okay the time is now 7:30 I'll call the meeting to order adequate notice of tonight's meeting has been provided in accordance with the open public meetings act by the following methods through distribution of notice to the record posting of agenda on the school district website and through parents Square sorry Danel are we we're good to go okay thank you um can everyone stand for the Pledge of Allegiance please okay Mr Thomas can we a roll call please Miss Troy here Dr Miser here miss Molina Mr par Mr zepa Miss SEO Miss Thompson Miss Wilds vice president Melman and president Le President we have a quorum also in attendance is our superintendent of schools Dr gadens as well as our assistant superintendent of schools Dr caramanos as well our as well as our two student reps Emily gelbo and Renee Kim okay that brings us to our first uh public comment section on agenda related items anyone wishing to speak please step up to the podium provide your name and address and you'll have a two-minute time limit anyone from the public we'll address that board comment um please let the record show at 7:32 Mr seal has joined us um okay seeing no member okay uh seeing no members from the public wishing to speak on agenda related items we'll move on to item e public presentations good evening everyone it's good to see everybody good evening happy happy Tuesday night tomorrow uh the 20th day of March is the due date for the budget at the county as a result our board meeting which was scheduled originally for next Tuesday was mov this evening so that Mr Thomas evich could give his comprehensive budget presentation Thomas evich the floor it ran all the way through March 19th so it's a long process um I just like to recognize you know Dr Gay's our superintendent of schools Dr caramanos our assistant superintendent of schools as well as our key administrators uh stepping you know starting from the principles all the way down to all the various directors supervisors um as well as the finance and planning committee uh we basically you know was tirelessly you know a lot of meetings a lot of uh deciding on on you know what areas you know we wanted to put funds in what areas uh the need is for you know for our students so I'd like to start with that the first thing is is when we you know met as individually internal meetings as well as you know with the finance and planning the key thing that that we basically address is our current mission statement of the district uh so I would like to read it to everyone our District's mission is to provide schools that respond to individual needs and abilities as well as our Public's interest in an educated citizenry we seek to inspire our students students to develop their unique talents to live productively and to make a positive difference in an increasingly complex and interconnected World in concert with Home and Community knowledgeable educators will tailor rigorous programs that encourage relevant learning in Humanities Arts Sciences math Wellness vocation and Technology as a result of their experiences with our staff and within our schools our students will learn to think clearly critically and cre um so pretty much I mean the main goal of of the budget is to provide the necessary resources for our students um and every student uh to meet every student's needs uh within you know to provide the financial resources necessary so just before we start I just like to kind of go over you know what Le only your public schools what the facilities are what what is included in the Staffing so pretty much we have five facilities we have an elementary school a middle school and a high school school as well as an administrative building as well as an Annex Building um in addition we basically transport uh roughly 40 resident students are are being transported in District you know by our in District transportation as well as 530 non-resident students are being transported as well as by our IND District transportation department we roughly have about 27 buses and Van that we utilize uh Staffing is roughly over 375 full-time and part-time employees we have pretty much uh a little over 2,000 enroll students in District with 1520 resident students uh and that's basically as of October 15 2023 the last uh ASA car as well as Athletics we have roughly 29 Sports 43 teams 48 coaches one athletic trainer and over about 700 student athletes um in addition we have 50 co-curricular clubs and activities and we're always looking to expand um in that area so before I start into the different you know what's included in the budget in in the district's budget pretty much there's three funds that are that encompasses The District budget the first fund is the general fund pretty much this is the main fund of the district it accounts for all expenditures of the district for current uh based on current expenditures uh expenditures included here are regular program instruction cost as well as administrative and other support costs related to providing the district nor operations um in addition you'll find Capital expenditures if they relate to capital projects as well as Capital Equipment also recorded in this fund uh special Revenue fund that's pretty much any grants that we get whether it's a local Grant state or federal grant that has to be uh accounted for in a separate fund accounted for individually based on the grant so that you'll see you know our special Revenue grants that we're basically anticipating for next year and then the last piece is the death service fund this fund is is basically if if a district goes out and approves a referendum the payment of that debt that long-term debt is a counter for in the death service fund which death service fund has a separate tax levy the general fund has a separate tax levy special Revenue fund doesn't have any tax levy pretty much the grants Revenue coming in from Grants are offset with Grant expenditures so these are I just wanted to highlight some you know key budget area focuses in this budget which I'll go you know over every line uh briefly I'll put that up but these are the key uh trigger points that uh we had to basically identify when we had internal meetings as well as our our committee meetings um to figure out you know where the funds are going um as far as expenditures and revenues so I just like to point out the overall total budget there's a decrease of roughly 1.6 million uh so that includes general fund which is an increase of about 791 th000 roughly less than 2% special Revenue fund there was a huge decrease um as you know Co grants are coming off they cannot be realized so these are uh pretty much reoccurring grants that we were able to anticipate next year um in addition the death service fund there was a decrease of about 1.3 million this was the result of a bond maturing in 23 24 uh the other piece uh relating to District wide is considering enrollment changes for 2425 as you know uh part of our state a reduction was was tied to uh pretty much resident enrollment which pretty much uh trickles into enroll students enrollment so there was a anticipated decrease of about 11 students enroll is basically students that are resident that are attending one of our you know three schools in Leonia as well as our send receive relationship with ort um in addition to other leas that come in distri uh paying whether it's a a paying parent or it could be another Le for program that we're able to provide a need for we could bring in that tuition Revenue so when that all encompasses it we're envisioning um an increase I'm sorry an increase of 11 students I said decrease uh the next piece is the revenues so the changes in revenues here has the key key areas where we identified decreases increase that that basically offset our expenditures so the first decrease I would like to point out in the in the general fund uh well actually in the when we compare to the debt service is the total tax levy decrease of 399,000 so that's encompassing General funds tax levy as well as the death service tax levy uh when we combine the two together total tax levy is decreasing for next year for the for the taxpayers um in as a result later down the road I'll get into what that means and the impact it means on the average assessed home in the un uh the next area is the decrease in state a which I point out that was two parts were were due to this decrease it was mainly due to resident enrollment um the state projects our resident enrollment for next year based on that projection it it included a decrease as well as they they look at equalized Value and District income from the last census um they CRA in those two areas um compar compared to the uh adequacy budget and when they when they basically compared those numbers together they basically stated that LE schools required a decrease in state about 47,000 uh the next piece is tuition Revenue this comes pretty much from our enrollment numbers from edgew as well as other other leas and parent paid um and this is based on certified tuition rates that we approve uh so that's a basically an increase of 1.4 million uh the next piece is an increase of Transportation Revenue that's about 29,000 that comes from any agreements that we have from other leas which right now there currently two agreements I can anticipate it's the basically the transportation agreement we have with Edge Water Public Schools as well as Richville Park uh the next piece is increase of miscellaneous Revenue that's pretty much uh all the buckets that fall into that line it could be XTX Revenue it could be use of facilities uh that's pretty much we're anticipating an increase of about 7 69,000 uh next piece is excess Surplus that's a decrease of 25,000 that was basically Pres from our auditor last meeting that was basically um at the end of 22 23's fiscal year uh we basically had about $550,000 that we were able to bring back to the taxpayers which was a slight decrease from the year before of 25,000 the next piece is a huge decrease it's the capital reserve withdrawal the reason why this was a huge decrease as you know there's a lot of PES going on so the plan for next year is we you know we want to complete these current projects before are you know securing funds for other projects we want to make sure that these projects are completed so that's a decrease of about 1.4 million uh the next piece is the withdrawal for maintenance Reserve that's an increase of about 223,000 uh the next area of special Revenue grants which is highlighted above that was pretty much offset with grants that we were able to appropriate next year which the decrease was due to non-recurring Grants rela to co um as far as the expenditure side the offset of those changes in revenues uh the huge uh there was an increase in special costs which you know it keeps um all districts one of the areas that they're kind of facing um year in year out is increaseing special edit instruction as well as some of the related uh Services as well as extraordinary Aid to support the needs of those of those um students that are um identified in the IEP so that's basically an increase of about 181,000 um there's also an increase of District cost which was 54,000 an increase of out of District tuition which is another uh Factor facing all districts so our special service director Miss Russo you know she has done a great job in trying to bring some of these outer District students in and trying to provide the appropriate program to service these students so we're looking at about 488,000 increase um as a result of uh those those tuition rates increasing as well as increase in how to District students the next area which um I highlighted was increase in guidance of student services that was basically roughly about 43,000 uh there was a decrease in general administrative cost which was 311 uh to keep in mind when when we present the budget it's always based on modified so in these modified numbers it has uh legal costs associated with pending legal claims that we either appropriated this year or could be rolled over from the PRI Year from an open PE up so that's just highlight um in general that 311 is not a decrease per se um in the general operations of our general Administration it was just previous uh secure POS that we had for the pending legal points the next area which is another Factor affecting all districts is health benefits as well as other benefits so this is the total of all employee benefit lines uh that was an increase of about 410,000 that includes health benefits f for share of pension contribution relating to Pur and pcrp the next two areas is which I pointed out with the withdrawal from capital projects uh Capital reserves is a decrease of capital projects 1.3 as well as a decrease in Deb service payment of about 1.3 million so those both those sizes how we got to a Balan budget so i' just like to you know give some statistical information relating to state aid so just kind of you know the PRI past 10 fiscal years um as you from 2016 to roughly 1920 school year it's been flat um the reason why then it's kind of spiking and changing um that was due to the seur ACT um being in effect by the state so what happened is once that seur act came into effect in 1920 it was basically calculated differently based on it you know resident students as well as uh they call it local you know District local share um so you'll see you know from 21 there was a huge spike in in Resident enrollment and Bas on projected and then there's a decrease you know for next year the next are ASR statistical is Le only residence so you'll see from 2016 to 2025 U which kind of ties into the state aid increases you'll see from pretty much 2018 all the way to 2022 there was an increase in the only your residence that we report on our asssa count in October and then there's a slight decrease uh with a kind of tailing off a little bit uh remaining flat um as far as Leon Edge Water I like to always compare you know what the impact obviously because with Edge Water there is two dollars coming in based on the amount of students we have to unroll as well as Leon unroll students all those those two buckets you know obviously affect the the needs of those students um and drives the the cost of the whole you know entire dist uh budget so as you see here pretty much from 2016 to 2025 Leon and Edgewater kind of had a similar patter as far as increases in overall enrollment with u Leonia decreasing slightly and for next year Edgewater enrollment and this is obviously for Edgewater it's 72 so as far as summary of the funds uh roughly the general fund is about 42 million of the total budget special revenue is about 719,000 debt Services 1.2 million so in total the total Appropriations is 44 almost a little shy of 45 million um as far as the revenues which I kind of pointed out with increases and decreases these are the six main buckets um that districts can generate Revenue which you'll see tax levy federal aid state aid um and tuition in Leonia because of our sending receiving relationship with edgear those four buckets Drive the budget um rents royalties miscellaneous Revenue are kind of miss you know small amounts that really drive too much of the budget um Reserve withdrawals and surplus could drive the budget like last year if we have a lot of capital projects that we funding through reserves rather than increased taxes so this is these are all the lines in the budget um so I highlighted obviously the key changes anything over 4% is what I presented to everyone so this is basically overall we went from 23 24 about 42 million to 42,8 2016, which was the increase of 791 th000 which was a little shy of 2% U what I did was I backed off the PRI year incumbrances to give you a more adquate um accurate picture um if I threw the encumbrance in there it would kind of show that the budget you know it's it almost remain flat which is which isn't completely accurate so as I pointed out the general fund uh Revenue analysis as you see here taxes make up 56% uh which you know obviously drives the budget state aid um as well as is as well as if there's any federal sources um one of the federal sources in the general fund that we could bring in is basically our semi basically our semi um so those basically that's about 133% and then tuition is about 25% the other bucket as you see is pretty much 5% so the special Revenue programs that are in this budget that are constantly recurring that we could anticipate for next year uh typically speaking when the brants come out we always finalize the numbers um and you'll see resolutions on the agenda once we get the final numbers approving those final uh Grant Awards so pretty much we have all the titles Title One title two title three title four that's all under Essa um it used to be uh nclb in the past and then we have Ida grants those are pretty much for our special uh need students uh with additional resources to meet those needs um and then in addition perk these are the grants that we had previously from co uh which aren't reoccurring so we had eser 2 uh funds uh that kind of trickled into 222 uh 23 24 which pretty much S 2 ended this past September um now we're kind of spending down and finalizing all the expenditures relating to the r s r so that's going to run all the way till September 2024 as far as special revenues as you see here it's a decrease of 1.1 million um this is D driven by grants so as grants as we secure grants in the future we could always appropriate it mid year so this is One Fund that is flexible um as grants come on we can basically secure the grant funding and then the budget gets modified uh Debt Service as you see here it basically dropped almost 50% a little bit more than 50% so it went from 2.5 million to 1.2 million uh one of the bonds matured so we have one Bond left so that was the driving factor in why the t uh the taxes decreas um as far as Appropriations I like to kind of go over you know what is included in Appropriations um as you see here there's four buckets in Appropriations so pretty much instruction is is the larger of the bucket that's tied directly to instruction of students uh whether it's regular uh which is General Ed special education other instruction and school sponsored activities and Athletics then we have our Support Services those are tied to um it could be uh counseling it could be uh our child study team any of the related Services uh media um in addition we have General Administration School administration essential Services plan and operations which is you know all our our maintenance lines and student transportation uh next piece is capital outlay that relates any Capital Minal capital projects and then the last piece is Debt Service um as you see here tied to a referendum these other three are pretty much tied in in the general so this is the general fund Appropriations this is the other side so as you see here it's balance U this will also increase 791 th000 and these are all the lines that reflect that that increase so which I kind of went over the highlighted areas anything over 4% I kind of pointed out um that's pretty much um I like to kind of in the budget um another big part of the budget salary and fringe benefits including health benefits uh salaries is directly tied to bargaining agreements tied to uh employee contracts uh health benefits is obviously tied we're part of the state health benefit plan so rates set by the state um as you see here pretty much those buckets represent about 80 a little over 80% of our total general fund budget special Revenue these are the Appropriations which you'll notice same level uh grants on one side matches the grants on the other Debt Service uh this is basically how the debt is is basically funed interest in bonds decreased 59,000 and the principal amount decreased 1.26 million doll so that was the offsetting revenue so next piece is Capital Equipment and projects overview so I like to kind of go over you know some updates of the projects that we're doing some equipment and what's in this budget so as you see here I mean if you uh you know in my in my VA report you'll notice that there's constantly these projects are you know constantly giving updates uh as far as the ACs roof replacement project that's going that went out to uh that's advertised to go out the bed replacement of five exterior doors that's also recently advertised to solicit beds where we have uh replacement of various interior exterior doors at LHS replacement of electrical secondaries at LHS uh Ada unit at bathroom at LHS mitigation drainage projects at LHS and LMS Media Center project at LHS seven EV charges and buses installation of of the bo multi-purpose conference room technology that's an equipment line um as well as installation of UPS's for the district's data center service at LHS so these are all projects that we secure funding and we're in the process of completing it U possibly before the end of the year a lot of these projects will be completed over the summer for next year as you see the AC roof that's tied to a rod Grant which we're getting 40 roughly 40% uh some of the other projects are tied to ID Ida insur Insurance Recovery um as well as some fur proceeds that we were able to get for mitigation as well as New Jersey D grant for the seven EV charges and buses what's in this budget um you'll see there's a line which was an initiative um of the district was to install bus cameras in all District transportation vehicles so that's in that this budget um additional Smart Boards was was identified in all three schools um which basically after this after these small amounts of smartboards every class will have a Smartboard um in addition replacement of Maintenance vehicle with app plow um basically the use the current one is at its end and then there's lease payments of lhf C field which is pretty much the approved shared agreement with the b in addition olog infastructure so if you take a look longterm debt um I like to kind of project out what the debts going to look like so as you see U pretty much we had the the drop off this year and then the debt will be pretty much flat with some small increases much up to 20 30 31 which is when this Bond matures as far as capital financing agreements and Le this is everything that we have currently um approved and and contracted with uh we have the turf field tech upgrade District phones waterf posters machines copers iPads IMS so you'll see this um same thing over the next uh life of the leases you'll see it goes from 730,000 and then it starts decreasing heavily in 26 27 um and you'll notice the decrease and I'll point out like the C that's going to be something that's going to get renewed um so once it kind of comes off the books in 2728 new copies will come on the books to kind of replace those copies so some of these lease agement will be replaced with new lease agreements tax is over here so I like to save the best for last so uh it's like you know like a movie the best part is the the end so like I said before pretty much there two factors uh school districts run on a on a fiscal year 2425 uh fiscal year the burrow when when taxpayers uh get their taxes it runs on a calendar year so I like to kind of point out how it's going to affect on the school year how is it going to affect the tax pay on the calendar year so as you see 2425 as I mentioned earlier taxes are going down uh roughly these are obviously proposed tax rates based on equalized value 1.97 to a little uh from two a little over two mli 2% to 1.97% uh which represent about a $148 decrease over the count I mean the school year so July 1 June June 30th your taxes should go down about 148 if you're in that assessed value range of 440 if your if your home is valued more obviously it'll same thing if your home is is valued less so it's always based on assess value so if you take that percentage increase times your assess value that's what you're you're going to be um saving so as far as the calendar year um as you see here some of the tax levy is raised uh one half of of the calendar year and then the other some of it raised the second half of the calend year as you see here the tax rate for the calendar year um is still decreasing it's going from 1. 957 to 1. n38 uh which represents a decrease of $84 the reason why the decrease is less more our Debt Service uh uh Levy is raised over the summer because that's when the debt is due that's when the principal payment is due over the summer so that's the reason why some uh the is raised in in the pretty much from July December 24th so as far the budget schedule overview so we're at this point uh presenting the preliminary budget tonight the next step as Dr gain pointed out uh we're going to submit it to the county um I had basically tomorrow so once you know the board um approves that resolution I could send everything off to the county uh typically the March 20th is when the board had to approve the preliminary budget uh my goal is to have it tomorrow or by the end of the week uh the county pretty much has a month to get back to me to kind of sign off on the budget pretty much these numbers um prior to the the county doing their official review it has to run through uh pretty much the state software budget software so all these numbers basically uh uh ticked and tied and was all in compliance with the state requirements uh which allows me to submit it to the county uh advertise of the notice of the public hearing will be going out anticipated April 26th and then we're looking to have the public hearing on Tuesday April 30th at 7:30 um and I just pointed out some other dates to keep in mind last day to hold the public hearing if need be would be Monday May 7th if we wanted to change at April 30th as well as due to the county honor before Monday May 20th the final dates and we did get some input in niia does give her pour of approval on the budget so you can feel confident she signs off on it and I'll open it up for questions yeah why don't we start with board questions first and we will open the floor to the public to ask questions as well just to clarify the 14 savings the school only School MP down 14 corre correct correct your total taxes have different buckets um this is only one piece of the bucket which is tied to the school dist taxes other thing thank you for highlighting the 82% I just wanted to that 82% that's where we pay salaries and benefits right correct so this what I did was it salaries benefits um as well as anytime we we have a salary we obviously gota kind of mash we got to pay for the F uh depending on what pension they're in we got to obviously contribute to their pension um unless they're in the tpf but this is basically um pension and F could talk to nonpf people are included so we just number to say majority of our money goes in our correct correct so I mean like the key thing is um any board members um negotiation committee is obviously very important anytime we we settled an agreement individual contracts that's basically you know drives these these salaries thank you any other board member questions um so the bond that matured this year um I don't have the exact refunding date but that was that was previously from an old referendum um I don't have that information but it was basically one bond that matur and then we have one Bond left on the on the book which is which is here this is the 2020 refund that was done previously getting in District um I mean the requ there is a state requirement that over once the bond hits a certain amount of years the district is required to look at refunding to save money so this Bond doesn't look like it's a refund I'm just looking at it but it could be I'm not so this is the only Bond that's currently on the books going for refunding is if you issue the original Bond let's say we do a referendum we issue the debt um so that bond is basically that the initial bond is is issued and then over a certain amount of time usually bonds have a life rela to the project if the useful life of the project let's say is 20 25 years that allows us to issue a bond for 25 years to pay back so over um I believe it's seven eight years after that point the district can refund if the is interest rates go down to save the interest portion of that um I don't have the numbers uh what I can say majority of the difference salaries and benefits Drive bu so when there was an issue with health benefits increasing 15% last year which you'll notice uh the health benefit cost here that's projected out based on our insurance broker he said you can reduce it to 12% he was comfortable with 12% that's why you notice that employee benefit line didn't increase as much as last year um that is the driving all Eric I just wanted to confirm a copy of the presentation will be made available to the public as well yes I'll post it on any other questions from the board members okay we'll open the floor to the public re questions from the public regarding the uh budget presentation anyone from the public yeah first of all Arthur's at 125 reles um I thought the presentation was excellent was detailed and and explained the things that need to be explained of course I'm happy with the uh the reduction into the taxpayers as a result of the U careful assembling of this bud um one thing I noticed or a couple things I noticed the tuition rate went up uh apparently generating additional one and a half million dollars all this is round numbers yet we're only showing 11 student increase year-over-year so how did you get1 half million dollars out of only 11 kids whereby the tuition is only 16,000 16 17,000 a year did we the rate go up a lot did the state allow us that that rip formul go up that was so that was one I'll me let me get them all out and then you can answer them um the out of out of District tuition also went up is that all tied together the same thing that was went up almost a half a million dollars uh student enrollment there was a chart that showed it was flat for a number of years and then it had a steep increase it was one of your earlier charts uh and then it tended to stay flat and then Dro down it was a it was a graph where the increase where do we know where the increase in students came from it was like almost 100 students I'm just eyeballing it real quickly it was before that one that one um where did that increase from 18 to 22 in the numbers of students going from around four below 1400s to just under 155 that's that's quite an increase in students I don't know where all that that came from you may not know the answer that might have been for you and final question is The Debt Service uh that matured giving us a million and a half dollars in relief I've been hot on that was one of the things that I emailed you privately about what which loans were maturing uh in the past under previous administrations and um that money was always presented as uh candy more okay that we're gonna have more money to spend for we can do was really poor planning uh do we have any uh leave that off for now I know you have to bond what you have to buy uh in many cases not all the time but in many cases is there anything down the road within the next couple of years where you go okay we got all this we got a billion and a half dollars in relief we can spend it again uh so the question is do we have any of that and uh third and finally the prance of expenses either salaries and expenses for employees and the cost of running the buildings that's probably 80% or 90% of your your budget thank you yeah so so the tuition Revenue what drove that that large increase is BAS basically certifi rates so what I do is and this is all my colleagues and and recommendation by our Auditors is to base it on the most recent certified rate uh by the state so obviously you know we you know since Co um expenditures have been increasing dramatically since you know 1920 2021 2122 so we're getting into a more uh stable expenditure U level um so hopefully um the certifi race should kind of be close to the previous year um so with that being said what happens is the state requires us uh when we receive a student from an other Lea uh similar to you know edge water part of our sending receiving agreement as well as any other leas we always have to true it up two years later um so that was also another factor in that increase it's catch up correct so we we kind of take the conservative approach um because we don't want a huge deficit so if I say you tuition rates are going to go up 3% 4% or if I base it on my budget um because once I put the numbers in this you know the state kind of puts out if you spend everything in your budget your they give you what your uh projected rate going to be but if I project it too high then what's going to happen is we're going to get hit with deficit now we got to come up with this money so it's conservative correct so some districts what they do is they have tuition res but in order to have tuition Reserve you got to get the funds from someone so it's you know um so that's part of it the other thing with added District same thing so we sit down with special service director Miss Russo um we obviously have students that are currently being sent out so we anticipate are they going to still be sent out can we bring them back as well as um she has constant meetings with parents um including attorneys uh to support these needs of of current students in District so there is some in District students that are U potentially and highly likely that they're going to be sent out I think the numbers uh roughly we this year we have a roughly about 17 18 students being sent out um in this budget I want to say it's about 22 um each student uh same thing the rates come from uh kind of comes from the state approve uh private schools for the disabled they kind of set their rat with with the state um as well as other leas so those rates obviously drive you know those rates accordingly uh roughly a student being sent out is anywhere uh for special obviously special needs is anywhere from 70 to 100,000 not including transer not including sorry if they need a correct that doesn't include any related services that we know that that 70 is low transportation and if they need a one toone Aid you're de with that easily correct so any any new population family that moves in if they have a child would need that 200,000 just that so correct so if Jenna knows that they're currently getting a one a right Miss Russo um then we obviously will project at that cost but that's why when we finalize the numbers that are ordered are presented last board meeting and he said that you were able to you know generate x amount of dollars you were able to transfer back into res because these are all based on projections so let's say those 22 students it drops down to 19 that's additional funds that we could potentially move into a reserve or be exra back to this I'm not sure I mean obviously it's residents so it's it's it's students um based on our asssa it's resident students that are currently uh being registered with uh Leon during these years I don't know what drove from 18 to 21 I don't know if there was I don't think there was a huge development there was and they also talked about I remember a couple years ago they talked about um lots of older families sing their houses and lots of young families moved in and finally like it and just keep in mind this res doesn't include students going to V which is always an issue so state aid is based on residents low Tech students uh students that are you know accepted to Bergen count uh Bergen countyy uh or one of the other technical schools those students aren't considered residents so they're not we don't get state aid for them but they're part of our tuition for because I got to pay I get a bill yeah so just how many iiz that how many um students do we have that go um we have roughly I want to say around 22 23 and obviously it's 9 through 12 we have to transport those students that's another thing um well Edge is responsible so if there's a student being sent out of the district and it's an Edgewater R um we would discuss it with their special service director their ba and then what happens is we don't claim it as on Roll um edge water would basically claim it as being sent and then they pay directly to the out of District but part of our transportation agreement we do transport those students Eric if I may just add some more color to the students who go to the county schools not only do the local districts pay a percentage the cost of the County Schools but on top of that that's covered also in the County taxes that you pay corre so you pay as an individual and then you pay as a tax as a school taxpayer yeah correct so so the um um Bergen County Schools roughly the the tuition rate is anywhere from I want to say it's like 11,000 so they kind of reduce it like Dr gain said because they generate Levy from the county um if it's if it's a technical school that they provide some type of special that program um it's about 28,000 and then obviously beron County Special Services students are going to those schools instead of you know a private school and then oh and the debt um we do part of our strategic planning for next year we will look into projects so so what happened was last year I kind of budgeted all these projects for needs uh to kind of submit it to you know for Rod Grant so the goal is now some of those funds will go back uh some of those funds will be uh allocated to a project that we didn't get Rod grant funding right and as well as some other projects that uh we anticipated a need like the Ada uh bathroom at the high school there was a need there so some of those funds will be allocated to that project which are architects in the process of getting some of these projects approved advertised for bid so we're that that step that thank you and that's actually part of the reason for the strategic planning to to give the public more of a voice in terms of um not only you know physical improvements for the school district but you know everything that that goes into the decision making that happens for the schools so that we set and establish a guide for the next five years um so we're really looking forward to that and and we really looking forward to the public providing their input um obviously the board meetings are opportunities for the public to speak um the board members are also always available as well as superintendent ass assistant superintendent the entire Board office really but the strategic planning is going to be important in terms of setting forth you know the vision for the school district moving forward and getting Buy in from all stakeholders within the burrow not just families that have kids in the school district but taxpayers um the you know our our local government you know with their representative here tonight from the council the council the police department the fire department um it's really supposed to be a comprehensive plan that that will will be our you know Guiding Light as we move forward through the next five years once we have that plan put together so I very much I expect you fully Arthur to be involved with that process I would be really remiss if we'll move as quickly as we can thank you and to add to president Lee I mean that's why that mission statement that we have currently that'll potentially get updated through the strategic planning um that drives the budget so we look at you know that's the vision of the district that's where the funds are going to be allocated to that's you to add additional funding any other questions from the public or any other additional comments from the board okay Mr Thomas thank you very much thank [Applause] you okay that brings us to our next item item f um any comments from the board or our student Representatives on on agenda related matters comments okay okay seeing no comments from the board or our student Representatives we move on to item G approval of consent agenda items uh can I have a motion Mr Park and a second Mr wilds and that's call please miss Choy Yes except for item LS I recuse myself on voting for LS Dr to mea yes Miss Molina yes that was Finance oh yeah okay Mr zepa uh Mr Park yes Mr zepa yes Mr seel Miss Wilds vice president Melman and president Le yes motion carries on consent agenda thank you that brings us to administrative courts I only have two items tonight that I want to uh highlight we gave a report last week and I want to recognize the hard work that Eric uh did tonight for the uh the budget presentation the the the budget preparation um never really ever stops never stops right you take a bit of a break but always putting that together and I have to give credit to to the team in the board office for uh collecting all the information for working with the schools for getting everything together and for the diligence that was put into that so thank you very much for that presentation I was just pointed out by the audience the comprehensive nature of the presentation deserves to be recognized um so I I think that Mr Thomas seich is having the greatest week ever getting great order report last week and a great presentation tonight have to get that man of Stanley Cup um I do want to point out too if you look at letter P on the agenda um under LP accept the local donation by the estate of Robert and Gert solowski of a baldon babyr piano value to $10,000 um we're going to make more mention of this in an upcoming meeting but I want to I want to go into the public record now and talk a bit about have piano and how it came into our possession um a personal friend of mine reached out to me and he said that his mother-in-law who was Gerard Sakowski had this this B baby grand piano and would they like to uh they don't want just have it to be disposed of they wanted to to have it donated so uh Carrie Dunn Mr dun is one of our music teachers went to the house and it's a beautiful beautiful equipment piece of equipment we have the inside is not plastic it's wood it's it's really it's really something else and so we're going to bring it into LMS and where the LMS piano is going to be repurposed someplace else either donated or in the district the reason I bring this up is that Gerard Sakowski is a holocaust driver um seven years of her life between the ages of 11 and 18 she was shuffled between seven different concentration camps and she came to America as a refugee and she made a wonderful life here um she was uh I will sudden the uh interview out to the board and I posted that she was as part of the shower project with Steven spilberg um and then that piano that piano that was so important to her and to her family which is so representative of what she overcame in her life and who she was will now become our possession and we're going to make it a point that there will be a plaque will be placed on that piano that recognize her and her family in the estate and I just want as for the purpose of the public record in today's fractured world I just want to point out that we're going to take possession of what is basically a hollowed piece of property for this family and they trust us with it so I just wanted to say that out loud and we're going to have the family in and we're going to recognize them a bit more overtly at a future meeting but I didn't want to let the donation go un recognize tonight so thank you and that's my report thank you that's a wonderful gift from the scuss family um Mr Thomas evich you have anything else you need rep I'm done thank you thank you okay thank you um that brings us to committee reports I believe finance and planning was the only committee to meet and you basically heard the contents of our committee meeting um were there any other committee meetings that met in the last week I don't think okay okay so um that then brings us to um policy I believe make sure I'm not skipping anything yes okay that brings us to item M policy um can I have oh this is second reading do we is it the okay can I have a motion Mr seel in a second Mr Park uh can we have please miss Choy yes Dr Meer yes Miss Molina mror yes Mr zepa yes Mr SEO Miss Wilds vice president Melman yes and president Lee Yes motion Carries On First reading of policy uh second a second rating I apologize thank you we have uh new business agenda items a b c and d um can I have a motion Mr ZKA in a second Miss wilds and this is uh does anyone would anyone like to pull any for discussion excuse me yes any for discussion okay seeing none can I have a roll call please miss Choy yes Dr me yes Miss Molina yes Miss toar yes Miss zepa yes Miss the SEO Miss Thompson I apologize she's absent Miss Wilds vice president Melman and president yes motion carries thank you okay that brings us to next the second public comments portion on any matters related to the school district and I believe we have a speaker oh yes let's just provide your name and address Christian Choy 74 Meadow View Court Leonia good evening Mr President members of the school board and Dr Gaton I am Christian Choy Eagle Scout candidate and senior patrol leader for troop 71 Leonia tonight I am coming in front of the board and I'm very proud and happy to present to you this update report of the Leonia veterans Banner project my Eagle Scout project please refer to slide two I'm here to say a big thank you to all of you the Leonia School community and our community at large this project started with burrow approval on December 18th 2023 the last day for the veteran submission was March 1st 2024 in less than 2 and a half months we were able to receive 56 veteran submissions and there was strong financial support from the community I received $1 16,826 in contributions this exceeded my $113,000 target I spent over 100 hours on the project I sent and received over 500 emails making sure that every question and every email was answered my Scouts and I visited over 250 resident homes we handed out over 400 advertisement flyers and we went to just about every business along Broad Avenue the advertisement for the program also went out on the list serve on the Burrow's website Facebook and through the school board and the recreation Department's email system the early email notification by the school was very helpful in getting the word out these efforts paid off with a strong Community response again thank you to everybody please refer to slide three here are the names of the 56 veteran submissions the remaining are on slide four as well I learned a lot from this project I learned that we have a very special Community here in Leonia and that we have very special people among the Leonia veterans who are recognized there is a two-time Congressional Medal of Honor recipient the rarest of distinctions we have two Tuskegee Airmen graduated from Leonia high school that unit was among the first African-American combat pilots who later served with distinction in World War II we have a soldier who was part of The Monuments Men a unit that was responsible for finding and returning over 5 million pieces of art from the Nazis during World War 2 including the famous Michelangelo Michelangelo statue of Madonna and child and the alter piece in Gand Belgium we also have a marine who gave his life aboard the USS Arizona during the Pearl Harbor attacks I learned that lonians are very special please refer to slide five here are the two Banner designs banners without sponsors will read thank you to all veterans on the bottom banners with sponsors will indicate who they were sponsored by I plan to upload all the banners on the leonov vet banners.com website as soon as they are completed please refer to slide six again we raised $1 16,826 wow this far exceeded expectations here is the breakdown please refer to slide seven the next steps most importantly mounting of the banners will be on May 1st 20124 or earlier all 46 decorative light Poes along Broad Avenue will have one Banner each the remaining 10 banners will be in and around Wood Park and near the new Municipal complex I will coordinate with the DPW for mounting and the American Legion for priority of placement of the banners please refer to slide eight future years continuity and sustaining the program for future years is the key I am asking that the American Legion continue on with the project the Surplus contributions that we raised will be dedicated for that purpose please refer next slide all the veterans and their families whom I met had a personal story to tell many expressed their thanks to me for this project here are some of the responses I will read the first one it is an honor to present this submission for our father a great leonian we lost in 2022 the most proud American Navy veteran I knew miss him every day so this will keep his honor and memory alive this is truly what it's all about next slide my goal was to make sure that this is just not my evil Scout project but a community effort where everybody can participate I learned a lot from The Experience learned a lot from our community and about our community I feel fortunate for this opportunity to be able to do this project for the town of Leonia and veterans so so to everybody I will close by saying again thank you thank you also to our schools community and this board please let me know if you have any questions thank [Applause] you any questions from the board I just want to say this is an amazing work and you know this goes so much well beyond being we often thank our veterans for their service but having this lasting recognition of the sacrifices of time that they and their families have made is truly impressive so wonderful job that um for the banners how how long do they last is the plan to keep them flying like year round or do we take them down to the winter or what was some of the thought process there so the banners will go up on May in honor of Armed Forces Day and Memorial Day um they will most likely uh go down in June because due to the P Flags going up but they'll definitely go up in November in a recognition of veterans just maybe there's a in the public possibly there's more people yeah so hopefully um the after the banners go up it may encourage people to uh want to submit their own veteran information So the plan is to have different periods where people can submit banners and and then um the Surplus contributions will also go towards the uh future banners thank you um just a quick question on page three and four um all of those names are those all veterans who were born and raised in Leonia or is this from all over Bergen County or they were um the criteria that I was sort of looking for was that they were associated with Leonia at some point in their lives some of some of these veterans they live they live in different states right now but they might have gone to uh High School in Leonia so they were associated and affiliated with Leonia at some point in their lives and they they fit that I'll just comment that real quickly one of the names if you notice is Sky Thompson on that Sky Thompson's wife usually sits right to the left of this wild Maria Thompson who is a c her that is her husband he's a Navy pilot so I just wanted to calling him out loud service yeah this is an absolutely wonderful project uh it seems like it's well thought out um I mean even in terms of you know setting up with our am American Legion and just uh it's just a great honor um and recognition of all the service members that that have have you know have provided you know from their own lives to serve the country but thank you very much this is a wonderful project thank you yeah I just agree you and kind of like the quote you read just having the family talk about their loved ones is is worthu and go so it's not just the 16,000 stuff is just sharing those memories and how you shared all the rankings to our country and stuff is really you know project here I also want to add a comment it is very impressive project definitely from many different aspects um I remember you uh meeting us when you were about to kick off the the project and seem to be um pretty ambitious goal and um so I I really want to commend you for taking courage to take on at this big initiative itive uh I'm pretty sure that you did it because you knew it was a right thing to do and was such a meaningful thing uh to teackle on and and I'm also I'm very impressed and surprised the generosity of this community um it's just amazing I I'm just happy again to be part of this community and um I I really appreciate you for taking the lead on this being persistent putting effort in and it just you know everybody's so surprisingly happy so really appreciate it thank you it the whole time sorry incredible work Christian really uh thank you um I just had a question I think that uh go on Kim's question so I know for the initial banners it was uh residents people that have been residents of Leonia at some point in time do you know if there's any thought to the Future like for example if a Leonia resident wants to remember a loved one who's a veteran but they're the resident not the family member does that make sense yes uh that's that's definitely um something that they can submit and um we will we will U take that into consideration I remember meeting with the Rotary and um one of the members of the Rotary Club their Uncle I believe had a um C they they sered but they Wen from the and I encourage them to submit their that is something that can that can be okay great thank you thanks again thank you very much we are still in the public comment section so anyone to speak on any District related matter not necessarily on the agenda please step to the podium briefly Arthur's at125 Realties the tenant that we uh rent the uh little school theater too I noticed that there's a big there a significant jump um but there's also an increase in numbers of days rental so has there been an increase in the rate or is that increase strictly because there's an extra day that they're renting the uh the local theater that's the question yeah want to know whether we had an rate increase or whether it's just an additional day yeah so all use of facilities is dictated by our policy as far as rates uh pretty much the use of a specific whether it's the gym the little theater is is one price per day um if there's any custodial needs that's based on hours which is also the hourly rate is dictated by our policy so you'll see um if there is more days in that month the the rental fee will go up and if there is more hours needed the custodial hours will go up it's basically just unit number of units increased so the cost will up correct thank you Jordan Ziggler 2011 Christy Street here at the Aon as well uh very good presentation Mr Tom Sage I wish we had your money over at the burrow uh because our tax your taxes are going to go up a little bit we're not going to unfortunately not provide that amount of relief uh the only update I want to provide because I couldn't email Dr Gaines this morning I apologize I presented on the Broad Avenue Planters last night at the uh mayor and council meeting for the I don't know how much time uh the is happy with the presentation at this point uh we will formally approve it via resolution on April 1st and then as soon as that's approved then the Planters can go back in front of the retaining wall on Broad Avenue I very happy to not have to talk about this again thank you thank you very much okay you're seeing no one else from the public um that brings us to technically on the agenda is closed session and that would only be if anyone from the board has any questions on item Q approval of personnel items if anyone has any questions then we we will go into Clos otherwise we'll proceed on to item Q okay seeing no comments or questions um can I have a motion on item Q Mr Park and a second Dr Miser and R Miss Choy yes Dr Miser yes Miss Molina yes pH yes Mr par yes Mr zepa yes Mr SEO Miss Wilds vice president Melman and president Lee Yes motion carries on personal items thank you and can I have a motion for adjournment Mr Park second Mr ZKA all in favor any opposed or extensions okay meeting is adjourned at 8:41 thank you everyone