madame President upon the recommendation of the superintendent the board hereby approves motion C1 approval of student field trips and transportation requests for the 2023 2024 school year as before second any questions roll call Mr B yes M Caruso yes Miss kie yes Miss Mena yes Mr segalini yes Miss shamley yes and Miss laruso yes and that concludes my report thank you Miss shamley uh Personnel committee uh Miss Caruso thank you Madame President upon the recommendation of the superintendent the board hereby approves P1 approve the Kelly education substitute list P2 Personnel actions P3 approval of travel expenditures P4 approval of substitute rates for certified and non-certified employees for the 2024 2025 school year and P5 acceptance of resignation notification for Susan Wy with regret second any questions roll call Mr Banker yes Miss Caruso yes Miss kie yes Miss Mena yes Mr seini yes Miss shamley yes and Miss laruso yes and that ends by report Madame President thank you Miss Caruso uh physical facilities committee uh Mr segalini thank you Madame President upon the recommendation of the superintendent the board hereby approves motion pf1 approval of the monthly facilities calendar for April 2024 second any questions roll call Mr Banker yes Miss Caruso yes colie yes Miss Mana yes Mr segalini yes Miss shley yes and Miss laruso yes and that end my report Madam president thank you Mr segalini uh Community Relations Committee Miss colie thank you madam president upon the recommendation of the superintendent the board hereby approves motions cr1 through cr3 cr1 approved the second reading of revised bylaws policies and regulations CR2 administrative professional week acknowledgement and cr3 Teacher Appreciation Week acknowledgement second any questions could to read them all could you at least the administrative absolutely CR2 and okay okay so we'll do roll call and then you can read them good okay Mr B yes Miss Caruso yes paie yes Miss Mena yes Mr segalini yes shley yes M Luso yes we're ready all right CR2 Administrative Professionals week acknowledgement be it resolved upon the recommendation of the superintendent of schools the East rord Board of Education approves the following resolution honoring Administrative Assistant secretarial clerical and bookkeeping personnel and proclaiming the week of April 22nd 201 24 as Administrative Professionals week whereas the East rord Board of Education Administrative Assistant secretarial clerical and bookkeeping staff members have successfully served the East roord Public Schools its Administration faculty and student body in the daily performance of their duties and whereas the East rord Board of Education Administrative Assistant secretarial clerical and bookkeeping staff members have faithfully and unselfishly carried out their duties in an exemplary manner to the benefit of our students and the community and whereas the Eastford Board of Education wishes to formally recognize and honor every Administrative Assistant secretarial clerical and bookkeeping staff member for their personal dedication now therefore it now therefore be it resolved that the week of April 22nd 2024 is hereby proclaimed Administrative Professionals week for the purpose of providing public recognition and appreciation for the contributions that the administrative assistant secretarial clerical and bookkeeping staff members to the East retherford School District in the performance of their duties and then cr3 um be it resolved that the East Ral Board of Education approved the following resolution proclaiming the week of May 6 2024 as Teacher Appreciation Week whereas America's greatest strength has always been an educated citizenry and whereas that educated citizenry is directly attributable to our system of free and Universal public education that provides an educational opportunity for all students and whereas the Foundation upon which that system of public schooling rests in the classroom teacher and whereas the classroom teacher is challenged daily to reach out to every student regardless of ability interest in learning social or economic background physical mental or emotional handicapped race religion Creed or ethnic origin to provide assistance and guide necessary for full intellectual development and whereas the classroom teacher is key to the intellectual and occupational preparation of our individual citizens who collectively determine the quality of life life in America and in our communities and whereas the work of the classroom teacher immeasurably affects the future lives of all students and whereas the classroom teacher deserved the deepest respect and admiration of the citizens of our communities now therefore be it resolved that the East roer Board of Education hereby proclaims Teacher Appreciation Week May 6 2024 for the purpose of providing public recognition and appreciation for the dedication and contributions of the classroom teacher not only to our communities as a whole but to each of us individually as Citizens and that concludes my report Madam president thank you Miss colie uh technology committee Miss Mana thank you all right so information security program plan the district continues to proactively evaluate all appropriate District Technologies to ensure the safety and security of our data Information Systems ver vulnerabil vulnerability scans are implemented to determine any areas of improvement staff training is ongoing with monthly opportunities highlighting common cyber security risks meetings remain ongoing to plan a schedule of support for the 2425 school year infrastructure trials have been conducted in advance of the njla this spring the device and network responded as expected and the district is well prepared for spring testing e- rate purchasing discussions for the 2425 school year are ongoing to better support the technology infrastructure across the district the team continues to review bid documents to determine scope of action for projects moving forward budget development for the 2425 school year is complete with determinations for allocation of funds on Deck The District continues to use Genesis to share and collect data for from families through the form forms portal to allow for efficient and paperless Communications the district continues to evaluate varying technology platforms to help support productivity efficiency and instruction within the district and lastly the district continues to evaluate policies and pro procedures related to appropriate Technologies to help support productivity efficiency and the instruction within the district and that concludes my report any questions or comments do you want to read it again because you haven't read anything months all right thank you Miss Mana uh finance committee um Mr Banker thank you Madame President upon the recommendation of the superintendent the board hereby approves motions F1 through F10 F1 approval of the bills list number one April 20124 F2 approval of March 2024 payroll F3 approval of fin fincial reports for March 2024 F4 approval of transfers for month of March 2024 F5 approval of out of District tuition contracts for the 2023 2024 school year F6 approval of extraordinary services for 2023 2024 school year F7 approval of Professional Services for the 2024 2025 school year F I just say F7 f8 f8 approval of travel and related expense reimbursement for the 2024 2025 school year F9 acceptance of the corrective action plan for the 2023 2024 for the district's Food Service audit F10 approval of the semi initiative corrective action plan I'll second any questions well I I'll ask so um on f6.2 um it said the 125 hours maximum um $2,950 that seems like a lot per hour to about $260 hour to be exact like it's it's not to exceed so this is been it's started uh earlier in the year and they're going to the hours so they're increasing the amount of hours so this is from September 2023 the started and it's it's been uh increased as we've gone along I don't know price per hour so that 25,000 is what would was budgeted before we're just increasing the hours we're increasing it and based on the contract it was revised January 26 it was revised again April 3D and now revised again for April 4th so originally was going to 145 hours then it was uh revised to 125 hours and this is for Bergen County Special Services and that was reflective of current student um demands lack of better words know how much it is per hour I could find that out because like if you calculate the $2,950 by $125 hours 207 it's yeah 200 bucks yeah and I'm gonna start looking for a new career if I can get paid $27 an hour yeah um yeah I was G to say they're just they're not correlated right we have we have the amount and then these are the right the hours but it's not a direct correlation that when we change the the hours we change the amount all right I'll get it for you okay any other questions right okay Mr Banker yes Miss Caruso yes Miss KY yes Miss Mana yes Mr segalini yes Miss shamley yes Miss laruso yes thank you Mr bka thank thank you mam yes that concludes my report a long day sorry that's okay addendum items um upon the recommendation of the superintendent the board hereby approves motions c1a c2a p2a p3a p6a p7a p b8a B f3a f1a f11a c1a approval of student field trips and transportation requests for 2023 2024 school year c2a approval of ela curriculum writing for the 2023 2024 school year p2a Personnel actions p3a approval of travel expenditures p6a acceptance of resignation notification of Carol masquera with regret p7a approval of school business administrator board secretary contract for the 2024 2025 school year p8a leave of absence pf3 a approval of District use of facilities uh f1a approval of bills list number two April 2024 f111a approval of eate Consulting and Process Management Services for the 2024 2025 school year oh I'll make a motion oh sorry than F so moved second any questions not a question a comment I just Alex you are a uh well-respected and and I I think you're very valued member of the community p7a includes your contract so I want to take that time to say thank you for all you've done you hit the ground running and you've been a great hire for whichever board president made the decision to hire you whoever that could be thank you Mr segalini and to everyone on the board I'm truly honored to continue working as the school business administr and thank you to the board president at that time too I don't know who that was and any board members who may be in the audience that were part of that decision too yes thank you Mr vsan yeah but that's going to have to come out of Maintenance Reserve oh call Madam president okay uh roll call Mr Banker yes Miss carusa yes Callie yes Miss meta yes Mr segalini yes Miss shamley yes Miss larusa hold on where's the you have the ReUse from um thank you yes that's what I was looking for pf3 a um the district facilities for the wreck yes anybody else needs to recuse from no it's General re gotcha okay all right thank you okay all right old business I just had a quick thing that I forgot to mention last meeting when I think you mentioned it about the tech Pres presentation about like cyber security and things like that so I just wanted to thank the district for doing that I think the evening presentation was great unfortunately we there was only about like 20 25 parents that came I wish more people would have taken advantage of it because it was really valuable information there's a scary world of oh absolutely out there and uh so I just wanted to formally thank the district for that presentation I thought it was really valuable thank you Miss Co we want to do evaluation that's an EXA oh is it EXA okay new business I do okay I would like to announce uh Bergen County SBA spring celebration dinner is going to be held on Thursday May 7th for Board of Education members 6m in person 6:45 virtual um our trustee Mrs Maria Caruso congratulations for 15 years of dedicated service to the east Rutherford Board of Education I and Mr verrai are planning to attend um if you are planning to attend please Let Louise Barone know in business office um so that we can put you on the list you have it in front of you that date is wrong Thursday is the it's supposed to be Tuesday the Tuesday there you go Tuesday the the the the day is wrong I think the date is right yes the it's definitely the seventh so it's probably Tuesday that was the typo on their end not us I know say yeah so Tuesday May 7th um yes congratulations yeah congratulations congrat or or our condolences I don't know know how about congratulate me when I make 50 years did you see that 50 years just want to let the board know there'll be a red carpet and Camp toast on [Laughter] Wii not in the budget 50 years um at this time I will open again to the hearing of the citizens on non-agenda items state your name address for the record address the board president each person wishing to speak will have five minutes anyone wishing to speak will be given the opportunity to do so [Laughter] seeing seeing none the same what I gotta say I will close the hearing of the citizens okay at this time we will adjourn to Executive session for Hib and um litigation super yeah suppos be cont no just the pre-conference oh okay it's a Personnel matter and Personnel matters no we may take action when we come out so we need the auet yeah he doesn't have to be here for the action so it's really the public okay so anybody want to stay with we're good thank you thank you wait I didn't even read the resolution yeah you got read I know resolved that in accordance with Section Eight of the open public meetings act chapter 231 the board has the authority to adjourn to close session to discuss matters pertaining to Legal Personnel negotiations attorney client privilege Andor student matters said matters will be made available upon the determination by the board that the disclosure of the minutes will not detrimentally affect any right or interest of the board the board expects to return to the business portion of the meeting in approximately come back four hour one hours motion so move second Myer all in favor I any opposed okay e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e all right I need a motion to return to the regular order of business so move second all in favor I any opposed you madam president all right I need a motion for walk- on resolution f12a be it resolved upon the recommendation of the superintendent of schools the Board of Education approves the withdrawal from the capital reserve account within the current fiscal year not to exceed $200,000 for various capital projects that are included within the district's long range facilities plan so moved second roll call Mr bka yes Miss Caruso yes colie yes Miss Mana yes calini yes Miss shamley yes Miss laruso yes all right I need a motion for walk- on resolution pf4 a resolution authorizing and approving a settlement agreement between the East retherford Board of Education and dbco Inc I have to read the whole thing no that's fine still moved second Ro call Mr Banker yes Miss Caruso yes colie yes Miss Mena yes Mr segalini yes shley yes and Mr Roso yes I didn't uh just Alex just cross check the numbering on that I put that in sure if that still holds water the pf4 yeah so I'm not sure if that's the right designation uh whatever it is it is F4 a is correct yeah we have 3A that would be 4 a yeah have 4 a F12 F12 a yeah 12 a 12 corre thank you motion to adjourn so moved second all in favor I any