e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e Mr Paladino would you please call the role sure Madame President uh truste daro here trustee msaga here truste munes here trusty Pacho here trusty Williams here vice president dtis here president benini here okay welcome and good evening to our public hearing for our budget um at this moment I guess we would like to turn it over to our superintendent who has a presentation for us since the oh well you know you been rushing go ahead I know we're a little out of order tonight the New Jersey open public meeting law was enacted to ensure the right of the public to have advanced notice of and to attend meetings of this board except were specifically Exempted by law at which time any business affecting their interest is discussed or acted upon in accordance with the provisions of this act the board of education has caused notice of this meeting to be published by having same advertising available times also notice that this meeting has been mailed to the members of the Board of Education the borrow clerk all elementary schools the middle school the high school horow Early Childhood Center and posted on the district website also as we always do this meeting is being televised via the district's YouTube and Facebook pages thank you Mr Paladino okay and now we will turn it over to Dr TOMCO for our special meeting or public hearing on the budget so I will move e hello there we go good evening everyone thank you Madame President board members first I'd like to acknowledge our administrative team who here tonight uh who are here almost every meeting so thank you very much for all your support and helping us put this together Mr paldino did an incredible job with this budget after we passed it through technical review which you're all aware of um and as we're waiting here for uh to get these lights down a little bit um let's talk about the process on how this works we obviously meet in committee to discuss the finances we take in consideration all the the needs of the district um the board committee then goes back and forth with us um and trying to you know obviously put the best number out there for the taxpayers uh with keeping all these programs in mind so uh I want to commend this board and this committee for uh these meetings that we've had thank you Mr perado um this was a tough budget probably one of the toughest um that we've that I've ever been involved with uh I think it's easy to just look at numbers and try to make Cuts but uh when you're coming off a situation where because of a uh a tremendous tragedy or you know the pandemic and all those monies that were provided and all those programs that were put in place um to try to sustain those programs is very difficult I don't think people realize how how hard that is but but here we are for next year's 2024 25 budget whenever you're ready Mr parado um can we get that thing out of the middle or like what is that thing it's just going to bother me but um Mr Vargas are you here he here all right well let's get that note to Mr Vargas thanking him for that uh that uh icon the uh the new trademark years ago that uh that he put together for us that caused some issues so I want to thank him again one one last time so um well been been some talk we've been joking Mr Sheldon and myself about this presentation being the same over and over again that's that's done purposefully obviously uh I could obviously put a new PowerPoint together every year um but then I think it would look like the traveling salesman or the car the car showman um this is this is doesn't have any bells and whistles right this is a budget presentation and it's consistent year after year so you can compare the differences that's Design By Design that's why we do it um there are some different slides every year different things things but the goals are the same the goals are the same excuse me this board will be meeting in Retreat soon be talking about a new set of strategic goals with a new superintendent so maybe some of these things change but for over um the last nine years at least we've been talking about some of these things because we were so behind so behind um because of different reasons that we don't like to talk about but um but this is what entail this is what the budget's about right our district goals the enrollment assumptions I don't know how many times I can talk about that before I leave here but I will try to do my best to talk about it as many times as I possibly can school level goals special education which we've done an incredible job Mr Klein and his team Mr Puglia Mr Costa uh and Mr Vargas as well over the years I've been here have done an incredible job bringing kids back to least restricted environments here saving a ton of money but those you know those percentages still go up I think we're almost at 11 12% in the district uh special ed um but a lot of those students are here technology is Ever Changing ever growing all these things we have to keep up with right don't forget we were we were a onetoone initiative before covid right we were the ones where Senator Ruiz called me on the phone and said how did you get all your all your uh laptops for all your kids oh we had those years ago Senator oh so we've always been one step ahead and we want to continue to do that facilities upgrades Revenue Pro uh sorry facilities upgrades obviously in a week um we are looking for um some nice bids on uh our Middle School Expansion Project uh we're we're we really have done a lot of work on there with our architect um so hopefully we get some bids to complete that project uh Revenue projections Appropriations below adequacy spending which is my favorite few slides what the administrative costs are and then of course what you're all waiting for is that tax impact where we were and where we are so that's what tonight's about Mr parado next slide get that thing out of there please all right so the biggest thing in any budget major major piece of the pie are the contractual obligations right so we need to uh fund those employment contractual obligations we have two units out in negotiations right now so this is what really is the bulk of uh some of the costs that we see here in the budget um we want to always review and restructure Personnel needs we talk about qac and our programs and different alignments we want to continue to grow the curricular and academic programs uh we've talked about uh expanding the RC program we're adding a Culinary Academy uh Etc so some of those things will continue to happen Capital reserves funds we want to use those as we as we can uh to create spaces do other facilities projects some outdoor beautification projects our Beville bridge program was successful several years ago so we want to continue to make sure that happen so that kids don't suffer the learning loss that is prior to the co covid learning loss that students get that that um you know lose some of that retention every summer right it's real the regression the summer regression is real so we we think we're doing a great job uh with those students that take advantage of that program it's a free program for our parents the summer programs as well the middle uh the middle school hopefully bring some more back to the high school um we're trying to work on that Mr RH is working hard on that the preschool universe is over 90% we'll talk about that again when I got here it was like 8% it's at 90% now it's going to be an incredible thing for the future academic scores of this this uh incredible District uh for just everything right right um the equity lines are evening out a little bit I don't know too many districts that don't have uh preschool um for students parents either pay it out of their pocket or districts provide it we we didn't do that until we got here several years ago uh and then sustainability goals right we're still working on a greenhouse we have wind projects uh that are still kind of in the works and of course solar Etc yes sir next slide all right so we're going to talk about enrollments I've been talking about enrollments a lot um very interesting preschool universe is almost at 97% as we as we ended uh April um and just an incredible thing uh we've seen almost 200 students since last June 200 students okay some of those are from Sandy Lane but those are still students to our our population uh and we see some numbers um we're talking you know again let's be very clear and I'm going to continue to bring this up um we can talk about developments we can talk about all those things uh I think it's important to understand that um I don't think you need to be really at a level of Rocket being a rocket scientist or anything to think that if there's a room and there's a space people are going to live in it okay um yes we are attracting uh a demographic with some of these high-end apartments with with um or or uh town houses or whatever you want to call them units we just call them units with rooftop Pools and Spas and all that other great stuff but at some point at some point that all goes away I've been involved with this before I've been involved with this before I'm probably one of the only leaders in the district right now in the entire municipality who has gone through developments before that's probably a very true statement okay and I've seen it happen I've seen the idea of pilots and you know putting some um you know some parameters into places and all of a sudden those flip there's a new owner and the owner comes up and says well I can't afford this now I can't afford this what are we going to do it's happened it's happened in several districts I've been in doesn't happen overnight doesn't happen in a year doesn't happen in five years but in 10 years from now we have to be ready for that and we're seeing some enrollment projections now okay we're seeing some enrollment projections now and things that are happening and has nothing to do with most of these development they're AR even online yet right some of the velopment startline we have 10 5 10 kids from it but there nothing's online yet the one across from school 10 I don't want to really mention any of them but you you know the names when that one opens up school 10 um is in trouble right when I when I when I got to District in 2015 there were 78 students in school 10 there's 150 students now those are real numbers I'm not making those up okay those are real numbers all right and it's just growing and growing so regardless of what anybody wants to think isn't going to happen I would rather someone 10 years from now come up here and say hey remember that bald guy TOMCO that was here and he was a superintendent he was wrong I would love for somebody to say that I don't think it's going to happen unfortunately um so our enrollments are real issues um what you see go to the next slide because nobody knows what those numbers are so the October 15th number which is an ASA report where we have to report um there's two times a year that districts have to report numbers and that's where you get Aid right that's where you base aid from one's the October 15th report and then we do it again at the end of the school year so the two numbers here the the the black Print is the Assa number and the red print is the current enrollments the current enrollment as of April 30th so a few days ago oh actually I checked those are today um so that's where we're at plus 36 for some of those schools okay this will all be posted so you can see them a little better go ahead and then we have plus 10 at the middle school plus 47 so that's coming and going all right but we have two we have like 199 200 we're hovering 200 students of an increase already it's 1.91 since September almost 2% increase only since September we had five students register five students register last last week or two weeks ago where it's like May that affects our test scores that affects our supplies if those are special students with special needs that affects those numbers all of those things are affected right so you have to think about that these are real concerns so as we cut and cut and cut and then people move into District right we we start we start having there's there's a domino effect I don't think people think about okay all right next one our free and reduce lunch applications okay uh this has become a big thing I've been talking about as well I don't think a lot of people understand where we are we're almost at 65% districtwide um we have 63 qualifying right now 63% 25% of those families do not have lunch applications on file that means that no one we're paying for their food the taxpayers are paying for that food right now we're doing everything we possibly can to fill out all these um applications we can't fill them out for people and we can't force people to fill them out so that's a that's a concern you could say oh well it's not our problem but guess what it is because at the end of the day the board then has to pay through the tax levy for those those meals kids cannot have cheese sandwiches anymore like when I was a principal back in the day right that's that's shaming you can't do that right so if a parent chooses not to pay for lunch kid still eats anyway somebody has to pay for that right so it's and it's a concern all throughout the state postco but a very big concern here in Belleville um that increases our our rates and and federal and state reimbursal we have one building right now at 70% free reduced launch 70% and I said said the other other day at my speech $59,000 for a family of four that's considered poverty $59,000 okay think about that four people $559,000 next so what we're looking for these enrollments we're looking at estimating 239 students for next year we're almost on the money this year it's close all these projections that we got also this is a state projection but we had our own independent demographer do this I'm looking for for all the demography reports of all the developments in town I've just asked for them I haven't gotten them yet I don't think they exist but we the board had ours done we we went to every one of those developments and they did a demography report on it and these are the numbers are even going to be higher within the next 10 years uh the conservative growth is four uh 4.44% as per the state uh gave us those numbers uh and again percent month to month uh during this year it's almost at 1.9% now since September so our school level goals are some of the things we talked about already the core mission of of course our Educational Foundation of programs which is elll math and science we want to maintain those programs okay there was some talk about cutting textbooks there's no such thing as textbooks only anymore textbooks also include um uh prescriptions uh to you know online things Etc so uh you know it doesn't make any sense to me to cut in those areas uh when that's our educational core um I I just think that kind of negating what we do uh these academies that we've put in place our team's done a great job we had a Leadership Academy that we're still trying to get off the ground which would take some of our Elite students and put them uh in a in a new uh basically a new school uh The Culinary Academy I talked about already Public Safety Academy um and teaching and administrative things uh that we were looking at for some internships as well Personnel needs we're always looking at those the MLL program which is for language Learners from from other countries we just saw Kasa we have a new um area there for those parents and those students um because we're looking at the current students not the future students they're important but the current students are most important the current families are most important the needs of those individual families and students so we want to make sure that's taken care of professional development as always technology initiatives outdoor facilities in the footprint for extracurricular needs um maintain what we have already and then social emotional Wellness programs I know people think that this is uh something that has to go away but I couldn't even tell you the amount of times that we have threat assessments here or that we have our Wellness teams involved and things U it's not like it used to be um you know there's a lot of need and a lot of care for these students uh that they're not getting in other places and uh you know the proof is when parents call and say this district is or they may even call some of you out there or put it on the parents page and the district did nothing about this well I said to a parent the other day there was an issue going on I said well did you contact the parent like at the house well I I don't know where they live I said well you can easily find out I mean just ask around right I have four kids I've had issues with my kids and I've gone to the the doors I've knocked on say can we talk about our kids having an argument you know something happens over the weekend and we get a phone call Monday morning they had a fight Saturday night you have to do something about it what what are you talking about right what about English math stuff like you know so there's a whole big component here that I think people aren't understanding so we have to maintain those goals very important important um because without that well-roundedness we have kids that are still out of District because they don't want to come back I I don't know what else to say about that except that's the truth next one jff we talked about special education those projections are always tough there's evaluations occupational therapy Physical Therapy if every parent here wrote a letter tomorrow and said I want my child tested we would have an issue right but guess what someone has to pay for it it's very difficult to project these numbers you get a family of five kids all special needs with an IEP from another District come in town and we have to we have to um you know support that right so Mr Klein and our team does a great job with the projections um but again these are real costs and we want to keep enhancing that program enhancing the life skills issues because unlike the past that 12% number also counts for our scores in ranking that's another hurdle right our elll population or ml population is about 10% or a little little bit over our um our special ed population at 12% we at almost 65% free reduced lunch free reduced lunch those are three hurdles that really do affect scores okay especially the MLL population right because how do we expect students to go home and get reinforcement if their individual parents are are new to the country are can't speak the language Etc um so that's why we're working on some of those things next okay and again we want to continue to return um students to the least restrictive environments and continue our to tuition programs like we we had in some of those um um The Cove Etc some of those life skills programs that are are actually bringing back um tuitions uh not millions of dollars a year but again sustainable things every year that's helping us uh generate some Revenue so thank you next um technology we want to continue that core mission of making sure that we support the entire District everyone from parents to teachers to uh to our students of course which our is our most important commodity uh we want to expand that department because as we grow we need we need more Hands-On uh continue to enhance the infrastructure at all times I go to other districts and they don't have a quarter of the stuff we're having and I can't believe it I I can believe it but I can't believe they're surviving and they're not that's the problem our Kasa and parent University programs are going to provide professional development opportunities Kasa is at Center for academic uh achievement and success sorry success and achievement um so you're going to see a lot of Technology um programs down there as well some facilities goals again we have to maintain all those systems what happened before I got here is all those things were end of life they weren't maintained properly that can't happen you have to maintain repair and replace right maintain repair and replace as it goes so we're we're pretty um we're pretty uh vested in that um the preventive maintenance uh the district uh vehicle Fleet all those things safety glass the auditorium so we can we can use that b balcony up top uh we always talk about air quality we constantly do air qual bless you we constantly do air quality tests we do samples um so we're way ahead of that um the same thing with the water quality tests uh we don't wait for people to tell us to do that we're still working on that Horticultural Center which hopefully we'll be done soon we had a little snag with some of the uh permits that we needed so we took care of that but that's going to be a nice project um out on um Greylock Parkway uh the bus depot should be ready for this year um the buses are going to be by school N9 we purchased the property next door so that we can come out of um that lease uh at uh St Peters hopefully and the lighting upgrades we're constantly doing lighting upgrades so that we can you know obviously stay stay with h the most uh desirable Lighting in District for our students all right more highlights the academic program initiatives uh classroom space for increased enrollment in class size let's be very clear we didn't repurpose classrooms to put administrators in them I don't know where that came from but it's completely the opposite that's why we had at least buildings to take administrators out of classrooms uh because even though people think the administrative team is not necessary and they could work in a corner on like a upside down uh garbage can or something like that it's not true it's not true um so that didn't happen so we want to continue to create classroom space we need to finish that middle school expansion Pro uh project we talked about the contractual obligations RTI uh you know is something that's in effect here that's helping us grow uh in all of our buildings that's what we need to talk about growth uh I know people like to throw aggregate numbers in there but again one day hopefully a commissioner education somewhere will understand that not every district is Equitable in that area and you can't just say oh right these kids over here are the same as these kids over here doesn't happen that way so we need to talk about growth not um not just over overall AG aggregate scores um because I tell any superintend I go to I go give me your five top kids I'll give you my five top kids and we'll we'll go to battle with you academically let's do it right that that should be the ranking that's what we should do we should get everybody down at Ruckers or something and have a big bowl like that um and then obviously fiscal stability that's why we're here tonight um to try to do the best we can for taxpayers and the and the programs all right so we're spending 73 less than the regional limit used to be a little bit higher um we're doing a little better there but we spend less um than the regional limit Regional limits 2776 we're 270 three and that's calculated by the Department of Education next um these numbers are going to go quickly um again these will be loaded up right after the the vote tonight um and uh so you can see them and and look at them a little closer our operating budget is uh for revenues the operating budget is 118 million plus plus 11.6 um looking at local tax levy increases and there's some unrestricted Surplus that we use to offset tax points so we use the Surplus that we've saved to offset your taxes which is allowed okay um right now it's one 1.6 tax points which is probably I don't know don't quote me but I think that's probably somewhere in the5 $600,000 range I would think um next here's some projections over the years we went back for 2017 for the general tax levy taxes in 2017 were 39764 229 the tax levy that we proposed is 49 9921 133 so uh it's a it's an increase with uh allowable cap adjustments and almost $4 million in cap adjustments for what they used to call sgas um but those are some allowances for enrollment Transportation uh special ed Etc next state aid projections from last year was 54 million 38462 this year is 12 million and change more which is 66 585 432 incredible thing that the governor did for us again to Yes uh abide by his promise to fully fund uh the T the um fully fund the district um so again there's an election coming up we all know how this goes um hopefully this Aid stays at least flat um or if a new Governor comes in no matter what party he or she is in hopefully they're not cutting some cutting some Aid because if some of this Aid does go away we're in a lot of trouble all right so let's just be very clear we're in a lot of trouble next slide some of the Appropriations the increase to the general fund the is 14,45 5,291 um some of these uh Appropriations include your SDA assessment which is for um you know uh buildings and whatnot your capital outlay and your Charter School payments which we have to pay for students to go to Charter School and believe it or not that's a rate set by the state and the rate for the charter schools is actually a little bit more than what we spend per pupil here or we you know so it's uh it's not a wash when people say oh but there go somewhere else you get that's not how it works we're losing money and the biggest problem with Charter School payments is we can't project how many kids go to the charter school so we can't budget for it right so when January comes and Mr paldino gets the bill he's like where am I going to get this money from so it's it's not a just in B it's a problem all over so here's Appropriations from one year to the next here it is again 104 million versus 118 million um and those are some of the lines that you can see in the general fund which is regular instruction special ed Etc employee benefits Charter Schools $1.9 million for Charter Schools we're budgeting for the uh the realized uh Revenue um the realized appropriation last year was 1.68 million okay so initially when we came to the board um during our um Workshop as well this was the initial proposal tax impact the tax point that we talked about before as per um I guess per Mr Esposito give him a shout out is 312 516 so every time I talk about a tax point it's $312,000 we were looking at a 10.29% increase for to general fund and Debt Service together uh that included a bunch of things that we needed plus the board's desire to say wait a second if we're paying a half a million dollars already to offset the cost of food that we can't get for free right which is about a point and a half well why don't we just give everybody free food what would that cost us so that's what you do for technical review right you me if you do it the right way I'm not saying every District does this but I'm going to tell you this is the right way okay you sit down with your board early on say you guys represent the community you're 17th of the community what do you want what do you need boom we put it in for technical review because after technical review you can't really add stuff well I guess you can but it's probably a big pain to do that so you put it all in first right you see what everybody wants and then you start cutting back then you start cutting back okay um one of the issues here is that we have this Workshop which is great to hear everybody but everybody thinks that's a whole oh oh once they hear that they're going to Chisel it back anyway of course we are that's everybody does that nobody comes out with an original technical review and then doesn't cut the budget I'm telling you right now it's not a trick it's reality it's it's called being an administrator this is what we do um again you put everything out first and then you cut back a little bit uh so this was the this was the original um Levy was 10.29 and on a 413 uh sorry $413 a year assessed uh for assessed property at2 75,500 so and then obviously it goes up from there 675 yeah it should be 750 sorry Matt that should be 750 yeah I think so the original one thank you thank you Mr Sheldon um we only looked at this like 50 times but we missed it uh yeah that's 750 you're right so the bottom if you have a if you have a half a million dollar home assessed not what it's worth assessed you're paying uh 50 next one okay so why did 10 2 29% tax increase is the stuff we talked about uh most of it was uh we had a lot of Pur increases Social Security increases Dental Etc uh we added some security staff because we cut back on some of that last year um special ad tuitions program restructure for the uh the language uh Learners uh all these different things the negotiated agreements different positions home instruction coverages was was a automatic 6.7 million so again that's where the 10.29 came in and of course you know um the expiration of those covid funds and then also um that that food feeding enti and student population which was almost $2 million um again just so you know as well we have three schools right now that qualify for free lunch for every student because they have such high um poverty level in those neighborhoods um I'm not suggesting that I know the board's looking into that but I think that changes the entire Dynamic um of the neighborhoods and District right so you got to be really careful with that um but I think we're headed there so it's something that uh that you all need to be uh you know aware of so the general fund Revenue increase was 16.8 million and then the net effect was I'm sorry the impact was 16.8 million there was Zero net effect that's where we got the 10.29% tax increase from the original um you know word from the board so then of course we worked we worked and we needed to cut some stuff out so we made 2.75 um $2,750,000 in Cuts after speaking with the board we we took $100,000 out of some curriculum program curricular programs that um you know we have to cut back on some of the supplies that we were getting textbooks we took $100,000 out of that and some uh licenses some of those um some of those areas we made deals with vendors last year for two-year payments so uh we can't really negate that um just so we can get these programs in quicker um and they didn't lag we didn't lag behind an extra year um Power Professionals for the The increased increased um ml population we we cut back on some of those hoping that we won't need that but again that's something we're crossing our fingers on rental of land that's more leases for more enrollment issues uh Miss pal and I we're looking at some places because we think the enrollment is going to expand so uh again we're having a hard time talking to uh the township about enrollment obviously and we have plans in place at all the schools but we would need the town's help on that uh and really not there's only a few councilmen that are coming to the table uh and uh we really can't talk about it anymore so we're trying to find ideas because the state doesn't allow trailers anymore as easily as you think they are and once you have a trailer here it's a million I think it's a million and a half a trailer it makes absolutely no sense but we're getting close at some of the schools we have students now we have sections during registration that that um kind of stop at a certain time because we're full and kids go to different schools right they don't live in that neighborhood and then we have to bust some of those students because it's not their fault it's our fault right so so that's a problem so that's rental of land we put 100,000 aside we took $100,000 out of that we took the 1.95 million out to feed all the students uh the pur payment uh which is $100,000 out which gets us very nervous because we're not sure about all those things that we have no control of right pers is a uh pension system so we're not really sure so we're just kind of guessing or guesstimating uh we're being told also that benefits are going up double digits again um so you know that's going to hurt really really badly but we don't know what that means what does double digits mean right so um it could be 10% it could be 19% right so how do you budget for that so we have to go by what our Auditors say um Charter School tuition cost we cut 100,000 out of that I don't really necessarily agree with that but we had to get to the bottom not line somewhere because I think those charter schools are just going to start picking up a little bit more as more students start moving into town uh security salaries we cut $100,000 and actual supplies in in rooms we cut $100,000 so 2.75 were the cuts which brought us back um to the new tax impact which is $171 for $275,000 um home assessed home and 310 for a $500,000 home okay so uh Mr paldino board committees excellent job getting that down we're now down to 4.22 one% coming at a committee uh we all felt comfortable with this and that's where we're here tonight uh to try to sell it to everybody here in the room so let's talk about um different Trends uh looking at the last eight years but let's you know we're talking about a six-year Trend position here um basically from 2019 to 2025 uh we put the 1819 school year on there too because I think that was probably one of our lowest years uh we did we really went in there and the board really wanted to cut um and that's the impact so you see a lot of that in there um on the average assessed home but you also see that there was a reassessment sometime in there because the average assessed home was 238 right um so there was a lot of changes around that time so I I remember 201819 specifically the board really went in there and and wanted to make make it a hit and uh you know um it hurts down the end of the road and you'll see that slide in a minute though but that's where we are so again um 28 or 100 somewhere in there we've been we've been uh you know not too not too uh not too bad for continuing all these programs that we're having including making all the cuts that we've made over those percentages if you see you know 2.7 2.6 under two in 2122 you know obviously we had covid right around there and then you know coming back from it it's not sustainable uh even the cuts we made last year really hurt us this year so so here here is a current day impact on those cuts so I mean it's it's easy math we didn't do any type of you know economic like compounding interest or anything but um if you took the what it was over seven years um you know all of those numbers we would have had in our budget right so we would have had 556 th000 if we didn't make that first cut so I'm talking about from the proposed budget and then at the technical review and then what the board wanted to cut after if we kept the proposed budget in which is usually what we think we need right uh maybe a little wiggle room we would have had all these monies realized still in the budget today and we wouldn't be in some of these issues um 556 you know almost half a million the first year 4.8 million the second year which was our biggest hit 3.2 500 330 and then another this year uh last year was 3.9 million was the cut when the board decided to help everyone out because everybody was hurting still and we made those cuts we lost $3.9 million uh in the tax levy so this if you look if you add all those up which is coming up soon you'll see where we're at go ahead and that brings me to my favorite slide which is below adequate spending and let's first talk about the governor's promise to do the fair funding budgets and he has I think he's very close if he hasn't done it um almost fully funded us on that side but there's there's a piece there's a slide here too that we'll we'll see in a minute um when we talk about fully full adequacy we're talking about the government share which is tax um which is uh state aid right and then we talk about the tax levy right the tax levy has to be part of that fair funding formula and what this is saying is that through everything now we are still under their adequacy with these new numbers $7.2 million now if you think about it and you hear what people are saying and they're saying the governor gave us the fair funding right where we totally funded by the government that means that in order to be considered adequate with other districts of likeness the tax levy has to increase by $7.2 million it's Common Sense there there's nobody making anything up that's how it goes so that's like you that's like you going up to or somebody coming up to you with your job and saying I just want to let you know you're inadequate that's exactly what's being said to us right so it's saying if you want to be as adequate as everyone else you need another $7.2 million that's the reality okay so we keep talking about that this is a state number this is not our number okay that number was a lot lower when we were at the original 10% I think we were at 10% I think it was like 2 million or under Okay so we're getting closer we're back here okay and that's your difference that's your report of the status if your tax levy Cuts your proposed budget and it comes down to the adequacy spending limit of 7.2 million next Jeff okay state is not keeping Pace operational cost okay that was for the all the future State a not keeping Pace but now we're at the point where the next year's slide can't say that anymore right the board approves this tonight this will be the the the state side as long as they keep us flat the state side will be well the governor kept his promise okay now it's time for the community to step up right next so here's that historic adequacy spending okay when I first got here it was1 18 million $18 million and we were in a lot of trouble we did really well we went all the way up almost we almost made a big hit there and now we're back back to 7 7.4 million um in order to be adequate right so we still have some work to do there next Jeff so this is a pie chart that just shows you exactly what we were talking about all right a fully funded budget or a fully funded adequate Budget on both sides the state AIDS in red right the tax levies is in Orange so if you look at the one on the right fully funded that's what it looks like okay and that that's when you're adequate we're on the left here so you have the tax levy is in the orange the state AIDS in the red and that's the part we're missing right there that's the under adequacy piece so we're we're we're getting closer but it's it's really pretty far away my my fear is that as we continue to cut because that's the that's the thing we do as we continue to cut that number continues to get larger and larger and larger and as all these other districts are doing different things with salaries or program progr Etc we're going we're going to go backwards instead of forwards um to where we were backwards to where we were years ago so this one I put together very very quickly for you if we didn't do any of those proposed Cuts over those years we would be um we would have gotten back 6.4 million and right now we're at 7.2 million below adequacy so it's very close to being completely funded if we just never never did anything and we just said yep let's let's pay our fair share every year instead of now they're they're coming to us with these high numbers and I still think the 4.2% is very low I think it's a very low I think I'm not happy with it um I I don't think it's going to be sustainable I think we're going to be back in the same position next year and it's going to look very tight um and I think you have to start looking at some programs and stuff which I hope doesn't happen so there's your adjusted revenues your operating budget total operating budget is 115 million don't forget 500,000 goes into the unrestricted Surplus to help tax uh offet tax levy there's your Levy numbers again 2425 is 47 million it's okay you leave it next you don't me to fire you Jeff we're looking for we're looking for salaries Jeff okay your total tax levy over so this is uh look some tidbits that Mr paldino put together I have to say it's his slide because I would never use that word but these are some tidbits bits here over an 8-year period District increased its property tax levy in total of 7.4 million that translate to an average increase of about $934,000 a year right interesting number eight years that converts to average about 1.88 each year of the property tax levy so it's really interesting how it kind of comes together and we can't sustain that over and over we're under we're under that 2% cap um you saw those numbers in between and that's how it that's how it works out general fund increase 11 million next Jeff here's your Appropriations from last year to 104 million to 115 million and let's also talk real quickly about you know when when individuals say oh the the full the the the total operating budget went up 50 million from 10 years ago well that also includes state aid that we were getting new programs it's not just we we raise the tax Lev that's rhetoric okay when we get more state aid obviously the operating budget increases has nothing to do with anyone spending more money if you're getting more money from state aid and federal aid obviously your operating budget goes up too uh the same thing with um positions right there's 190 positions just from the paa grant okay 190 new staff positions for preschool and preschool AIDS and a nurse and security Etc just for preschool so it's 90 somewhere in there just for that program so all those increases aren't just people being hired and sitting around doing nothing that's not what's happening here's our Belleville taxpayer dollars my one of my favorite slides this is from last year there's no new stuff but this is the reality of it most districts it's the other way this has nothing to do with the mayor and Council they don't have a chance to vote on this they have no power over anything really especially this okay so basically this is just showing you where your dollar goes the way it all works out 47% of your dollar goes to the municipality so when their taxes are lower they're still getting a higher share think about it and 38% of the uh to the school district 133% goes to the county of Essex the county libraries and our library here gets under 1% and then there's open uh open space money there for parks and stuff like that which is 0 4% that's how your dollar split up most districts most districts it's the opposite school is what drives the dollar in the town right and most Mayors get up and say oh got to go to them their budgets one it's not it's not like that here let's be very clear on that it's the other way around it's the other way around okay think about those percentages next fund balance with total assigned you know um again if we had $10 million to spend anywhere that would be great we don't have that uh you know some we have Capital repairs that we've done um you know and again we make sure we put those aside because we're we're worried about other projects that might be end of life and we can't go out for another referendum on that um so we have to make sure that we put some capital reserve aside and a lot of that's restricted versus unrestricted which again just because you know people are asking questions about it you know restricted Surplus means there's capital reserve maintenance Reserve unemployment compensation Reserve that we have to put in there Insurance recoveries and assigned there's a sign reserve for future years that the state mandates us to to do um that means that it cannot be touched it's restricted has to be in there you can't touch it you can't just take the money and say let's put it in and and uh you know help out taxes it's not how it works okay next one and there's unrestricted Surplus which obviously is unassigned fund balance and that's where you can use some of those funds for for things that you need uh to do like offset the tax levy Etc today Jeff that's not it all right so real quick we'll go through my budgeting um oh again $10 million um you know the audit report we have $1 million in Surplus that's unrestricted all the rest is restricted so to say we have $10 million in Surplus means we're we're financially sound we're Savvy we're hitting all those restricted areas but you can't use that money for just anything you want to we have a million dollars that's unrestricted to use as we see fit next okay it's my emoji next okay so again we talk about budgeting and how there's line items and how there's different things and year to year you have proposed and you have actual at the end and the whole idea is this Boards of Education should ask for the money that they need and at the end of the year they should have zero dollars left because if the board approves the money they shouldn't have anything left except for a little bit of surplus like we all have on a rainy day in case something happens Etc so that's what you're seeing next SL okay uh our teaching salaries here which I know come up every year um there's different um there's different positions in different categories I'm sure Mr paldino will go over that when he get some questions tonight uh but our our salaries are are you know split up we have full-time kindergarten teachers we have 208% of our salaries are for special Area Teachers um grades one to five is almost eight eight and a half million there's extra compensation there which I don't think people understand when we can find teachers we have to pay our teachers to pick up extra periods or if they have to uh watch a hallway or something that's all extra compensation that all adds up it's not free I know people think that everybody wants people to work for free but that's not how it works um we have 90 full-time grade one to five teachers 15 special teacher salaries in that area at 72% uh and then we have teacher coaches that are are helping to uh run our uh RTI programs and and other things of that nature to help professional development uh excuse me that was K to 5 6 to8 six is still in there um in that in that uh you know still in that area uh 5 and a half million um we have 58 full-time teachers in those grades coaches salary is there as well percentage of that and then the high school uh it's almost 10 and a half million just for salaries the extra comp There is almost a million dollars so that means that if we can't find a teacher or we don't have a teacher that's full-time so let's say we only have four more sections that we need right every teacher has to teach five sections we don't hire part-time teachers so in order to save on the benefits Etc each teacher will pick up a section so each teacher gets a uh an extra compensation of 12 $13,000 for the year something like that um and that that's part of that plus those other periods um for the high school so that's where your bulk of your monies are go ahead and then there's a preschool contribution to some of that too um which is 7.2 million uh for supplies and curriculum Etc power professionals uh again remember that number we were talking about the proposed versus that so that's your actual proposed number is 33.8 million uh and all those things we just talked about so I mean it's a real number it's it's a you know and that same thing as actual other those other salaries and whatnot uh the increase from last year I'm sorry from 232 24 the realized increase from 2324 to 2425 was $2.7 Million and that's it so again um you know I want to congratulate the board for working with us uh to keep a lot of the programs intact to just lose positions through attrition through retirements Etc um because we know that we can maintain fiscal responsibility and hopefully hang in there for one more year um with this uh it's pretty pretty tight uh increase so thank you very much and I think uh I'll hand it back over to president Ben Mei okay thank you Dr TOMCO uh we're going to begin public comment and public comment is going to be the five minutes so I gave more than five minutes for the last meeting which was a workshop which which seemed very appropriate to be able to go through and pick the numbers we are very reachable through email and there are several of you that email us all the time and we're very appreciative and we read your emails and we go through your information so you can reach us um every one of us and even the superintendent so we do appreciate that but for the sake of tonight and this meeting we're going to do five minutes so can I have a motion to open up public comment so moved a second motions second Mr Paladino please call the rooll trusty daro yes trusty misi yes trusty munz yes trusty PCO yes trusty Williams yes vice president dtis yes president pamini yes okay and so first to the podium we like to call Gary Hinton hello uh not very good at this but I'm going to shoot it out anyhow it's a it's a disgrace that our scores SAT scores aren't going up like our our fees and our taxes that we pay our our children aren't getting the education that they deserve we're paying through the nose for it we're probably the most expensive salaries in the nation for teachers all right you you your in increased the school from 496 employees up to 900 in the last couple years our grades went down from two 2020 2021 year they went down to the lowest point ever it it's a shame that you are doing this you keep on increasing everything all these programs but the school grades are going down there's a real problem here and your Arn addressing it all right the money you could throw all the money at it that you want and it's not doing a damn bit of good with grades like this so I I like to see his cut these hair more because as a taxpayer we're getting sick of paying all this money each year going up all this and our children grades going down so I'm against this I we should cut it more thank you Mr Hinton I'm Vincent Fran anony good evening and let's start off you know lengthy presentation then we're given five minutes to respond uh let me go first I'll have to skip around with adequacy the state bunch of lunatic come up with this thing if they determine the adequate amount they should pay for it this is New Jersey State Constitution Article 8 section 3 line one the legislature shall provide for the maintenance and support of a the efficient system of free public schools for the instruction of all children in the state between the ages of five and 18 years old we fought this in 19 up till 1990 we got no state aid we funded our schools and our towns with local taxes we had excellent students good grade scorers and all and then the we fought the state because this constitution I was with two Statewide groups and all and uh we got some Aid the first aid was in 1991 Belleville got one million in state aid and we complained and brought up this issue of the constit ution and our Board of Education trustees are with us and they young we need double this we need two or three million well the next year guess what we got we got 9 million in state aid and then over next eight years it went up to 18 million in state aid uh 17 1,723 increase in state aid guess what happened to our local tax rate it still went up 33% so you can't give more money doesn't equate better education it just fattens the cow fatter and fatter uh we this free lunch for everybody free the this is a socialist program that has destroyed once great Nations when are we going to learn that this this has to stop uh we took I'm the oldest of seven my father almost died when I was seven years old somehow we managed my mother gave it we ate we had breakfast and all we didn't depend on the schools we are teaching people to be dependent it is absolutely uh sick um some of the things in Dr tomko's report here uh crying the Blues uh oh we cut this we cut that the real thing we got to cut and explain the huge increase in employees right almost 400 increase in since Dr TOMCO got here that's where the money is and I I don't understand I've got six grandchildren in other districts and uh I see good test scores in those districts it's an embarrassment what we're doing to our children in here uh also complain about Co money ended you lost six way but like I said the last meeting there was no more Co mandate so we didn't need that the um the other thing is that my friend here discussed the test scores are an embarrassment I just saw something the middle school on the score of 0 to 100 the Middle School six single digit this is an embarrassment and harmful our to our children and the other thing is that over the years I've watched we have trustees some of them might mean well and want to do things but a great number of them just used the Board of Education as a stepping stone uh we got our councilman Mr Graziano only served the year and he ran away uh councilman natari in Aur Spain Longo I can go on and on with trustees only got on this board to use it for their own personal uh one of them who worked for me for three days years ago when I was in a shoe business came to my house one day and says hey I'm running for the Board of Ed I said good sit down what are you going to do for the residents and the taxpayers and the children he says screw that he says I want a County job I know this is a stepping stone so we need trustees who are going to really really do their primary job these test scores are a naal embarrassment we the children are being to with all this money now $132 million our test scores aren't you embarrassed and all thank you Mr Fran Anton the all right your time's up you see okay this is unfair this is definitely an inflated bureaucracy that can care less and in plain English the taxpayers go to hell you can do this you had a a hearing last year a budget Workshop not one of you spoke up all you did is listen to three of us now tonight you got a big long presentation 130 and then we're given five minutes to speak none of you embarrassed some of you miss you sat in the audience here you spoke elegant none of you go five minutes to speak on this budget you ought to be ashamed of yourself and God man I hope you don't sleep at night thinking what you've done to the children most importantly and the taxpayers but more importantly the children 5 minutes on $134 million budget after Dr TOMCO made a half hour presentation thank you for nothing to the chair can I just comment on two of his comments so again let's bring up the um the numbers again because I I think that uh the numbers for um the employees like I said it's close to 200 for preschool um we went from 7% to 96% of a preschool Universe um so there's about 200 new employees there since I've been here every school now is at capacity for how many sections it can have so for example some schools only had one section of grade four let's say when I first got here now every school's at capacity um that's AO an average 84 additional teachers over those years and and parents are still complaining about class sizes um so that right there brings me to 280 so I I mean you know here and there one one or two I just want to make sure everybody's kind of clear on that it's not like um you again people are sitting around in the empty spaces and you know again I I would be remiss if I didn't say this but I've been here now nine years Mr France Anton you've gotten up almost every meeting I've always respected what you said and from time to time you bring up different districts and your grandchildren and there is you know I don't know where well I'm not going to say where your grandchildren live but the numbers and the hurdles that those districts have versus the hurdles that our kids have here there're no way in comparison um I think it's time that we all start looking at that um doesn't mean that this is a a different place or a worse place or a better place but when you bring up scores and you bring up things and you have a high school here that's at 50% poverty 50% for our high school and neighboring high schools are at 30% and 11% and we can know who our neighbors are big difference in a hurdle there for kids that are coming to school so when we compare where where other people live or whatever what's we shouldn't worry about that we should worry about our kids as I said current kids and I think back in the 1980s and 1990s and this was a different different demographic definitely a different um socioeconomic um barrier here uh the barriers were different these are realities I'm absolutely not making these numbers up I think people are avoiding these numbers but they're realities um again we still have a very high special ed population and again if Mr Klein and and his team haven't hadn't kept students here and and you know bought houses for programs and we've made more room for programs etc those numbers would be double our special numbers would be double um that's another hurdle you know and uh you know if you don't have a child whose special needs and you don't know what I'm talking about but uh there's hurdles at home there's there's frustrations Etc and uh we are not a district here where when your child gets a c not all of our parents can reach into the pocket and get a tutor for $150 go to silven Learning Center we don't do that that's why we created it took us some time but we created Casa and we did all those other things so I don't think it's fair to compare other districts to us um or let's compare the right District and I don't think anybody really wants to wants to look at that so uh I didn't I didn't mean any disrespect by that but I think it's time to start talking in realities um you know scores that you you mentioned back in the like the hespa or or hspt early warning test those are not even close to the tests today you should sit down and take some of these questions today they're they're very difficult questions uh they're processed questions they're not the way like I learned math uh just difficult stuff it's about how you get to the answer because that's what the world is coming to Ai and all those other things that we also don't want to talk about um are looking for processes not answers all the time there's like five answers now to a you know I don't think I agree with that but that's just the reality so uh but I appreciate the comments thank you yeah and the same presentation I've given every year so that's why I give the same exact presentation so it's not un Fair thank you thank you thank STW Mar draws 95 bells to um Mr ean's not here again and I guess he's not on the phone again I guess a no show for uh all the money he's making OB obviously and I'm just curious ask how many board members up there have actually met Mr Egan face to face I would like an answer that if you want to answer that of course but anyway um just going to few some questions here I just quote your comment there about 50% of the students uh would uh that are below property so that tells me that the other 50% should not be getting it that means they're pretty well off and they can afford to pay for their own lunches you can answer that later on of course okay you just quote quote me on that one there um what I would like to know is the number of nine years ago the state monitor came in how many employees were in the system 9 years ago and how many today that's number one and I think some years ago when you first came on you mentioned that our student population was 4,400 or 4600 something on that order so what is the population 5200 I believe as of today so my question is with this increase in population we have a lot of new developments going on in town but I'm questioning where do they live because they're not at full capacity yet you're looking at a couple of thousand units that are coming up so I'm just wondering where these students are living it's just a little puzzling there which brings me to let me see there was something here to these I'll give you an example of the apartments what we're what we're head where we're heading on Belmont Avenue in Beville the town just received $500,000 which is great that's for them but out of that $500,000 25,000 went to the county oh and we only have four children attend in our school system well guess what four children $18,500 that equal $774,000 and guess who's picking up that $74,000 while the town got 475 you me all of us here and that is only the beginning I'm I dread what is coming on in years if you look up nj.com Jersey City because of those developments I won't tell you who who I talked to there um $3,200 in school taxes alone in the last three years because of overdevelopment I just have a couple more questions here somebody he brought up something about the uh salaries and this and that I think we have to take a hard look and start eliminating positions through attrition not to hurt anyone and also look at the positions if somebody has a position does somebody have the same thing at less salary the town did that years ago when I was on a counsil you had three job titles everybody did the same thing but every three different people got three different salaries but they all did the same job because what does that turn out to be the politically connected The Chosen Few get those jobs and the lease I mean I said to you before Mr TOMCO I'd be more than happy if you would buy property instead of leasing it again some of these leased properties they're to the politically connected again and this is what's happening here no one wants to face see we all know what's going on we're not stupid we know what's going on Everybody Talks it's a small town or at least it is for the time being all right I'm almost done the teaching supplies I mean to take away $100,000 from the teachers I mean come on a lot of these teachers I know it for a fact my wife worked in the school system at one time she paid out of her own pocket hundreds of dollars every year I mean to take it away from a teacher I don't agree with you you know the old saying the more you get the more you spend through the chair thank you thank you Mr dra um just a few the I can get you the number of the employees uh I'd have to get that to you I don't know the exact number um again 4600 to 5200 though is you know at least 600 new students so obviously you know I know everybody likes to just do Square math and kind of say divide it but we do have to you know fill those uh spots with individuals so that's adds more to those uh those numbers of employees that we hired um a few things you're you know you're the former mayor of the town so I mean in that position you know it's very difficult to say hey um you know half the Township Schools are considered schools in poverty everybody gets free lunch there and the other half isn't right imagine that that real estate nightmare um and that's where we're headed whether you like it or not that's the reality uh this board knows that I've made it very clear to them and I don't think there's anything wrong with it I think that we have a lot of people um especially a lot of our most vocal residents that don't want to believe that that's there's things that come along with that there there are um you know I had the I had the ability to uh read the transcript of the mayor's incredible speech last week um and there were some interesting things on there which uh you know I think some of you will probably point out at some point but you know we have a lot of things here that are going on with our social emotional Wellness that people don't understand you know yeah crime rate is down but we've had three murders this year we had a driveby shooting we had a student shot we had kids not want to go to school because of where they lived that's reality that's total reality I'm making that up know what that's like you don't know what that's like we know what that's like here that's a problem okay so we have to start start looking at some of these things and stop you know oh let's let's see how we can do some rhetoric and spin that uh it's nobody's fault that that happened it's the it's the reality um you know zero dollars for Pilots not even a talk to us about Pilots not even mentioned in the master plan you know you brought up a great point that we're not you know we're not getting any of that tax money and there's four or five kids not whatever that number is I know how that number became about but that's only now I'm I nobody said now I'm not talking about now I'm a future planner talking about down the road right there's only a few now that's fantastic let's talk a year from now let's talk two years from now let's talk when Soho opens up and all those kids can't go to school 10 um you know those will be things that are going to be issues here and um you brought up a great point I really want to clarify this I was going to do it at our regular uh meeting but I want to do it now during that mayor the mayor's incredible speech he talked about how it took four years for a re-registration process let's be very clear on why it took that long because we wereing working with some some of the municipal players to try to work on certificates of occupancy uh different things you know we know that a lot of people in the township know a lot about certificates of occupancy right they're experts so we were trying to work on some of those areas um it couldn't happen it didn't happen for whatever reason it was legality I I I know it was we couldn't do some of the things that we wanted to do however you have students and families renting out rooms here living in basements living in attics okay I'm not saying those are legal Apartments that's not what I'm saying but here's the deal the here is the deal anyone who lives in the boundaries of Belleville has to go to school in the boundaries of Belleville we have nothing to do with who's living in those apartments so that's where they're moving to we do have students whose families rent out rooms we do have students who have multiple multiple people in their family who live in one bedroom apartments it definitely happens I know we keep saying that that's never going to happen here but it's happening already we have I think seven or eight correct me if I'm wrong miss Ben media if I'm wrong but seven eight or nine uh dwellings that have just been uh are going to be two and three family uh houses um these are these are things that are happening and okay it is what it is but these are realities and these are things that are happening so yeah we're going to Bear all those costs especially from those Pilots um you know I I think it's uh I think it's interesting that um you know even buying prop I would love to buy property board can't buy property unless it has the money in capital reserve so that's why we had to lease as many properties as we had to um in order to do some of these things and one board can't tie the next board after five years to a lease so those will be renewed in five years if this if the next board which is in a couple years decides to do that they might not be able to but these are things that we needed so these are some of the things that definitely happening here um and again the more we cut you know uh the more you know we're we're not an employment agency that's not how it works uh all the contracts that you're talking about the salaries have all been negotiated uh fairly has nothing to do with the state monitor the boards and the boards this board and the board before the boards before it have all negotiated in good faith um so this is this is where it's at um but again um you know appreciate the comments thank you Michael Sheldon uh good evening everyone um before I begin I just want to make sure that we are all in agreement again of what some of these uh commonly thrown terms uh mean adequacy and Below adequacy adequacy means the state officials consistent with the Mandate under the State Constitution to provide every child from Age 5 to8 with a thorough and offici education they look at the number of students in a given Community your infrastructures Etc and they come up with a target number what it takes to run that school district that's the adequacy aid then they look at that same community and say well what can those people inmediately you know we're a blue collar Hard Scrabble Community what can those residents afford in the way of property taxes the difference between what is adequate and what taxpayers can pay is the below adequacy number and Dr TOMCO as you correctly cited tonight it's 12 7.2 million according to the latest calculations but as you also have repeatedly correctly stated Governor Murphy is now fully funding us to to a tune of 12.2 million that's five million more than what the state claims is necessary around this district and as every board member knows here I shared with you in the community I did the line by n line analysis of your budget the initially proposed budget and just making modest trims to the percentage increases eliminating no programs just saying you know instead of a 400% increase how about we go to a 200% increase for this line item and instead of a 180% increase for this line item how about a 90% increase when I did that calculation when I shared it with you I trimmed your budget making no cuts on programs no staff Cuts I trimmed your budget by 5.4 million which Not only would obviate the need for the $4 million increase which you've now reduced to two million but it would also result in a $150 reduction in everyone's tax bill for the next year so I don't I don't I don't get it so let me quickly go through my charts and I've posted these online but I want to show these for the edification of the community general fund balance or Surplus in each of the last four years 10 million or more dollars what does this mean two years ago your auditor stood in this spot when he gave his annual audit report and I asked him could you please define for the community so everyone understands what general fund Surplus means and he said and as I is it isn't it true Mr Bliss that it is what's left in the Boe piggy bank at the end of the academic year when all the bills are paid and he and it's on the video record he said yes Mr Sheldon that's essentially what it is 10 million or more dollars at the end of each school year I say that this represents more money than you need to run the district now why did you say Dr TOMCO hey but we only have a little over a million dollar unrestricted that's because at the end of each year you and Mr Paladino quickly move these monies into restricted accounts like the capital reserve so you know you're playing games with this now the the Staffing numbers Dr TOMCO when you came here you started February 15 2015 so I'm looking at the First full Academic Year 20156 there were 496 employees that is everybody teachers bus drivers Paras janitors Etc currently 8 67 employees 75% increase now you say but Mr Sheldon we have 190 people involved with our prek now if I'm correct earlier tonight when you gave your PowerPoint presentation you said we have about 500 students involved with prek that means that you have almost one bet better than one employee for less than every three students that's outrageous I don't I don't get that that that if that number is correct the PA number that is just mind-blowing and uh I you know I would like clarification on that now operating budgets your first full year the operating budget was $ 64.9 million this year initially you wanted almost 1119 million dollar not only is that a 14% increase over the last year but it represents an 83% increase over the DP period That's during TOMCO now you know this this is just what I see happening every year just as uh uh Dr Tom I know you don't have much of a physics background but as you know you know nature generally abhor a vacuum well what I've painfully learned over all these years is that school administrators hate unused Surplus dollars as soon as you see them they get sucked into to other areas to carry out your own agenda now the annual school aid state aid when you came here Dr TOMCO Governor Christie had Frozen our Aid at 25 million for next year the total state aid prek and K through 12 Governor Murphy has delivered on his campaign promises that is 75 M366 323 66.6 million of that is K through 12 and almost nine million of it is prek and I remember distinctly back in January 2020 When Miss Benet Mei and others joined the board we had the meeting in the cafeteria when the pre pre began I asked how are we going to fund this because I was the only person that voted no initially for prek not that I don't approve prek but I was worried about the funding and you and Mr Egan especially mocked me and said don't worry about it once we get the we're going to be fully funded it won't cost taxpayers anything and once we have the money it's locked in even though in 2020 that was only a two-year guarantee and I had I'm a news wonk I I knew about covid and I knew W almost finished I knew about covid and I I I warned you don't lock us into things like this because you only had a two-year guarantee and Mr Egan said Mr Sheldon take off your tinfoil hat you're being ridiculous nothing is going to happen less than two months later covid hit us and in April of that year Governor Murphy told every District prepare to make Draconian Cuts starting with the elimination of your pre- programs so you know I I'm not I I'm a physics person I'm not psychic but I knew what was heading towards I could see the evolution all of the lease deals the politically connected individuals everything was about to unfold and I I know this things have just gotten worse thank you Mr Sheldon and there's no justification for any increase and you you decry how poor bille is you but you're increasing the taxes you're creating a vicious circle a catch22 you increase taxes to a community that's already too poor to pay those taxes you're going to get more people living illegally in buildings and more kids illegally attending our school so go explain that to me I would love to have the opportunity before you leave here in 5 days to sit with you in front of a camera I'll even pay for it and for a couple hours you and I finally have a chat to this community so we can fully flush out all of these issues once and for all so it's not go there and return your seat and now let you have the final word thank you and by the way I know you're only here for 55 more days and you're probably counting that you probably got last day I have to deal with Sheldon marked on your calendar but as soon as you go to Garfield I'll be attending those meetings too because I want those board members and those community members not to have to go through the same learning curve that I had to go through here thank you to the chair yes I think you'll like this one I Mr Sheldon I I I would love for you to come over there it'd be great so I mean you guys remember when I got here the first day and Elmer Park people came here first couple meetings so I guess it's something I do I attract people um just just a couple things very quickly um I I don't want to argue with the adequacy a again and because you're also very good at spinning stuff because of your background and everything I know you do all the time so when I when I when I read all your stuff that you sent me um that everybody gets in the town it's just very interesting but regardless of that I'm not arguing about it you're you contradict yourself with the adequacy piece all the time the the 7 Millions the $7 million is exactly what the state is saying that we need to to level that playing field from our end of it so that's exactly that's exactly it so again it's not how it's not how it works um the paa numbers that you keep bringing up too you can't easily take your mathematics background and say there's 200 teachers and there's 500 people it's one that's not how it works there's Paras there's only a certain amount of students per Space by law um it's under 15 um there's two par sometimes per room so again until you know all those things which I'm surprised because you were board member that went through all that with us um you know you can't just take the number I I'm speaking now sir you can't just take a number and divide it that's what you keep doing and I think most of the people believe it and listen to you because you're very charismatic and it's entertainment most of the time but I think uh the reality is that all these all these positions go under position control and once again once again we are monitored by the state so there are no hidden people not showing up to work or especially especially with the paa money that's like a triple layer of uh of scrutiny so it just it's it's it's laughable however I think I think we're in for a treat because I would like Mr Paladino if possible if we could pull up Mr Sheldon's email stuff or whatever he had and let's go through that line by line can you go to my whiteboard can we do that let's go to Matt's whiteboard and let's go and let's talk about all these things that Mr Sheldon's been talking about to people where we can cut with these percentages and let's tell them actually where the money goes and where it is because when Mr Sheldon must have forgotten when he was on the finance committee chair so we're going to do a little recap right now can we do do that do we have the ability to do that let's do it well we're kind of don't you want to hear this first that's up to the that's up to the chair but we're gonna I think this is a good time to do that so it's your call but whatever the chair wants but we're going to go over this because yeah let's do it Ruben Mr Rodriguez my Jeff all right um thank you very much Ruben Rodriguez heed Hill Avenue I just it's it's got to stop eventually the spending's just got to stop I just have a quick question um president uh benett meia you said that you guys are very accessible you guys took your email addresses off for the website so um I know a lot of people email me all the time there you guys are not the your email your border B emails aren't on the website um they used to be they're not anymore um also I just I didn't know I heard something about a e theater did is are we still getting the E theater or did that get cut like are there any other programs that got cut or that was basically and then some of these programs that we have do you ever guys do like a return on investment and see what is is it is it worth it like for inst I know you know I I can't think of any on on off topic but if we have any are we putting any programs in that kids aren't using that we're not getting is it is it time to revisit some of the programs that we have um and say Hey you know three kids took advantage of this is it really worth putting all this money into these programs um things like that so that's kind of just the real quick questions I wanted to ask and I know you guys work hard on this and quenching numbers is not fun um it's probably a pain but um that's really I just I just didn't hear about the E theater if we're still getting that and um and oh oh one last thing the casa thing is that grant money or is that just another one of these situations where if grant money Runs Out are we just going to have to are we going to have to pick that up in the future so and then you could go on to that you can answer me after this thank you yeah through the chair thank you um the casa is uh is is uh heavily funded by grants and sponsorships however um you know it is in the lease agreement obviously that if there's no more funding that that we would get out of we were able to get out of the lease that's a law so the board would have to kind of see that but the board would pick up some of those fees for like uh if there's extra fees for teachers or tutoring or whatever but a lot of it's that Grant the the big Grant the return of investment question is excellent it's an excellent question I think we're doing a lot of that with software now we're looking at software packages we're using and stuff like that which we used but now we're not using as much so we are that's that $100,000 that you see that's coming out but the bigger problem is like programs like so for example you and I had a discussion about dance remember so at that point there were a lot of dance you know we had dance when I first got here there was nobody in dance now we have a bunch of dance people or students and so you have to really see how it is Year bye but we we do a pretty good job with that but we we con that's what the administra administrative team talks about every may we look at programs look at Personnel Etc so thank you all right Mr pal you want to take it over thank you Dr TOMCO all right so number one I think we can all agree to disagree on below adequacy and under adequacy but we're below adequate plain and simple the tax levy does per the state this isn't a in a back room or anything like that the tax levy does not meet where the state is telling us where it should be for Belleville to be fully adequate irregardless of the governor fully funding Us in state aid there two tides to every story number two in regards to the Surplus yes Mr Bliss does get up there and tell us how much we have in Surplus but you have to designate it by law so the board agrees Mr Sheldon you were on the board when we did this too you have to put money into different Reserve accounts or buckets however you want to call them for rainy days so for example if I have a boiler that goes down and you want to cut all that and you want to use all that money for something else where are we going to go and get funding for a boiler I go to my capital reserve you want to cut it and not have a boiler work so that's just that all right they might be in the referendum but they're gonna go down okay so if you start with and I think every employee in the district should watch this right now because the only way you cut $5 million out of this budget and you decimate It Is by eliminating staff it's the only way you do that yes you do so you're going to go right now to the first line line 2100 right up there grade one through five salaries all our elementary teachers that we appreciate okay so for next year for 2425 I'm budgeting $8.6 million okay Mr Sheldon puts there in his notes that the contract calls for a 3 to 5% increase right so he wants to reduce that line by 5% and cut $500,000 but what Mr Sheldon doesn't take into account in that line is the following facts we have 90 0 full-time grade 1- five elementary teachers throughout six schools 15 additional specials teachers those are teachers that teach art music and PE to the little kids also there are four teacher coaches that they have their salar split up between 1- 5 6 through 8 and 9- 12 so you in actuality when you add all that up you have a 100 plus 101 full-time teachers getting paid through that one through five line okay also you have to budget for extra comp hours okay that's when teachers are covering ing Miss preps lunch coverages Hall duties split classes bus Duty Tech advisory talented and gifted I'm sure Mr Sheldon didn't take any of that into account in that Top Line okay but at the one through five level the last couple of years we've budgeted for roughly 7900 hours of extra comp at the grade 1 through five level so if you base that 70 7900 hours on a 180 school day school year that mean that means each day the 1 through five teachers can do 44 hours of all of that extra comp stuff to cover our kids in those buildings which if you break it down even more at each School the school building can only be allowed 6 hours per day of extra comp that means if you have a teacher out you have nobody covering lunch nobody in the hall nobody at bus Duty you're going to eat up or six hours real fast okay furthermore in that line if you take all those full-time equivalents all 1001 of those staff members on average divided by 8.62 million you're going to have an average salary of $81,000 Okay add up every single staff member being paid through that line 42 are paid over the over the average over 81,000 50 of those 100 he half are earning longevity but I'm sure Mr Sheldon took that into account in his line when he wants to cut half a million dollars so either a you're going to eliminate all the extra comp that our elementary teachers do to get to that $500,000 that he wants to cut or you're going to cut roughly six or seven staff members that's how you get to half a million dollars of a cut I'll go down to 2120 our grade 6 through 8 teachers sixth graders we all know is still in the elementary school seven and eighth grade is at the middle school we have a budget for 2425 of just shy of 5.3 million 5.3 million okay we have 58 full-time staff members teaching in sixth grade seventh grade and eighth grade plus four teacher coaches okay in the 6 through eight line in addition to the salaries we're budgeting for $5,400 hours in extra comp again miss preps lunch coverages talented and gifted but also because of middle school you have to budget for inter murals and detention coverages in addition to everything else we're doing at the elementary levels okay so 5,400 hours in extra comp extra duties that our 6 through eight teachers do on a daily basis break that down over a 180 day school year that means the elementaries in the Middle School have 30 hours a day to play with so to get to a cut of $300,000 roughly over there I can't see I don't my glasses on but Mr Sheldon wants to propose a $300,000 cut to that line you have 58 staff members 32 making the average of 86,000 through that line and 26 of them earn longevity so if you want to cut through $300,000 you're talking about cutting four or five staff members or eliminating all the extra comp work they do if I can go on a little bit do one more I spent all weekend on this because it was fun it was fun it was just fun let's go Jeff can you can you scroll Jeff can you scroll to hold on hold on we didn't interrupt you when you were talking so let me finish nobody interrupted you during five minutes Jeff go to lines go to line uh 47200 scroll all the way down I'll tell you when to stop Jeff wa 47200 keep going that's what I want to he keep going Mr Sheldon has a lot of empty cells in here I probably should have taken them out well it does but and I I didn't bring my magnifying glass for uh for tonight I should have keep going Jeff oh wait hold on slow down slow down going I'm sorry thank you for the name calling I've never once in 8 years called you a name even though you post a lot of things about me on Facebook okay so if you go to the top here 47500 right there and come I'm sorry Jeff go down a little bit more I apologize go down to 48500 keep going keep going oh wait wait wait wait Jeff SL around you're fired I can save money right there we love you Jeff we love you you're good people all right wait wa wait Jeff slow okay so if you go to 48500 salaries and you come all the way down this is our maintenance and custodial staff okay they're the probably after the teachers after the pars after our secretaries after our bus drivers the hardest working people in the district okay in all of these lines Mr Sheldon proposes cutting $431,000 in all these lines for custodial and maintenance the only way you're going to cut $431,000 out of custodial maintenance is either a we're going to cut custodians B we're going to cut maintenance staff C we're not going to do any projects D we're not going to repair anything and we're just going to let the district go downhill that's the only way you're going to cut $431,000 in total in all of those lines I know doc only told me one more but Jeff go down to 71200 it's health benefits yeah keep going wait hold on hey uh where is it no go up a little bit more Jeff right there okay health benefits okay that is all of our employee benefits as I've said before that's Health prescription dental and vision next year I'm budgeting $13.4 million okay if you look at two years ago go we had 9.9 million this year we're up about 2 million next year I'm up about a million a half it's a 12.75% increase Mr Sheldon as he comes up every year during the budget wants to go down to 10% and cut $326,000 I'm sorry I don't have my glasses on $328,000 great that's wonderful you know how you cut $328,000 when you're cutting all the staff that he wants to cut to get down to $5 million and and decimate this budget you want to know what else happens when you cut $328,000 when you get to January 1 and the state tells you your increases over 10% where are you going to get the money to cover all that where I'd love to know where you're going to get that money because you're not a ba you're smart but you're not a ba I'd love to know where you're going to get that money from you're not you're going to come up here to the board and say we shouldn't have cut that budget so that I had that extra half a million dollars to cover the percentage increase because our broker has already told us prescription is going to go up January 1 just shy of 10% and the state is telling everybody be prepared for anywhere from 15 to 20% double digit okay Mr Sheldon will be looking for more than $328,000 on January 1 there are a couple other lines in here that he tells you to take out money from especially pea but he doesn't understand that those lines are things you have to have as mandated by the grant so you can't cut those areas so again every staff member in this District should listen to what I just said because the only way you cut $5 million out of this budget and decimate this district and put it back to where it was 10 years ago is by cutting staff and cutting programs thanks P one more thing too just to go back to when uh Mr Sheldon was on the finance Comm comme when we made the cut to a legal Reserve uh which put us into a major bind next year um I think that's the issue here I think it's easy to just go to these lines take numbers and calculate them and divide and say we can do all this but that's not the reality it's not the reality once again I will I will say to everyone in here this is not a district that has the free reign it had 10 years ago 15 years ago there are different layers of scrutiny here with regard to the state uh the state monitor the state monitor's Team all of those individuals that know how many employees we have know how much money we have to spend etc etc so again uh the rhetoric the rhetoric has to has to stop in order to sustain the programs and all the progress that's been made over the years and that's going to continue to be made all those realities have to be become seen instead of just putting numbers up here and having people go yeah someone said that he cut 5 something million like you just said 5.75 whatever it is I I could have done that too very easy but again there's things in those lines that you're not aware of the board is aware of uh and that's why the board has supported uh these uh these budgets over the past even though I still think there was too much cut over in the past years especially when you were on the board U most definitely U but again we uh we accept that the monitor is you know when the board votes on a budget the monitor is not going to get involved with with uh overturning that unless it's it's it's very uh egregious uh so again even though this is tight this is a realistic budget and uh you know again I appreciate uh these uh these uh considerations from Mr palan put up here can you take this off please thank you no take it off I don't want to see it no no it's all true okay before we close public comment was there anyone else that wanted to come up and speak about the budget you want want to just raise your hand yeah did you want to come up and speak no e [Music] okay see Maria Rodriguez okay um I don't mind paying taxes if my child has a quality education but he's not getting she understands based on the quote from Mr palino and Dr TOMCO that there are 90 teachers but in her uh child's experience he had an incident with one of those alleged 90 teachers that kind of change his school experience and this is why many parents find themselves obligated to leave Bel private his his uh her child attended a psychiatrist which evaluated him and disagrees with the fact that he was determined by the school district that he needs special um should we shouldn't be talking about explain that to her that we shouldn't be talking about her her child situation in public like that no no she has referring to the quality of the staff she has called Miss Luna on many occasions never picks up and has left messages and never gets a call back whether it's been in English or Spanish I don't mind paying more taxes but as long as we're getting Quality Service quality education which in her experience it's not Dr tono mentioned that the students are receiving free lunch her son did not receive anything where are those millions of dollars going and what is the the parents and the students going to see as parents the following year we are obligated to consider moving to a private school [Music] again I repeat I don't mind paying the taxes as long as my child and all the other schools uh children in the district are receiving the best education possible Nelson we have to wrap it up her time is up [Music] I wish you the best of luck and I thank you for you given us but please consider not increasing but improving the education thank you thank you so is there anyone else I don't think there's anyone else great job Nelson so can we have a motion to close public com second second Mr Paladino can you please call the role yes uh Mr Egan just wants the public to know that he's watching via YouTube and Facebook and appreciates all the comments uh trusty Darrow yes trusty msia yes okay trusty munes yes trusty PCO yes trusty Williams yes vice president dtis yes president bamini yes okay and before we take a vote on this budget do does any B do any board members wish to comment do you have anything that you would like to say after hearing the presentation and your thoughts about how hard we worked um this weekend and the committee did meet the finance committee and worked very hard I want to thank Liz mage IA um she she did have a lot of great ideas and I know Mr Paladino and Mr TOMCO worked pretty hard to get through the budget so does anyone else have any comments yes I do yes okay Dr Miss AIA yes thank you as uh chairman of the finance committee um I would like to thank Dr TOMCO Mr Paladino and the members of the finance committee for all of the time effort and endless attempts to produce a budget that would provide the students of Belleville with the best possible education while minimizing the tax impact to our taxpayers it has been a difficult and labor intensive process and I'm sure mostly for Dr TOMCO and Matt and I am appreciative of everyone's effort which is why I do support the budget I would be remiss in my responsibility as a trust if I did not state that I believe we have more work to do there are what I consider to be areas in the budget that need work decisions that were made by previous boards before I got here that have cost us a great deal of money and need to be rectified decisions that were supported by the state monitor who has declined my request to attend tonight's meeting to to address the board and taxpayers and answer our questions we pay him a salary yet I was unable to get any input from him regarding the budget process even if we vote down the budget the monitor has the right to override our decision and approve it forcing the taxpayers to assume the additional fin financial burden I would hope that as our district is accountable to the state the monitor should have some accountability to our community thank you thank you Dr msia and just to clarify we can make comments now and after our vote if board members want to make comments again you can make comments okay so is there anyone else that wants to make a comment yeah if you don't mind yep so um my comments very brief uh this is a very difficult process this is not a process that just starts happening um the month of the budget you know we we we're working in this in this budget for the most of the year we actually end our budget and already planning for the next one um this is not a very easy decision to make um as a trustee and as a resident and as a taxpayer myself um it is very difficult um to see how we're how we're perceived in public and how we're and how how we're only gauged by the the scores that um are visible to the public um we are fortunate enough to be able to get a backseat view um and see all the things that happen in within this community and see where um the money that is allocated to our kids in our district and and the benefits that they get from it um we've uh I I I I try to speak with everyone and I try to maintain myself approachable just this week alone I've been sending multiple emails to Dr tonko from parents that have reach out to me about different topics and um this is one of the hardest things that we do um believe me for me this is looking at like $500 plus but uh the reality is that I rather have a say on my budget than uh give the right to the state to determine where my budget should be and that is my biggest concern about voting or not voting on this uh in my position I feel that uh it is our responsibility and our duty to to determine where our budget lands and not to leave that decision up to somebody who's out of our district who doesn't live in our communities and uh and let them make a decision of where our number should be so for that reason I support it um I I do I wish it was less of course like anybody else um do I want to see results yes I do just like everyone else um but but I understand the Dynamics and the Hoops that we have to jump through in order to make one thing uh be a success so I do think our staff I do uh Dr Massa for all her hard work um I I definitely I appreciate all the the input you put into this um and uh that's that's it that's all I got to say thank you trusty munz is there anyone else okay then uh Mr pal um do we have a motion to vote on our budget for the 20242 so Move Motion second okay Dr M motion you're are we calling a roll any other comment sorry any other comments okay Mr Paladino please call the RO sure truste daro no trusty msag yes trusty munes yes trusty Pacho no truste Williams I abstain due to conflict vice president dtis no president benini yes it's 3 three okay so right does anyone have any comments so now we'll end the meeting we we'll do our comments and then we'll end the meeting any yeah trustee trustee darl sure I'll start uh I first of all I want to commend our committees uh and the staff I know we worked all weekend on getting these numbers and I know we kept going back and forth and I know uh Dr massaga and Tracy uh Miss Williams uh and everybody else really put the everything they could to into this uh it's been a struggle me to really wrap my head around this year's budget I really wanted to get behind it as I've been torn between the personal commitment I made to the continued education of our Township's children as well as my responsibility to the community at large with so many of our residents now struggling just to get by and hearing so much about some of the poverty levels even brought up here today represented in our district I did not feel that I could place this additional burden on those same homeowners like myself who have already been have taxes that are out of control I do not feel this is the right direction to take at this time I am fully aware that the cost for everything have been going up due to inflation and to other factors and of course includes all the expenses that the school district must manage as well they're not immune to any of these increases I realize this may not be the overall opinion of the entire board I certainly did not want to make my decision lightly I'm hoping and challenging that we could find other ways to fund or even by cutting additional costs as needed without becoming detrimental to our kids which is I know is hard to do uh to lessen the overall impact of these budget numbers uh no matter which direction the board voted in this matter I of course will ultimately have to support it either way but I at least wanted to voice some of my own concerns following discussions I had with some of constituents that are out there uh which has helped uh to me decide to do the no vote but thank you again and have a good night any other board members have any final comments okay yeah um trustee munes I mean I want to take note how many people are clapping for this no vote and just emphasize to please keep an ear out for where our state monitors going have no choice but to put our budget because at least as board members up here we can decide on where our budget's going to land what just happened right now is that we released our ability to make this decision and we just gave it to the state monitor any other board members have any comments Miss Pacho uh trusty P yes um I'm going to say something as as a single mother and this the taxes is going to be hurt me like the same way hurt our our community we have the poverty high so after the taxes what it's going to be again it's going to be higher it's going to be increased so I'm sure we working hard we're going to work hard and trying to see help the other members to to better budget that's all thank you truste Pacho and any other board members have a comment okay trust vice president Addis good evening everyone oh there's a lot to unpack tonight okay according to Dr TOMCO we live in a community that is about a 50% poverty rate yet we think the solution is to raise taxes by a lot one of the things that attracted people to this community was that it was affordable we are making it so that this is no longer the case on one hand we say we want to crack down on illegal Apartments but then we raise taxes by hundreds of dollars we are making it so that homeowners have no choice but to rent out rooms in their house to make ends meet and I'm not saying that I agree with that but it is the reality we are being faced with we are a community where multiple families are forced to share one house or apartment for that matter to survive I know people like to say that the fault lies with the previous boards who made Cuts I for one am one of those board members who made the cuts so I ask is that really the case or are we a district that lives outside of our means cutting the budget here doesn't mean spending it there that isn't saving the taxpayer anything with all this state aid I think it's absurd to be asked to support this budget and raise this much I cannot in good conscience conscience say yes to this budget and yes I have met Dr Egan Mario Mr Joe uh with that being said I would like to thank everyone who worked on this budget Matt Dr TOMCO the finance committee the entire board it was really nice to see everybody work together um so thank you everyone great thank you vice president dtis and I'll just wrap it up with a few comments um this was a very hard budget and I think a lot of us were very reluctant uh this evening but the the finance committee did their due diligence they worked very hard Mr Paladino worked very hard Dr TOMCO we were getting emails we were getting information um we went back and forth a number of times with different ideas and different things I think moving forward we have to be very mindful of what's happening around us I I want to just say that I appreciate everybody that attends these meetings and most of the time it's the same advocates in the community they work very hard to advocate for the right thing and I don't mean this in the wrong way you're all over 65 years old and and you you can oh you're under okay but the most people can freeze their taxes at 65 and that is a really wonderful thing and you should do that the rest of us are patiently waiting um this board is well represented with single mothers people that have school school AG children still in school those of us who have had their children graduate gra graduate and are sort of in the middle um I've been coming to Board of Ed meetings for 20 years and I am proud to say that I am the only board member sitting here that can say that that I sat out there for 20 years every board meeting home and school presidents there are very few parents in this audience and I think that's pretty shameful and you should be very proud that you have board members that are able to discuss these things and you have Advocates coming to these meetings to talk about these these very issues that are going to affect you so I I do think that it is a struggle um and also I want to recognize all of our administrators and some teachers are sitting in the back and they come to the meetings too um anybody that that is an employee for us knows what's going on in this Township so I think everyone is very well aware the struggles and the hardships that we all face so I do want to thank the administrators and and all of the staff out there um because you know when we negotiate their contracts we do negotiate in good faith and we're very very cordial at these negotiations um so we appreciate everybody very much um we will see you all at our next board meeting which is May oh we we want Dr would like to say and Mr Egan is watching and thank you Mr Egan for watching I I think you're preparing to come to some meetings I think in the future so thank you everyone and have a good night and if I may speak as an xacto non- voting member of the board make a comment on this because I think it's important and and regardless of the board's um vote that's why you represent 17th of the community uh and I always appreciate your votes and uh I we did work very hard on this uh Dr Mage thank you for those comments I really do appreciate it it's my last budget here so but I just need I need to clarify this because some of the board members talked about poverty and and whatnot and I I want everybody out there to be very very careful of of what we're all saying here okay there there are definit hurdles that this Township is facing and and not that you can throw money out of it but you have to throw Services you have to throw personnel and all the things that we don't want to talk about so you can't have it both ways you can't have some of these students that are hitting these hurdles get higher scores and take away some of those monies students that are renting apartments with their parents do not pay taxes they don't pay taxes they pay rent maybe the rent will go up but I'm sure some individuals in this audience could tell you about rent control Etc however when you have three or four families living in one house that means that the taxes paid on that house are only really paying for one student if you really think about it so again we have to be very careful when we talk about the poverty level versus taxes is being paid there's a lot of renters in this town uh we try to work on this over the last four years so just to clarify that because when you take away some of these uh if this budget does get cut now more if the board does does have its uh have its uh desire I guess and uh the budget is due tomorrow so I don't know how we're going to do this we can't even uh have another meeting but the board does decrease the budget at some at some point and we lose faculty members uh we lose because it's going to be faculty now you're over over 30 per classroom uh so again I won't be here but when the when the parents come up here and complain about large classrooms this Board needs to be aware that that's why it's happening um you know you want to get rid of other programs the the the leases Etc all those things can happen all these things are necessary things so I just want to make sure everybody's aware of what happens uh I don't know what Mr Egan's going to talk to us about now after this however um I do know that this was a very tight budget to start with and I think he was hoping that the board can make a decision tonight but it couldn't so uh I don't know which way this this needle is going to turn but I'm sure you'll find out soon enough so again I appreciate the the time for comment I just wanted to clarify that point um but that's about it thank you thank you Dr TOMCO so could we have a motion to close tonight's meeting so moved I'll second it second in Dar all those in favor okay