[Music] good evening everybody how are you welcome to our public hearing tonight pursuant to the open public meetings act chapter 231 public laws of 1975 this meeting was sent to the Asbury Park Press on March 22nd 2024 has been advertised in the asur Park Press is of March 30th 2024 all Clerks of the townships burls within the Regional High School Districts have been duy notified and the requirements of this posting was met on March 26 2024 please stand and join me in the pledge I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic which it stands one nation un God indivisible Liberty justice for all Mr T any changes to our agenda tonight yes Mr President in addition to the items that were noted on the agenda that was printed prior to the start of the meeting uh the board also uh discussed for exception number three uh an HIV appeal and it discussed the student suspension discipline report thank you may I have a motion to approve the minutes of the February 8th board meeting as amended on March 14 15th regular board meeting motion second Mr second Mrs Bruno any discussion board not hearing any discussion roll call Mr aceta yes Mrs Bruno yes Mrs Capello yes Mrs Higley yes Mrs Lavin ABS uh Miss mob yes Mr paresi yes Mr Messinger yes yes Mr B yes as a note Communications are on file the board secretary yes that was in 14 oh killed us all once Communications on file with the board secretary now we have the superintendent report thank you Mr berno good evening um tonight we have two board presentations um our student safety data report um formerly known as the electronic uh violence and vandalism um and substance abuse report uh we also tonight uh big night we have the public hearing on our budget uh for fiscal year 25 there's also two board reports this evening uh policy and finance um so the student the student safety presentation um this reflects District data on incidents of violence vandalism harassment intimidation and bullying and substance abuse uh we are reporting for phase one um for this school year uh which you know in essence starts in July because we have students here who are over the summer uh through December 31st of um the school year the phase 2 Data will reflect January 1st of 24 to June 30th of 24 we're going to present that phase two report to the Board of Education in July um we have done a comparison of the phase one data for last school year at this time as compared to this school year and we're pleased to present that the majority of the areas uh that are in this report um the district has fewer incidents you know across the district um so um again uh a very special thank you to Mr mendz who will present tonight and to all of our building principles who I know are truly committed um to you know a safe and secure and orderly environment for our students uh it is something as a district we are highly committed to um and these are data points that we take very seriously and analyze and review even with our leadership team so Mr Mendes if you don't mind if you could present uh the phase one report for us sure thank you Dr heel um so as Dr hael said this is phase one uh all these incidents are incidents that the building principles deal with and then send up to my office and we input them into the state database the ssds system okay so as Dr Hazel said all of our most of our numbers have gone down uh dramatically so I'm going to go over each one of them and we'll break out each category so the first one is violence last year in phase one we had 28 incidents this year as you can see we have 20 so we're we're down eight there vandalism we had four last year one this year in Phase One um and again this is Phase One to phase one comparison phase one of the 2223 year uh against phase one of the 23 24 year weapons we had no weapons offenses this year and we had eight last year in phase one substance abuse incidents these are in substance abuse incidents we had 45 in Phase One of last year and this year as you can see we only had 23 um our HIV confirmed we're up a little there we have 45 this year last year in phase one we had 40 our alleged hivs harassment intimidation and bullying investigations there's 27 for this year year uh which is down a little bit from last year we were at 30 okay so overall HIV we're we're up to we're at 72 in phase one this year last year we were at 70 so to break break it down a little bit the violence um assaults simple assaults were at six this year uh last year we had one sexual contact we have one this year we had none last year we have no sexual assault just like like we had last year no sexual assaults threats last year we had 10 uh we have five this year in Phase One fights we had 17 last year and we have nine this year so you know again I just want to kind of add to especially to the administrator sitting in the room the principls and the assistant principls have done a really good job um with their buildings and their kids to make sure that these things are on the downward Trend we have uh so on the previous page there was labeled 20 violence and there's 21 here that's because one of the incidents was labeled for two things okay all right vandalism and weapons we are at zero damage to property zero to false public alarm last year we had zero damage to property and one false public alarm we had three thefts last year this year we only have one trespassing is zero same as it was in Phase One of last year zero and again weapons we're we're at zero this year and last year we had eight possessions of of a weapon substance abuse on this slide you're going to see 34 different um in the numbers are going to add up to 34 but there was only 23 incidents again a couple incidents were labeled both substance use confirmed and possession that's why there's more uh so substance use confirm in phase one this year we had 13 last year in phase one we had 16 possession we had 15 this year and last year we were at 35 so a drastic decrease our sale and distribution we had zero again just as last year and kids that refused an exam uh we had zero again just as last year possession of drug paraphernalia we have six this year we had four last year in phase one so roughly the same these are the types of substance used uh used okay again there was 13 use confirmed you only see 12 up here there were 12 uh THC marijuana a lot of um THC cartridges through Vapes that's what we're seeing in the schools there was one instance that was an undetermined uh drug that is not categorized by the uh the doe that actually have an undetermined category so that was our 13th one last year we had 15 marijuana instances we had five unauthorized prescription drugs we had two alcohol in phase one so as you can see our numbers are down cuz we're zero everywhere else and then the last thing as I already stated are hivs okay we had 40 confirmed last year we 45 27 alleged and we at or 30 alleged last year 27 this year for a total of 72 this year and we were at 70 last year in phase one I will say just kind of a positive on the HIV I think you've all seen it in your reports we we are down where we were last year I think last year at this time we were at 122 we're we're at 111 now so we're trending down which is good and then these are just some of the programs and things that the schools are doing it's not every that they're doing there is a lot of things that they're doing you can see you know all the the services that we have in the counseling department we uh you know we're trained and restorative practices for the last few years that we've been instituting in our buildings our Partnerships with our alliances and our our communities have brought in speakers I know I was just over at Dr bleck ley's building the other day and his Alliance brought in a a fantastic speaker uh for for his students our student mentors our grade level meetings I just want to make a note that our grade level meetings don't just happen at the beginning of the year we have grade level meetings and then the administration pushes into classrooms and does smaller meetings with the students to uh on a more personal level our week of respect and violence and vandalism activities our educational programs one of the other things I want to just kind of note is you know this year we we have a curriculum it's a counseling curriculum it's called Pathways to to respect and it's to proactively um address bullying behaviors um both for alleged offenders and targeted pupils it's both proactive hopefully catch it before it happens and also an intervention for after it happens so that's the report for phase one and then we'll be back in July for phase two is it Pathways that all the schools yes yes yes all the counselors were trained on the pathways to respect uh toward the end of last year through through the summer and the beginning of this year uh the curriculum is in all of the counseling departments um the marijuana and the Vapes is it more Vapes it's more Vapes yeah it's more Vapes it's not the old school um marijuana yeah it's I have to compliment the administration also of the principles and their staff I mean absolutely that's a pretty good report it is they've done a fantastic job 30s the 40s yeah vandalism was terrible I mean it was nice to see all those zeros I know it's a great report and it's a tribute to the administration and the buildings they've done a fantastic job with it we still got a ways to go and they keep working at it so you know hopefully the numbers will continue to Trend down you can do it any other questions all right oh thank you Mr as and um in each folder uh for the board members uh that report uh is included um as well as the comparative data uh comparing to last year's phase one um and as I said July um we will be presenting Phase 2 January through the end of the school year uh these are data points um that the leadership team um and the central office team you know uh work on um pretty much on a monthly basis uh but full credit to our principls and to the assistant principles in the buildings um and our staff um this evening um always at our April board meeting is our public hearing of the budget um this evening we are presenting the freeh hole Regional High School District fiscal year 25 budget um this year is a little different uh than in the past um as the Board of Education will not be voting on the budget tonight as there's pending legislation that it wants to consider before finalizing this budget while this legislation would not Remedy Our fiscal challenges it will be important for the board to consider um and for that reason this year the budget vote will take place at our upcoming board meeting um on May 14th you know I think you know before uh Mr Boyce goes into into kind of um the nuts and bolts um of the annual school budget report I think it's important for us to hear um and understand kind of the fiscal stage here at freeh hole Regional High School District um free hole Regional is 19.3 million below adequacy that's the state's District specific calculation of the amount of money that's necessary to provide thorough and efficient education so we need 19.3 more dollars in order to appropriately educate our students that's the situation that we are here in at this District free hole Regional spending consistently ranks among 31 High School only districts in the state and it's lowest in the mammoth County School District this is a fiscally responsible School District um we take pride in that um and we really feel that our budget is as tight it as it possibly can be this Administration and the Board of Education have spent countless hours trying to manage the district fiscal crisis over the past seven years years of S2 Cuts have severely impacted us and our future budget devel velopment strategies for fiscal 26 will be even more difficult and impactful unless state aid improves and the 2% tax levy is relaxed or both so balancing a budget at Freehold Regional High School District is no easy task the uncertainty of our fiscal future is what concerns me most and was a major consideration in the development of this budget we may now after 7 years of clamoring through S2 see some governmental action to address the S2 disparity and be poised to provide a real means to raise needed funds to offset some of these catastrophic losses that Freehold Regional has experienced the volatility of State funding and the timing of these proposals makes it difficult to develop multi-year projections and for this District to appropriately plan at this present moment uncertainty remains for fiscal year 25 this is the typical time where we present our budget and we vote on our budget and that is not happening fiscal year 26 and Beyond is a complete unknown as it pertains to where the district will stand with state aid all while trying to recover from year of our S2 Cuts please note if the funding formula were to remain as is Freehold Regional would be slated to see a $10.8 million state aid reduction in fiscal year 26 we do remain optimistic that things will change but our challenge for fiscal year 25 was to close an 11.4 million deficit and you know I think it's important for folks to you know where did that number arrive at um we have the expiration of ARP Esser grants we have the loss of a one-time injection of supplemental stabilization Aid of 6.7 million that was a onetime our decline of our fund balance an aggressive draw down over these years of our Surplus and just the general rise in costs and inflation that I think each of us are all have complete understanding of um this budget you know stands at 19.3 million below adequacy and this is not sustainable the budget that will be presented tonight reflects a continued aggressive draw down of surplus further increase budget risk through tightening of Appropriations thereby reducing the district's ability to manage unforeseeable costs this bud buget has spreading equipment costs over multiple years our Chromebooks our technology equipment our maintenance equipment um all being spread out uh through um multiple years uh the elimination of raay Academy tangible position reductions which have been happening all through S2 reduction of building based instructional allocations um monies that go directly to the building principles and their teams and Transportation Route consolidations this budget reflects a reduction of 39 positions including administrators supervisors teachers and support staff we always try to do our best to manage as much as we can through attrition that's retirements and resignations unfortunately this year the budget was not able to absorb all the reductions through attrition since the Inception of S2 our total staff has decreased by 135 positions this budget was fully analyzed and tough decisions needed to be made impacting many aspects of our educational landscape and impacting all levels of the organization in working through this budget our priorities remain focused on preserving our academic program and retaining as many instructional staff as possible as we know instruction and student supports are the heart of our work and efforts must continue to create an administrative and supervisory environment that works alongside Educators to maximize their effectiveness Mr Boyce and I have spent um and our team have spent a lot of time um in reviewing and analyzing and preparing of this budget um Mr Boyce is going to kind of Step us through the budget plan um and this reflects really a compounded impact of S2 um and the difficult decisions that you know were made in order to balance this budget um Mr Boyce turn it over to you thank you Dr Hazel uh certainly a lot to digest in those opening comments uh and we'll we'll touch on all of them as we work our way through um I think that the best way to approach this is to um start sort of broad right what's the lay of the land how's a School District budget structured um the the state aid the legislative component how does that work into it um and and and then how did that impact Freehold Regional over time uh then we'll move to the the fy2 budget itself and finally where do we go from here so I wanted to start by just looking at an overall school budget now this is the Revenue side of the budget um and certainly there's a lot to look at there what I wanted to First address is just the fund structure so what you see here are three funds um that represent in to together represent the School District budget um for a total budget of uh 900 or sorry 214 million um you can see that 207 million of that is in the general fund so that's certainly The Lion Share of it and that's where we will be uh spending most of our time tonight but let me just touch on the other two uh I'll start from the bottom The Debt Service fund is um is uh reflects uh repayment of bonded debt so a few years back the community had a referendum and that passed and what that referendum actually does is it authorizes the dis the district to issue debt um and then perform the projects associated with that debt so so effectively they're there's authorizing the community to Levy and between a combination of of tax levy and state aid to make those debt payments over time so that's that's scheduled out for the duration of that that Bond debt um and you can see it's going to be fairly consistent all the way through special Revenue fund is for federal and state programs and it's primarily Federal uh that are very specifically earmarked for for specific use now uh some of these are are are very routine and very steady idea a federal program uh provides money for special education um the esa is the title grants uh provides money and and they're they're fairly consistent you'll see a a a sizable drop off here and what that represents is federal money that uh was in response to to covid so covid recovery money came in three pieces over time and that money has expired and so that's the reason for the the fall off and revenue there now that's actually um contributes to the the overall deficit that we worked to close uh because some of those cost although the intent was that they would match up with the the need associated with covid in the years that followed um and some of that need dissipated but not all of it so to the extent that it persists then it moves up into the general fund and puts additional stress on the general fund other uh components of this Federal funding Esser funding this in particular is the ARP Esser um funding um are are things that we were able to do during that time but with the elimination of the or the expiration of the funding those Associated programs are no longer going to be continued so general fund and and I want to I want to spend some time on the the top two the two major categories here which are property tax uh and state aid through the formula Aid um these are both connected uh and there are they both fall under the general umbrella of budget law uh that's on poos and they they they work together and so we're going to take a a look at that specifically just in general and then we'll look at it as it applied to Freehold region all over time so the funding formula state aid sfra they're all essentially synonymous for the piece of legislation that enacts the school funding formula and it's a methodology to ensure that all districts have an adequate amount of money to provide a thorough and efficient education that's that's the charge of our state level legislators is to come up with a system that uh ensures that that happens and and that's a that's a tall order and there have been a number of funding formulas along the way uh the one that is in place now the school funding Reform Act uh came about in 2008 and I think the the the conceptual the bones of it are very sound they're solid and it's a fairly straightforward approach right so first would be to measure how much should it cost and then the second step of that is how are we going to pay for it so that seems like a pretty reasonable approach to me uh so here here's how it works they take the district spe specific enrollment and push it through a uniform cost model to arrive at a number the adequacy budget now that's a different number for every single School District because although the cost model is uniform which means it's the same cost model applied to every District every district has a different enrollment has different demographics in their enrollment and the the cost model will address the specific characteristics of those students that have different needs and therefore there are different costs associ with that so that's the approach to determine what's necessary the next step in this is to uh the the the way that it's designed it's local fair share first so let's talk about that uh that's the community um think property taxes the community's contribution to the adequacy budget to the extent that they were able to to pay um and so the the calculation of the local fair share has been um has been volatile and this is a tough a tough thing to do to measure a community's ability to pay um because that's going to take some judgment and some methodology that they have to land on so what the formula calls for is to look at two wealth indicators right and then translate them into what could the community afford on property taxes those two wealth indicators are the essentially the fair market value of your property which would be an indicator of wealth and also uh the income tax returns from the most recent year um so they take those two and convert them into a community's ability to pay whatever is remaining that's necessary to get to the adequacy budget that would be what's called Equalization Aid all right or state aid so state aid actually there's really two categories there's um something called categorical Aid and those are uh different things that H wealth does not influence the calculation of funding that would go to each School District um and and very often they're things that just don't lend themselves to a some broad-based formula or cost model um things like Transportation because that's that's a geography that's impacted by geography so a very rural area uh there costs for Transportation would be a lot more than um an area that you could fill an elementary school in a 10 block radius right so they remove that kind of impact because it's not going to fit into to a un to a cost model that could be applied um so the categorical AIDS plus Equalization Aid which is the only one that's influenced by wealth um together are what's known as state aid and that's what it appears on on budgets in school districts across the state so that's the design of it conceptually um how that's played out over time has been the subject of uh considerable debate um so what I have here is this is the local fair share and total state aid uh because that's the the more important number it's not just Equalization Aid and I'll speak more about that in a bit but I going to give you a moment to just take a look at this the red lines are what the SF calculated should happen and the green lines are what actually happened so take a moment to digest that so the local fair share and let's talk about the the red line of the local fair share I mentioned earlier that it's it's somewhat volatile from year to year as in in this measure of a community's ability to pay for its own education and it's been um it's it's gone up significantly um but our property tax levy has not and the reason for that one of the reasons for that is that there's another budget law uh unrelated to the sfra that limits increases to the property tax levy by 2% so uh the the designers of the sfra did not contemplate that limitation when they came up with a system to ensure that every district has an adequate amount of money to provide a thorough and efficient education so in cases like freeold Regional and other districts as well um the inability to access your local fair share has pushed us further and further below adequacy because on the aid side um the aid is calculated as if the entire local fair share is available to the district uh which it's not because of the 2% cap law so it's not it's not surprising that as the local fair share red line goes up the aid the associated Aid would go down right because they're going to move uh in that relationship to each other because taken together they would need to fund adequacy so the tax levy at currently at 155 5 million for this 25 budget um is $50 million below the state's calculation of this community's ability to pay property taxes uh which is a significant differential um and it's not something that if the 2% Capital Levy did not exist um I cannot imagine that over the the span of of the sfra um that the district would have availed itself of that level of property taxes along the way but that's that has been what the formula um calculates on the other side it's also an interesting dynamic because if you look at the green line of what actually happens you'll notice that for several years there the amount of Aid remains flat so there was a period of time where uh there was some philosophical differences at the state level as to whether or not the SF is the right approach and during that time the implementation of the formula was essentially paused and districts got the same as they got last year now some districts were on the good side of that uh and and some districts were not on the good side of that so A District that had declining enrollment if you think back to the the circles of how much should it cost as the student profile the demographics dropped well then the adequacy budget would go down in a corresponding way and therefore because it's lower after the local fair share there would be less a there would be less money to pull together to meet adequacy um on the other hand districts that had increasing enrollment uh well their adequacy budget was going up uh their state aid was not going up assuming local fair share remained consistent their state aid was not not going up so there were a lot of districts that were under adequacy districts with growing enrollment and other needs that wasn't being addressed during this time uh Freo Regional was on the good side of that um we had modest declines in enrollment uh but more importantly our enrollment wasn't going up so the the the flat State funding over over that stretch of years uh didn't harm this District so at a at a point where S2 and you'll see S2 and that's a piece of legislation refers to Senate bill number two um which was the state's attempt to like set to step back and say all right we need to course correct here and we need to start moving districts from this just flat same as last year methodology to following the formula as it was designed and in order to do that uh they took a seven-year phase in to do it in one year would have been too abrupt um for districts to be able to manage over time and so on during those seven years they gradually brought down the state aid of districts that were over AED um at to where they should be according to the formula fiscal year 25 is the last year of that now fre Regional is a district that is unique and in is the only one that was impacted by a change in this trajectory of S2 and that happened last summer so if you notice the last two years of the green line on the aid side are flat the reason for that is that legislation was passed that districts that met certain criteria which we did and I believe we were the only ones that did um would be exempt from S2 Cuts in the final two years so that's FY 24 and y 25 um and the condition to that was that um courtesy busing would be provided during those years so um and we had um we had just cut courtesy busing in our original budget for the current year so a year ago right at this time we had cut courtesy busing and and this this piece of legislation that was championed by uh Senator goal um whose legislative district um is within fre Regional uh was able to to to pause that those cuts for those two years so that was extremely beneficial um the amount of the cuts which was 6.7 million uh for 24 and another 4 million for the 25 budget we've we've avoided but effectively uh what that legislation did was not eliminate those cuts but simply defer them so uh as a you know the 25 budget looking towards the future the state aid calculation has us slated to um lose 10.8 million in state aid for the 26 budget right and that's those two years deferred so good for now uh but potentially a problem down the road now I think with uh with S2 coming to an end in fy2 um there there seems to be and Dr Hazel and I were down at the assembly um at committee um hearings and the and the Senate Ed committee hearings um to to listen to some of that discussion there seems to be some broad support for um going in and taking a look at the SF ahead of the FY 26 budget and uh making any adjustments that would make it work right again you know districts like Freo Regional and others that are significantly below adequacy um have have made the case along the way here during these years that you know we need a path to adequacy um I mean we we in fre Regional we started out in in in 20 with being 1.6 million below adequacy and I'm I'm going to I'm going to cheat here so 21 we were 1.6 million below adequacy then 4.8 then 11.4 13.6 and now 19.3 so you can see it's a steady decline um year over-year and some of the decisions that we've made along the way we've made out of need out of desire to to keep programs and staff afloat while at the same time advocating uh fiercely for um you know reform in sfra and a path to adequacy so that's how the sfra came about and that's how it's impacted Freehold Regional over time um so like as Dr Hazel said you know we are optimistic about the year ahead um I think now that S2 has come to a close that's an opportunity to to get in there and since everybody is is right except for Freo Regional we're actually probably the only ones that are overed at this point to the tune of 10.8 because of the legislation that that um Senator gopal championed and was very helpful and is again very helpful for for fiscal year 25 so back to the Revenue slide there's a couple items on here and this is this is really indicative of um some of the challenges that that this district and others face is um non-recurring revenues um getting matched up with recurring expenses right so and and and and we've done we've used those strategies and they compromise the overall structural Integrity of the budget they will run their course uh and predict as we knew um they they were going to run their course but things like this it's uh these are onetime pieces of Revenue and I'm just going to use that as a jumping off Port so the first is uh s39 50 that's what I just talked about with the two years of deferred state aid cuts um so in 24 when we got the total was 6.7 million cut for 24 we were required to uh reinst courtesy busing which we did that cost $3.5 million um and the the the balance of that the 3.2 million that you'll see in the fy2 we did not Infuse that into the budget uh and and spend that instead we we held that back because we would knew we would need it for for 25 and and so and we have it as a item of Revenue in in 25 and it's been helpful I mean even with that still uh more than $1 million of a deficit that we needed to to manage uh the other item is um was a onetime only um infusion of state aid uh at this time last year um and it was the legislator's effort to sort of S2 uh offset deeper than expected S2 Cuts uh but it was you know it had its own category and it didn't factor into the S2 calculations um but it was a one time and it's not available again this year so districts S2 districts so districts receiving Cuts did get this onetime infusion of state aid and that was very fortunate for that year but we moved to the next year and it's a it's an immediate hole in our in our budget Revenue wise um so I just wanted to highlight those two things and then and then talk more about uh you know other funding sources and other strategies that we've used along the way you'll see the other important or significant item on here is fund balance so as Dr Hazel mentioned um we have aggressively been drawing down our Surplus Surplus fund balance are synonymous for the purpose of this conversation um and you can see there's you know we're going from 16 million to 11 million um and that traj that's going to be our continued trajectory that's not a one-time thing so as each years passes as you would imagine the the more aggressive you are and your draw down the less that's available uh for future years so on the revenue side those are um those are some unique aspects of it that that I wanted to mention I will also mention that something that Dr Hazel uh noted in her opening comments was that we um we we we drew down an additional 2 million uh than had originally been set aside uh that's included in the 11 million but again these are these strategies that we use to to to close a budget Gap so okay so so the revenue uh story is is is up there on the appropriation side uh you all should have a handout that was available up at the table and for those of you uh watching the video it'll be in the budget section uh there should be a copy of it there as well and you should look at that in connection with this so um as you can see you know better than 70% of the money that we spend goes towards instruction and support services uh the next largest player at 25 million is transportation um facilities uh 9% Transportation 12 facilities 9% administrative costs eight uh and then there's some Capital costs uh also included it's actually not zero but it's point less than 0.5 so it's coming up at zero let me just talk a little bit about facilities um so in in in typical times a district would set aside money along the way um into what are called facility reserves there's two of them but they're think of them as like savings accounts to accumulate money to um pay for Big Ticket Capital type projects new roof that type of thing um things that are of a size that you can't fit into a normal operating budget so there's an opportunity to set money aside fill those reserves and draw from them as needed we uh have not been able to make any deposits into those reserves with our budgets um over the last five six years um because we've we've needed the dollars to dedicate to the operating budget um because of cuts in state aid along the way and being driven further and further below adequacy um so what a district will do and what what we've done is um a referendum to um handle some a collection of these big ticket items we were able to do that a few years back for $15 million it was um Roofing and Paving projects certainly not everything that needed to be addressed but the the most imminent um priority One tier of roofing and Paving projects uh and the and the community was was supportive of that um but in the meantime you know we we don't anticipate we have not been able to deposit money reserves we don't anticipate to be able to budget to deposit money into reserves to handle that so we need to incorporate that in our larger long-term thinking as far as our fa facilities and and capital needs go um but at at this time and for the forceable future providing funding within an annual budget for that type of thing it's just not not viable um so let's talk specifically about closing um what was initially an $ 11.4 million uh budget Gap um and you take a moment to to read the different categories um that that we have listed up there uh you know many of these things we've been uh doing uh along the way uh with S2 um we've been um engaged in this and when you uh Cuts things like uh building allocations or curriculum resources and things like that you know that's it's not likely to be in a position to be restored in the following year because we're still in Cut mode with a new round of less Revenue to work with so if you compound this stuff over time um you really get to the point where there's not much left to do there um and as Dr Hazel mentioned earlier that our spending metrics are very low um to be the lowest among our 31 sibling districts there 31 High School only districts across the state or lowest spending among those or the lowest spending of of 50 or so Mammoth school districts which we shouldn't be right because high school students are more expensive than middle school students and who are more expensive than Elementary School students and that's all reflected in that uniform cost model we talked about earlier um so with a district that's all high school students could make the argument you would expect that to be the highest spending District uh since they are all high school districts so our spending metrics uh farewell but that's that's an interesting thing to show and I think it's the next slide uh but it doesn't it doesn't do any good on the ground um because we're F we're falling further and further uh below and those metrics will continue to to reflect um lower and lower spending for the district which is is not something that we necessarily aspire to be but it is an indicator of you know the efficiencies that we do have when you look at the opportunities available at freehill Regional um and and and at the price points uh we think that's a should really serve as a model for how to do do it now we do have economy of scale working in our favor um and uh so that that plays a role for sure but a lot of that is in terms of you know critical mass of student interest to support a program uh whether it's a culinary you know if you have a 1200 kid high school out there there's not going to be enough kids interested in pursuing that path to begin a culinary program with a fully functioning restaurant and bakery and front the house back of the house it's excellent experience um over at fre burrow high school that kids can um can uh apply for and get involved with but and it's because of our size and that there's enough students to support that type of program um I think uh Dr Hazel has covered uh much of that uh in our opening comments and and and in addition along the way when we're talking about Revenue items so the work ahead of us is um in anticipation of FY 26 um there are a number of things that we are going to look at and are in the process of looking at uh and exploring so that we have we are prepared to do the next level of things that we need to do in order to submit a balanced budget um in the area of Transportation um you know courtesy busing would be back on the table subscript rtion busing how does that look um we're going to look at changing School times and moving from a two-tier transportation system to a three- tier transportation system um and see if that's something that's that's viable um in the area of Athletics uh that could include any one of or a combination of participation fees uh fewer academic and extracurricular opportunities available fewer levels of Athletics right so there's a couple different ways to go at that and so that'll be part of our work as we prepare for the next year um administrative structure what are other ways to do that um and leverage our administrative Personnel to the best of our ability and uh and what are the financial implications of that uh other Revenue so um sponsorships advertising that type of thing um perhaps accepting to ition students in certain programs is something that we're going to take a look at um that's nuanced as well so we do have our work ahead of us for that um selling assets included in tonight's uh uh in the Miss in Revenue tonight is the sale of um 10 to 12 school buses um because um you know there's a bus driver shortage out there I do not believe that that is going to end anytime soon and while we are originally had 124 of our own drivers we now have around 75 drivers um because there's a extreme bus driver shortage out there so I'm not going to maintain a fleet that's built for 100 plus drivers uh so those buses some of those buses were going to sell and they school buses have a useful life um so the these buses would still have useful life ahead of them but in selling assets that's the type of thing we're we're looking for there's also a an a parking lot adjacent to our transportation Depot that we've cut that's part of the Appropriations cut so because we'll have less buses we won't need that lot uh other areas would um with all of the areas I mentioned and then finally programs themselves and you know uh the undersubscribed programs are we are we offering the right programs the student interest shifted where can we make the best use of the dollarss that we have in program offerings so that would be refining our our program so a lot of work ahead of us in preparation for the decisions we may have to make um come this time next year so as I I just mentioned um you know [Music] [Music] so um here's here's the comparative and this is available on the state's website so if you if you go to the DOA section of the website this is the um taxpayers guide to education spending and what it does is it takes audited numbers and um analyzes them groups them um with similar districts uh so that you can have a comparative look at where you stack up compared to to other school districts uh you can see our our spending per pupil of 14512 is considerably less than the category right next to it the gr category which is all 31 of the high school only districts so we're we're the lowest of that grouping there and then you can see where you know other groupings of districts based on grade range and enrollment and how that shakes out so all that information is available District by District category by category it's it's a good resource um to see really where your District Stacks up on spending so property tax impact for what is um what was advertised in the tenative budgets um is of a 2% increase in the levy it looks like this now a couple comments about this this is tax rate right there is more than the tax rate that factors into the amount of property taxes you pay as an individual property owner um Mammoth County had piloted a program to bring all municipalities their assessed value which is the actual basis you P your taxes on up to uh fair market value in an effort to just make the tax burden spread evenly across not only from town to town but within each Town um so that as those assessments and the value of the properties go up um on the tax sucessor books then then necessarily the rates come down so this is not the whole story what I would suggest is that you you get your individual property tax bill um and any questions that you have your local assessor uh can can address those specifically but from a tax rate perspective this is what it looks like with a 2% increase on on the budget now this is something that is currently in motion uh it's pending legislation um because there there are a number of districts and just generally speaking there are some school districts that are a year or two ahead of us um in in in being in in a crisis position um and those districts are confronting that now one of the legislators responses to that has been um this proposed legislation that would allow districts to um to increase property taxes and for those districts who were cut this year a portion of that they would be eligible to receive a grant which would just be more state aid but that's only for the current year and only for two-thirds of the current year we have no current year cut so for districts like us it's a five-year look back so the way it works as currently proposed but not yet passed is you look at what your state aid is for 25 H compared to what your state aid is for 21 that difference you would be allowed to go beyond the 2% cap that differential for us is $10 million plus um so there was a lot of discussion about that among the uh the administrative team Dr Hazel and our team as to uh what what the different variations of that look like what I've included here is it's not the the full 10 million uh it's 7 million um to to get to the 10 million that's actually the the spread there but inclusive of the 2% rather than in addition to um as something to put forward for the board's consideration should this be available by the time we adopt our budget on uh May 14th so so uh the the corresponding tax impact so instead of the one that we just looked at it would look it would look more like that now that is uh something that passed the assembly last week um it's scheduled to be heard um or considered by the senate in in the weeks to come September 9th um and then the last day for a school district to adopt a budget is May 14th we've moved our May our our May meeting to May 14th was the it was earlier than that um just to preserve options for the board um to the greatest extent that we can uh so that's something that is is not yet resolved we'll see where we land when it comes uh May 14th uh and the board will consider action course of action from there if this were to be the course of action um this is our view of how that additional $7 million would be spent a lot of the things that we discussed here that we've discussed previously in this in this presentation so they'll be fam familiar to you a couple things I do want to point out reinstate the raay academy so the raay academy is a Twilight program that uh was discontinued but with um that the federal covid related grant money when that did come um that was one of an important response to covid uh and discipline issues and getting students readjusted um raise was a very useful tool and was funded through that program um but with the Esser money expiring that Federal grant money expiring uh raise was not included is is not included in the budget that includes a 2% increase on the levy it's not technically a cut because it was never funded through the general fund um but nonetheless it's raay would not be here next year one of the things that we would propose to do is to bring raay back for another year and continue that resource for uh our students for one more year um budget risk let me just adjust um ad address that in general so one of the collection of strategies that we've used uh along the way um during the the S2 years was to tighten Appropriations without a corresponding cut now obviously risk comes with that um if you um reduce your utility appropriation you're more aggressive with your projections well there's more risk that uh you you may not have sufficient funds in that particular line item I mean we have not although we've become uh more risk tolerant in those areas we've not crossed over into irresponsible in my opinion but that's where we're headed we're approaching it and in some cases we're fairly close to it more than I'm really comfortable with but that's those are the things that we've need to do in order to keep programs and services available to our school Community um so part of the the risk the additional risk taken on um in this 25 budget uh we would restore some of that and it's roughly 50% of the risk taken um you see the area of of uh um adjust Appropriations and and what that refers to is in the area of health benefits one of the things that we did along the way in last two years was move to a fully insured health benefits program there is more risk in that but there's also uh more opportunity to reap the benefit of low claims year uh so that's that's the one area that we would be one of the areas that we would be looking at in there so with this pending legislation should it become available uh it's the tax impact was the previous slide but it's another $7 million plus of Revenue and this is how that would be deployed this is how we're proposing that be deployed um so uh I'm I'm sorry I'm holding this upside down so I'm going backwards instead of forwards uh so so that's that's a an overview of the FY 25 budget and so I think the important Tak takeaways here are um you know a lot of the strategies we've used have run their course um we have a potential problem waiting for us in 26 in terms of state aid we are hopeful that uh the state um spent some time with the sfra and makes the necessary adjustments so that districts have an opportunity to get to adequacy budget and have an adequate amount of money to provide a thorough and efficient education by by that measure um and we're also hopeful that the legislation that's currently pending is is uh is seen as as passed and that the board can consider um the options associated with that um so with that Dr I'll turn it back over to you and then questions from the board and questions from the community now U Mr Boyce thank you as always um an extremely clear presentation I think really demonstrates you know our current situation for the fiscal year 25 budget and you know potentially where we're heading in the future um you know our goal uh as a district is to move in in getting our budget you know uh to at least adequacy uh we hope these bills s um you know it's really a stepping stone uh I don't you know see that they are the answer to you know all of our concerns here at freeh hole Regional High School District um but we'll you know take each step you know as they come um we are hopeful that the legislators will be re you know reviewing and making changes to the sfra uh that's the school funding formula to ensure you know that districts you know like ours can get to adequacy um we will um you know as superintendent business administrator and our central office team um are building administrators we are going to continue to work uh to prepare for a range of future scenarios um I can't wait on that work um you know we will be back here you know in April um so preparations begin once we get through this um to begin to kind of look at our district and plan for our future uh we remain steadfast in advocating you know for reasonable you know funding reform um and I know everybody that's here our Board of Education our administrators all of our you know professional staff we all remain committed to advocating you know for our children's education um in this school district that's our top priority um I would like to thank um man alipin Township uh for being here uh this evening Marian musk and and Susan Cohen um you know they're always out gaining the knowledge and and supporting you know this school district so thank you very much um also tonight here with us is Michael ilano uh from Senator gopal's office if you can give a wave we have spoken uh by phone um has been extremely helpful in kind of uh assisting us and and navigating um this work um you know I believe from his office and Senator gopal's office uh we're very hope ful um for this legislation but really hoping for further change in the future um and um you know the Senator's office is you know been kind of our partner hand inand always you know willing to pick up the phone talk with us listen uh spent time at those Senate um Ed committee meetings down in Trenton um so um you know we will remain you know on a path of advocacy you know for the students of this school district um so is very hopeful that everything goes well on May 9th um and that gets uh signed uh by the Senate uh still I think needs a Governor's signature um so um we have extended as uh Mr Boyce mentioned um may9th board meeting will now be May 14th that is the absolute last day um so if everything is in check you know we could possibly look at you know that plan B option um for our budget which would be extremely you know helpful good yes yeah thank you so much thank you so much thank you so questions from so I just want I have a comment um we use the word hopeful after hearing the beginning of his presentation so many of us have been here for so long as board members and principes and assistant principls and teachers um we've been beat up and um we Rose every year we seem to um and when you talk about 26 I don't have any hair to lose but it it's frightening so um we just have to hope that there's a better scenario out there the busing last year was a great blessing um but um you know when you see 39 staff members reduction that's hard and when you look at 135 over eight years that's a lot So and I've walked through the buildings our class SI are they're big so and that's happens when you cut so um but you use the word hopeful I think all of us are and um hopefully May 9th will'll be walking out with a little bit of a smile any other board members comments Mr messeng Mr boy on the last slide you had when it had um the potential tax increase that may come yes so if said MB 1.8 does that mean 1.8 cents higher percentage me give me moment Mr yeah the the the tax rate would go up it's a 3.7% increase in the tax rate and that increase is 1.8 okay uh Mr Boyce if I may um uh so the piece of legislation that is currently before um government uh allows potentially for an increase of 6.67% but we in that plan B model would only be requesting or only be upping our tax rate 4.67% right so we're 2% under what the state would under that model that that's correct but just some clarification because coincidentally some of the numbers match up that's an additional uh additional um on top of the 2% so so it would be 8.7 right the 8.7 that would be inclusive I'm sorry of the 2% the 6.7 is the for the $7 million that's also inclusive of the 2% so an additional um 4.7 or 6.7 but 4.7 is what was an additional 4.7 is what was represented on the board but the law would state that we could get if it passes would State we could take up to 8.7 and we're as the this FR Regional is not requesting that amount correct that's correct and and so interestingly there is in the law a cap of that you you can't go over overall 99.9% so even but for us even if we accessed all of that was available to us that would only bring us to 8.6 so that overall cap doesn't we don't get to that um so uh yes but your summary is is right we're not looking to add an additional 10 million it's an additional 7 million um which which results into an overall tax increase of 6.67 perc any other board member comments All yes thank you Mr Bruno uh I I just want to thank all the administration are here tonight uh and for the last few years you guys have really done um done more with less and into our Administration and and I understand that because I work in state government and sometimes we get cut and they tell you to do more with less uh and I just appreciate that um I was on the finance committee this year and uh you know we've kicked around all everything that's happening right now and I just want everybody know that one of the things that we did talk about recently and and I think it's important that the community understands is that if if we do end up going out and and and raising taxes um we we don't do it lightly and and we it's important for me I'll speak for myself that the that our community understands that if we access this money uh I will do everything to Advocate that this money is appropriated towards the student experience uh I communicated that to uh to Dr Hazel and the administration uh to our facilities that this money is going to be spent in areas to enhance the student experience student support programs and uh I just want the community to know that that's that's important to me thank you thank you any other board members comments okay Mrs Fox I saw you come in would you like to make a comment okay the microphone's on that's one right here thank you're welcome this is very disheartening I have several points and questions Mr Samson had a lawsuit against the state what happened to it I know that's number one question yeah want to answer them okay if I was the administration and I mean all administrators I would be leaning so hard on the stage St and being in their face constantly you want answers you lean on them I also don't understand why every year the main weight is on marbor look at the taxes that marbor pays compared to all the other towns not fair and the most embarrassing thing of all and I it gives me so little hope for what's going on in the classrooms we have a sign that spelled taxpayers wrong thank you very much so Mr Fox I I can do both so the U the status of the lawsuit it was a number of districts that that Bann together um to try and um get from the state the methodology of creating those variables that translate the wealth indicators into to ability to pay um as of yet uh there's that has we haven't been successful at that with that um but we continue to pursue it and trying to get to the bottom of that how about pushing in their face regarding the uh tax allocation um so the the state um long many years ago decided how the um the district's tax levy would be a portioned among the communities and there's there's really three factors at play there first is the equalized value or market value of the properties in each of the eight municipalities um and they they actually split that valuation uh between Elementary and high school and the ratio with which they split it is the ratio of elementary students to high school students so uh the once that's done the the the high school portions from each of the municipalities form the base and the percentage share is then calculated and that's how the uh the the tax levy is is split up among the eight municipalities so so M should be getting a whole lot more than anybody else since we pay so much more being taed more you're being you're being you're being taxed more because of the situation and it's not it's interesting because it's not only what's going on it's not marro specific but what's going on in your own uh your own town as far as you know what's the enrollment doing in elementary versus high school but it's also because that could be the same but it's also in relation to what's happening in the other seven towns so you know there there are several factors at play there but I think the the the bottom line the long and short of it is that the methodology is imposed on the district and any other Regional District as well about how to uh split up the levy among the municipalities thank you you good Mrs Fox um except for the explanation of how taxpayers was SP incorrectly where is that on one of the signs it's embarrassing and I have so many more suggestions me so that's my bad I apologize maybe you should ask me to review and I mean it I am an editor professional editor everything before it goes public I do have so many more ideas but I cannot say the publicly thank you very much for acknowledging me thank you now we're going to go back to our um committees well any other anybody else there's nobody isn't anyone else except by Mr Fox tonight okay okay so we're going to go back to our um reports and Mr messenger you're going to do for maror he's going to do Finance in the finance night isn't because that Mr voice mentioned it discussed so I would just be repeating okay all righty thank you and Mr fi from how Township you're going to be do thank you Mr Bruno and thank you Mr Messinger because I have a long policy report so let's cut to the chase here Dr Hal said she would be shortening it and Dr Howell thank you for giving me this summary to read um all right everybody stay with me I know it's been a lot tonight um the State Board of Education what's that yeah the New Jersey State Board of Education reopt New Jersey Administrative Code 6A colon 7- 1.1a which I will Hereafter refer to as the code since it's referenced several dozen times uh managing for equity and education with revisions to the code uh the code uh um provides rules governing equity in educational programs to guarantee each student equal access to all educational programs services and benefits of their school district regardless of the students housing status socioeconomic status or immigration status in addition to any protected category previously included in the code the code also includes the protected classes listed in New Jersey law against discrimination such as race Creed color national origin and ancestry age marital status civil union status domestic partnership status affectional or uh sexual orientation genetic information pregnancy or breastfeeding sex gender identity or expression religion disability atypical hereditary cellular or blood trait service in the armed forces of the United States or nationality to align directly with the revisions of the the code Strauss smme has removed the list of all the protected categories throughout the policy and regulation guides and replace the list with the phrase the protect quote the protected categories listed at the code end quote this also avoids repeating the complete list of all the protected categories in multiple places throughout a policy or regulation guide and avoids the need to revise these policy and regulation guides if the listed list of protected classes is revised in the future I will now go through and read all of the policies affected by this change policy 1140 educational Equity policies affirmative action most of their revisions in policy guide 1140 removed the list of protected categories and replac the list with the expanded list as defined in the code the remaining revisions are minor updates in the updated administrative code and relocate information addressing the C to policy guide 1523 policy 1530 equal employment opportunities the revisions and policy guide 1530 remove the list of protected categories and replace the list with the expanded list as defined in the code policy 1550 Equal Employment anti-discrimination Practices the only revision and policy guide 1550 removes the list of protected categories and replace the list with the expanded list as defined in the code policy 3211 code of ethics the only revision and policy guide 3211 removes the list of protected categories and replace the list with the expanded list as defined in the code policy 5841 secret societies the only Revision in policy guide 5841 removes the list of protected categories and replace the list with the expanded list as defined in the code policy 9323 notification of juvenile offender case disposition policy guide 9323 removes a list of protected categories and replace the list with the expanded list as defined in the code a confidentiality statement has been added to policy guide 9323 policy 2260 equity in school and classroom practice I es the revisions in policy guide 2260 include the relocation of information addressing access to adequate counseling services to policy guide 2411 and align with the recent revisions in this is a different code njac 6A 7- 1.7a the revisions and policy guide 2411 provide some additional details regarding student access to adequate counseling services policy 2423 bilingual education the New Jersey State Board of Education adopted changes to njac 6A colon 15 and the requirements for bilingual education in public school districts the recent amendments to njac 6A colon 15 address the services multilingual Learners previously called English language learners need to meet or exceed the New Jersey student learning standards to reach graduation and postsecondary success the four key areas of njac c6a colon 15 with revisions are definitions identification organization and additional requirements of the of a school district the title has also been updated policy 2431 point4 prevention and treatment of sports related concussions and head injuries the New Jersey Department of Education division of Educational Services office of student Support Services released a new quote model policy and guidance for districts on the prevention and treatment of sports related head injuries and concussions and quote policy and regulation guides 243 1.4 have been Rewritten to align with the provisions of the new Guidance the revisions to policy and regulation guides 243 1.4 are aligned with the most current recommendations developed by the Center for Disease Control and prevention adoption of policy regulation guides 243 1.4 will ensure a most a school district is in compliance with the statutory requirement to maintain a policy that is aligned to the most current recommendations developed by the CDC um real quickly the r regul right right okay so regulation 5530 substance abuse uh regulation 5530 was referred to was revised to reflect prior updates to regulation 5660 student discipline code of conduct regulation 56600 separated the discipline for use of substance and possession SL distribution of a substance regulation 5530 now separates the discipline for use of a substance and possession distribution of a substance policy 5570 sportsmanship policy guide 5570 has been updated to align with the 2023 2024 njs AA general information Constitution bylaws rules and regulations other revisions and policy guide 5570 include removing two optional Provisions for determining unsp for S conduct and removing the list of protected categories and replacing the list with the expanded list as defined in the uper mentioned code policy 5750 Equitable Educational Opportunity reference to the Amistad commission curriculum and the commission on Holocaust Education curriculum has been removed from policy guide 5750 as these curricula are referenced in policy guide 2260 policy 5842 equal access of student organizations policy guide 5842 has been revised to address student involvement in student organizations other revisions and policy guide 5842 remove the list of protected categories and replace the list with the expanded list as defined in the code policy 7610 vandalism policy guide 7610 has been updated to remove the list of protected categories and replace the list with the expanded list as defined in the code policy guide 7610 has been updated to address acts of graffiti as new uh njsa 2C colon 33-10 provides for a court order the uh for the student to pay restitution to the district and assign community service requiring the student to remove their graffiti I have two more left policy 1523 comprehension Equity plan the revisions to policy guide 523 add requirements to the C and last but not least policy 5755 equity and educational programs and services policy guide 5755 has been abolished as the all the information within policy guide 5755 is addressed elsewhere in strauss's SMA policies and regulations I thank everybody for your time po you poor thing it's okay I thought I did okay you did all right everybody still good it was a lot that's I I did policy for a long time it's tough and that was summarized that was a summary so thank you so we're going to go back to the agenda and we're going to do G Personnel negotiations oh we're not going I'm sorry because we have to changes you go right ahead so uh um two additional resolutions and then um some changes to existing resolutions oh thank you two additional uh resolutions and and uh two changes to existing resolutions I'll do the additions first uh g17 approval of termination be resolved that upon recommendation of the superintendent of schools the termination of employee 13020 be approved effective June 23rd 2024 uh and then another um resolution um this one will be j15 um titled Hib appeal uh j15 motion to deny the Hib appeal in connection uh with report number fb- 23-24 d17 uh so those are the two additions Mr Bruno and for the changes um in G3 uh approval of appointments please remove um Shaina kendu and uh Maria Montoya that's on G3 on G6 approval of student teachers internships and field placement please uh re remove Jessica rubman from consideration so the the agenda as amend thank you so getting back to the agenda we're going to look at personnel and negotiation G G1 through g17 I have a motion we had them at the same time is definitely second yeah that Mr Mr ACA okay you got it any discussion board not hearing any discussion roll call please Mr aceta yes Mrs Bruno I approve all except for G5 Mrs Capell um yes on everything except g15 and Livin Mrs hegley yes [Music] on Miss mob Yes except I abstain on g15 Mr pesi yes and I just want to thank everybody that worked on the uh contract for the custodians uh it was a lot of time and effort was put into it I'm glad that we got that resolved so thank you for all involved Mr massinger yes Mr Bruno yes Mr Tusc how with g15 so motion passes thank you we're going to go to H programmed operations building transportation and physical plant H1 through i1 can I have a motion mob Mr mob and no second was second oh c Sor and discussion not hearing any discussion board roll call Mr acola yes Mrs Bruno yes Mrs Capello yes Mrs Higley yes M maob yes Mr paresi yes Mr Messinger yes Mr Bruno yes we're going to go into J and K educational programs and administration may I have a motion to approve J1 through K7 motion Mrs Mr Mr ACA Mrs Higley second any discussion board not hearing any discussion roll call please Mr ACA yes Mrs Bruno yes Mrs cell yes on everything except on K1 I obain from Dr Hazel Mrs Higley yes and I also one miss mov yes Mr RI yes Mr Messinger yes Mr Bruno yes do any of the board members have any old business not hearing any old business okay and any new business and what are we doing Monday middle States you got something midle stat Monday morning we have another middle States committee yes and we have uh we'll have our visit um in the fall which um is in December uh so looking forward to that but our uh final meeting of our systems team uh Mr Bruno is a part of that um as well as a number of our administrators and staff and community members uh that'll be Monday morning at 8:30 okay great and then um anybody else have I just I apologize yeah I do apologize uh my math was off no no more policy it's no more policy no policy no no it's it's okay okay um no the because of the necessary extensions required under the nepotism act and school ethics act we actually were I I miscounted we were a 0.1 over over however because a majority of the board is unable to vote on the action item we will bring the action item back at the next meeting and we will have to invoke the doctrine of necessity that needs to be a formalized resolution that we will adopt and we'll have to mail it to the school ethics commission so we'll prepare that and it will be on the agenda for the for the 14th but question yes we have a full board then V then we won't have to no actually Mrs cap that's a great question no it's actually because of the number of weighted votes uh so just for members of the public um the fre Regional High School District uh members that you see here tonight on the board of education uh have weighted vote votes it is not uh each vote is is is equal uh some votes are weighted more than others in order for a motion to pass uh we need a weighted vote of at least 4.6 uh out of our total nine um I had just miscounted a tenth of uh one of the other votes so when we invoke the doctrine of necessity everybody can vote even those who are conflicted Mrs lad was here it would not matter okay it would not matter the doctrine can only be invoked when a majority of the board is conflicted which by virtue of the fact that the weighted votes of the individuals that had to abstain was 4.6 we have to invoke the doctrine I will tell you that I have been here since 2011 this will be the first time that we will have had to invoke the doctrine of necessity Mark for the purposes of the minutes of tonight's meeting the g15 does not okay but remainder of the G items do pass okay everything else inse everything else passed we will have it back on the agenda it's it's it's not a no vote we just need more weighted votes okay gotcha so nobody voted no for g15 for g15 g15 oh jeez well I still thank everybody for all their work on that we're going to we're finishing it we're going to finish it we'll we'll get it done get it done yes Mr Bruno I think it's worth reminding the public that the May 9th meeting is being moved to May 14th yes May 9th is postponed till May 14th at marbor high school what time 5 uh 5:30 Public's at 6:30 right Public's at 6:30 yes yes so the the meeting will open at 5:30 there'll be a motion to go into executive session and then back out in public at 6:30 we'll give our Awards and where was an awards night so 6:30 would be the the time to arrive okay so um a motion toj motion to adjourn okay and I need a second I have a second all those in favor hi is that Amanda