we're g to get this started is Mary back I saw okay 30 seconds that's okay thank you no no worries okay now everybody is here uh we're going to open the meeting Mary roll call Miss cber go ahead no Miss Kennedy here Miss D Benedictus here miss a Ron here Mr Mesmer here miss kala here miss W here Mr Edwards almost there sorry the New Jersey open public meeting law was enacted to ensure the right of the public to have advanced notice of and to attend the meetings of public bodies at which any business affecting their interest interest is discussed or acting upon in accordance with the provisions of the ACT Bricktown report of education has caused notice of this meeting to be posted on the Administration office bulle board the official District website and channel btv2 and sent to the aswar park press to Brick times the store Ledger and Municipal clerk's office I need a motion in a second to move into executive session motion pan second alley whereas the Bricktown CH board of education has been formed pursuant to applicable New Jersey statutes and whereas the board is charged with responsibility of Performing all acts and doing all things consistent with the law and the rules of the state board of education necessary for the lawful and proper conduct equipment and maintenance of the public schools and public school property the Rick Township School District and whereas section seven of the open Public's meeting act permits the exclusion of the public for a meeting of the board in certain circumstances and whereas the board has determined that circumstances exist for such an executive session whereas the board has found the action described below to be necessary and proper now therefore be resolved by the board on April 25th 2024 that the public shall be excluded from the discussion of an action on the executive session here and set forth the session will be proximately 15 minutes and the general nature of the subject matter to be discussed is harassment intimidation and bullying reports this anticipated at this time that the above stated subject matter will made public if and when is deemed to be in the public interest to do so and the confidentiality is no long required by the board Mary Miss Kennedy yes Miss de Benedictus yes Miss aan Ron yes Mr Mesmer yes Miss micala yes Miss wam yes [Music] really yep they are yeah about and jets always play just like I know I think but anyway okay so we'll just let it go when it happens I'll let you know just so I know guys all just nervous like I what you back I there [Music] hi Walter how are you she likes to see pictures know it happens they write really [Music] spe thank you so I apped for so then they appointed the guys [Music] I could give you better suggestions I'll make sure so I was like laughing and then as I look back on it I'm just like I like laugh like yeah like [Music] one of I [Music] that's I'm sorry guys laptop what's that a new laptop yeah about that I was didn't know what we were doing before okay is everybody back I need a motion in a second to return motion Fran second Victoria Mary Miss Kennedy yes Miss D Benedictus yes Miss aanon yes Mr Mesmer yes Miss picala yes Miss wreb yes please stand for the flag salute in a moment of silence [Music] to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and Just For All often it may appear to members of our audience that the Board of Education acts with very little comment and in many cases a unanimous vote please understand that before a matter is placed on the agenda at a public meeting the Administration has thoroughly reviewed the matter with the superintendent of schools discussed it in appropriate Boe committees and only then if the superintendent is satisfied that the matter is ready to be presented to the full Board of Education it is placed on the agenda for Action at a public meeting board of education members are given advanced notice to review the agenda and through the chair ask questions or voice concerns in rare instances when necessary some matters could be presented to the board of education for discussion and vote at the meeting Ms mamera student Representatives thank you Mrs wreb at this time the representative from brick memorial High School Christine MC St good evening everyone oh Jesus Christ sorry I'll begin with the Vets report on April 16th and 17th School base hosted lead you to provide a workshop to all eighth graders on connecting with others making smart choices and mindfulness and coping skills on April 18th we had our green and gold student recognition night and it was a great event thank you to all our green and gold teachers for their hard work on Friday April 19th the Vets principles were pied in the face by seventh grade students the seventh grade students raised the most money in our penny wars fundraiser and the reward was to pie Mr Carr Mr gonsky and Mrs tropus all three principles smelled like sour milk at the end of the day and the students loved it dress for decades day started on the 22nd and will end on the 26th cultural diversity Spirit day is on May 21st the Vets Courtyard is in the process of getting a spring makeover now onto Spring Sports boys and girls track are competing in a very competitive division in three meets many personal records have been broken girls softball has been in full swing and they have improved every game and had a big win last week against cross town rival Lake Riviera baseball is also in full swing as they are playing to win their division division games are taking place in will be a race for our first race for first for our young Mustangs upcoming events njla testing starts May 1st vets family fun night May 14th and the eighth grade dance on May 31st 6:00 to 9:00 p.m. now on to bh's report thank you to our guidance Department test coordinators and students for their hard work and dedication in completing our NJ GPA testing we know you will make us all proud congratulations to the bmhs Mustang player years on their successful soldout performance of Matilda in addition to four performances last weekend the student body was treated to a special in school performance of this production on Thursday April 11th it was a fantastic opportunity to showcase our talented students a special thank you to the director of Matilda Miss O'Brien and Dr Fitzgerald best of luck to all the incredible seniors as this was their final performance as a bmhs Mustang player our Mustang Key Club and green team led by Miss hornowski Brave the win for Beach sweeps on a chilly April 13th morning our site sponsored by ban construction and set up by bmhs Alum Ryan Bane was out there making a difference good job team today bmhs welcomed Gabe Hurley who spoke to our senior class about his story after a horrific crash and 12 surgeries resulting in permanent blindness Gabe began to leverage his experience into a motivating and inspirational story incorporating his love of music and his talent as a guitar player Gabe now works to help teenagers understand the dangers of distracted driving the consequences of their choices and how one small Choice can change somebody's life forever audience audiences experience the pain frustration and loss that can happen in the blink of an eye all due to one preventable crash this was an incredibly powerful experience and we thank Miss Samantha West for putting this together on Friday May 3rd the class of 2025 will be hosting the junior prom in the gym we know Miss patrula Miss Mrs Decker and the entire executive board will put on an amazing night Under the Stars our spring band concert will be held on Tuesday May 8th in the bmhs auditorium at 6 p.m. please come out and support these talented performers as they take the stage for their final performance this event will also feature an alumni reunion catch sgaa on the upcoming episode of the podcast straight from the Mustang's mouth tune in to hear the president myself and vice president Ben neller to discuss our end of the year events like our very anticipated annual Color Run the class of 2024 will be holding their senior ball on May 16th at the Southgate Manor thank you to Mrs Stanley for stepping in as as an adviser this year and the executive board for what will be an incredible night as the senior class gets together one last time before graduation a special thank you to Mrs Pierce and Mrs moner who met with the freshman classes to help them prepare for the upcoming njsla State Testing beginning May 20th we know know our freshmen are well prepared and will showcase their skills as always don't forget to follow us on Twitter brickmore High School And subscribe to our podcast straight from the Mustangs mouth on your podcast app of choice thank [Applause] you this time from Brick Township High School um Amaya could not be with us this evening but please welcome Paula kobian Ramos Paula good evening I am Paula kobian Ramos the public relations officer for bths Student Government I'm filling in tonight for Maya Dalton and I will start off with the lake Rivera Middle School report uh athletic sorry oh God athletic update baseball update last week the team went one to one we beat Manchester and were led by strong pitching only allowing one hit and one run in a great hitting scored 13 runs and lost and lost to gets team consists of 17 players led by 15 eighth graders softball update the team had nearly 30 girls try out for this year's team the team is composed of five eighth graders two seventh graders and seven sixth graders the team is young but has shown Improvement in various aspects of the game at practice and during our games they will finish out the month of April with a home game against McCulla Middle School on April 24th activities in clubs the student reports and editors are working hard on the spring edition right now and it will go out to the school community in June the book the book and manga clubs just met recently the book club discussed their sci-fi books and picked their new mystery books for the last meeting of the year which will happen in May the manga Club watch a movie by Studio Gil gilby made crafts and made new friends science club met last week students learned about fingerprints they each took an impression of their fingerprints and analy them with mag magnifying lenses they determine the type of fingerprint they and as well as their Partners April our club will be celebrating Earth Day by creating a work of art using recycled magazines this is a van go inspired vase of flowers students will come up with their Creations from the performing arts department amazing amazing participation and performance from or drama club students in Sleeping Beauty on March 22nd and 23rd congrats to all cast and crew on job well done many adults also helped make this a success and I am also very grateful for and I I am so very grateful for their support voices from the lake the lake and interested students will be attending District Coral day on April 17th at Brick Township High School both high schools and middle schools are participating in this day trip senior band Junior band and voices from the lake are also preparing for our spring concert May 14th and planning to attend the P Pac music for a Day Festival at Great Adventure May on May 24th all band and choir student choir students should have turned in their Festival fees and permission slips students who already have a graded Venture pass are free njhs update the njhs recently accepted the applications of 37 new candidates to be inducted into the njhs on April 30th in the NPR our members recently participated in a beach cleanup on Saturday through clean ocean action they continue to tutor those students who stay after school for ocean auction they can oh wait sorry for the to tutor us they PL they're planning for an N for an NS station at the at this year is green and white night they currently they are currently looking for underclassman to run for the JHS Board of officers for next year who who will be soring in on the 29th of May right before our eighth grade tribute finally one of the last things we will do do as one large group in the fifth tours in the fifth grade tours in which we welcome our newest Lakers into the building by giving them a brief tour of the lake while classes are still going on some of them will even make new friends that day before leaving for summer vacation now on to bths the student body enjoyed our spring break and finished the end of the third marking period last week we are continuing to work hard to finish the year and are excited for many upcoming events looking back on the last month on March 14th upper classman in the peer leadership program conducted an Outreach to freshman gym classes to get to know each other and discuss effective communication skills another Outreach happened today to focus more on the topic topic of communication techniques with VAR small groups group challenges the top stressor among teens were also discussed along with healthy ways to deal with stress bths career day was on March 20th during blocks 1 and two this event gave students the opportunity to hear about the VAR about various career fields from members of our community all students were invited to sign up for career Pathways they are interested in thank you to the bths guidance Department Bricktown ship CH Chamber of Commerce and the community volunteers for coordinating this event the computer science this computer science Honor Society visited the visited the elementary schools to introduce basic elements of encryption and decryption to the students members members of the computer science Honor Society raved that their eyes lit up with Wonder before the break the Key Club visited Warren H wolf early childhood development center for an inter interactive egg hunt egg hunt the preschool students were excited to join the Key Club members in this game to celebrate spring break health and physical educ education classes participated in military takeover day on Friday March 22nd students had the Vol voluntary opportunity to engage with milit military members and compete in various physical fitness challenges 11th grade physical education classes also part participated ated in the not even once program on March 28th The Brick Township Police Department led the informative session about the negative effects of drugs the Italian Honor Society induction ceremony took place on April 11th Miss Cardin and the five inductees celebrated their new membership the strong woman empowerment Club paired with the wom's club of the of brick to spread awareness to the community for child abuse Abuse Prevention month by placing pin Wheels on the front lawn of the school the pin wheel is the national symbol of Child Abuse Prevention and represents Hope Health safety and happiness students planning to attend Ocean County College were offered to attend the OCC Express enrollment day through guidance on April 18th the field offered a tour of the campus and and an opportunity to meet with advisers to select courses the dragon drama club brought Shrek the Musical to Stage last weekend with three amazing performances the show filled seats and showed the students talent and showed the student Talent we have at bths amazing job to Mrs best Mr Capone the cast crew and band this past week all Juniors and seniors attended a motivational assembly the speaker Gabe Hurley focused on themes such as resilience positive positive decision-making and overcoming adversity it was evident that all members of the audience were impacted by this by his positive messaging spring sports are in full swing as all teams started the regular season this month the track and field team competed in the a South Division meet on Wednesday and Thursday last week on the boys side Trey Williams W second in the 100 meter and fourth in the 200 meter Giani campon W second in the high in the high jump Jake Hancock's plays fifth in the 400 in the 400 met Anthony Thomas placed six in the mile and third in the 4x4 meter relay on the girl side Emma Canfield won second in the 400 meter hurdles and third in the 100 meter in the 100 meter H hurdles kayin Chandler plays third in high jump and fourth in long jump Kira maku w third in the uh two miles and fourth in the 800 meter and mile setting a new mile School record of 5:15 with 35 seconds no of 5 minutes and 15 seconds the boys lacrosse team divisional record is two 2-2 the team had a great game against long branches against Long Branch last week outscoring them 13-0 the girls lacrosse team has has a record of three to five but have found some success The Varsity goal goalkeeper uh Molly O'Brien earned her 300th save last week seniors Claire Ash Abigail Fuso and Kylie grelle and sophomore Reesa Killy were named in the Asbury Park Press 100 Shore High School girls across players to watch in 2024 the baseball and softball teams have a difficult start to season but are hoping to grow as a team and find more wins coming up the boys tennis team has earned big recent wins 5-0 against man Manchester for their home opener 40 against Toms River North and 5-0 against cross town rival brick memorial lastly the golf team has had a great start to their season and are 4 to one for their divisional matches keep up the great work to all of our athletes looking ahead AP testing will take from May 6th to May 17th good luck to all of our bths students taking a exams we know your hard work will show through the choir the choir department is hosting silhouette singer in the bths auditorium on May 7th at 6 PM facult faculty members will perform Mass singer singer style performances and the panel guesses who they are be sure to stay connected to events and inside information by accessing our school website SGA Instagram bths sgaa and our school Twitter bth as dragons you can always see all of our happening monthly through Dr cajun's dragons review thank you for this opport thank you for this opportunity and I will see you all next month go dragons thank you Paula good job Pinch hining at this time for the ROC welcome to the podium Cadet Master Sergeant MC Wade good evening again now putting on my RC hat I am Cadet Master Sergeant Kristen mcwade the Kitty Hawk Honor Society commander and I will be briefing you on what our Cadets have been doing during the last month on March 16th Cadets took part in serving a St Patrick's Day meal at the American Legion the cadets were proud to take care of the veterans and their guests by serving food and busing tables on April 11th we visited B bidle Air National Guard base in Willow Grove Pennsylvania Cadets learned about Air Force career options and Technology several Cadets were also able to get hands-on experience in an mq9 drone flight simulator on April 17th Kitty Hawk Honor Society hosted their annual induction ceremony at Brick Memorial High School six Cadets joined the rank of this afj RC exclusive academic Honor Society on April 19th Cadets took a trip to Joint Base Maguire dick Lake curse for the student openhouse again Cadets observed aircraft firefighting equipment and Robotics used by the military on April 20th our Raider team hosted our yearly batan Memorial Death March event cadetes hike a 14 mile circuit throughout Sawmill Trail located behind brick morial High School Cadets marched in honor of veterans who died on the in on the infamous batan death march in World War II the March honors the roughly 75,000 American and Filipino forces captured by the Imperial Japanese Army only 54,000 reached their prisoner of war camp on April 23rd Cadet took a trip to Lake Riviera middle schools where they hosted a recruitment drive for students interested in signing up for Jr RC for their freshman year of high school 23 Lake Riviera dragons have signed up for jrtc in the 2025 school year as always thank you for your continued support I hope you have a wonderful evening and since I won't be here next month thank you guys so much for this opportunity and you will definitely see me next year [Applause] thank you uh Dr frell budget presentation sure we're going to have to thank you ladies The Brick Town Public Schools district 2024 2025 budget presentation our central office administrative team has worked hard to help create a budget that is fiscally responsible and maintains programming as best as we can under these tough fiscal conditions the 2024 2025 budget has increased 2.04% from last year's budget with a tax levy of 2.9% our atrisk student population has increased over the years and the cost to educate a student who is classified economically disadvantaged elll or considered at risk in any way is greater than the average cost per pupil the goal of this presentation is to review budget priorities as well as projected revenues and expenditures annual expenditures increase by approximately 5.6 million just in salaries and benefits with a total tax levy of available of only the mandated cap and state aid decreasing we have another budget shortfall to start the budget process of almost $4 million we have utilized some fund balance Surplus and increased grants special education costs have increased as well as other atrisk student populations such as title one uh poverty and elll students in this budget about 50 positions almost 35 instructional are being cut with the hope that the majority of these job cuts are absorbed through retirements and attrition vacancies not filled along with many non-tenured non-renewals as we continuously State we are seeing the continued negative effect of the S2 funding cliff on our district salaries and benefits alone make up 80% of our budget and this increase is $5.6 million it is worth reiterating that with a decrease of additional state aid and the ability to only increase our tax levy by the mandated cap we began this 2425 budget process with a$ million shortfall in order to balance the budget which is state law we have utilized fund balance Surplus and increased grants this is a budget that is fiscally responsible but at the same time very dire and now miss mcnamar will speak about projected class sizes thank you Dr frell good evening I'm Susan mamera director of planning research and evaluation the team has worked diligently in this budget to reduce the impact that the loss of funding has had on class size with our primary focus at the elementary level the result is the average class sizes for the 2024 2025 school year in kindergarten the maximum number of students in a class by law without a par professional is capped at 25 the average class size for kindergarten for Brick for the 2024 2025 school year is 24 the average class size in grades 1 through 5 is approximately 30 with the testing grades of 3 through 5 having an average class size of 30 plus overall class sizes range from a low of 21 to a high of 38 at the elementary level at the middle school level the class sizes will range from a low of 25 to a high of 29 in grades 6 through 8 specials Encore subjects and PE health class size averages will vary depending upon the number of sections and available staff special education classes vary depending upon program and state regulated class sizes and at the high school level the average number of students per core subject area will be around 25 however other courses depending upon course selection and number of sections available based on Staffing could be higher or lower than the average it is important to note across the levels K through 12 the team has worked to staff each of of our schools to provide for a positive educational experience in the best service to our students at this time I would like to introduce Mrs gringer to speak about preschool and special education thank you miss mnam the special education department is preparing for the upcoming school year where we will be addressing the needs of our classified students professional development for all staff will focus on ways to assist all students in the areas of behavior and academics each year we work to identify areas where students require additional support and ensure that the money in our special education budget is being spent on supporting students where needed our five-week esy program will also take place this summer we are so very pleased to announce that our grant from the NJ dooe for the upcoming school year to provide full day preschool to our three and four yearolds in Brick Township has been appr approved once again this will help us further expand our program with two additional classrooms and provide a more enriched learning environment with more materials now I will introduce Dr Elise Anderson the director of curriculum and instruction thank you Mrs Granger due to the reduction in state aid caused by S2 the curriculum and instruction department will postpone the adoption of new programs for the 2425 school year this budget enables us to sustain our existing programs we will continue to use linkit to deliver our standards based benchmark assessments exams and formative assessments as we explore new Elementary reading programs we will preserve our current digital resources at the elementary level we will continue use the Lexia Core 5 platform to help teachers provide explicit systematic and personalized reading instruction at the middle school level teachers will continue to differentiate instruction and track students Lexile growth using the computer adaptive platform Achieve 3000 in social studies this budget enables us to continue to engage students with digital resources such as studies weekly and the savis platform in mathematics for grades K through 7 we will continue to use I ready my path which uses a diagnostic assessment to create a personalized learning path so students receive instruction and practice in areas that they need it most for grade 8 in Algebra 1 Algebra 2 and geometry courses we will continue to use the big Ideas digital platform which assists teachers in planning targeted interventions and helps students monitor their own progress in science we will continue to support implementation of the open CAD curriculum and engage students with stem simulations through gizmos essential to our student achievement goals we will continue to provide ongoing professional development and support for our teachers through our highly skilled academic coaches this concludes an overview of the curriculum and instruction budget for the 2425 school year now I would like to introduce Mr kler the Director of Human Resources thank you Dr Anderson unfortunately due to continued budget shortfalls brought on by the challenges of S2 this year's budget again results in the reduction of positions within the district as you can see from the slide the budget includes the net reduction of 51.5 full-time equ equivalent positions and now Mr Edwards thanks Mr cler for the 2024 2025 proposed budget overall expenditures will increase by 1.16% primarily due to the operating budget increasing by 2.04% which will be detailed later in this presentation so where will the money go instruction and benefits make up 63.2% of all expenditures up from 6 6 2.6% in the 2324 school year all other areas are consistent with where they were in Prior years as can be seen in this slide instructional costs make up 37.8% of the expenditures benefits utilize 25.4% and people support has a 13.9% share which between the three account for 77.1% of the total budget as was was discussed earlier by Dr Farrell salary and benefits make up more than 80% of all the costs Support Services will increase by 2.4% as out of District tuition costs decrease by 10.4% to maintain support services for students in District even though equipment and capital show the largest percentage increase the amount is only $ 37,3 40 which is largely attributable to the interest earned on capital reserve benefits increased by 7.9% due to increase in medical spend and prescription costs Transportation cost increased by .9% due to increases in salaries and the cost of out of District routes operations and maintenance will decrease by 8.2% primarily due to the reduction of positions in custodial the 2024-25 budget will include the leas purchase of 454 passenger school buses and three Special Needs school buses we will also be improving efficiencies and economies of scale via the consultant recommendation of a $240,000 savings there will be no changes to high school and Middle School schools times elementaries will start 10 minutes later two schools that are currently in the earlier time and four that are in their late will be rearranged so there'll be three schools in the earlier time and three in the later and the preschool will be moved up 30 minutes earlier there will also be equipment purchases for the auditorium at Brick Memorial High School in the amount of $4,000 and a laming the machine at veterans Mora Elementary School also for $4,000 capital projects for the 2024 school year will include a long jump Runway replacement at Brick Township High School limited amount of funds for architectural and civil engineering miscellaneous projects the mandated SDA assessment and an increase in capital reserve due to interest earnings on the account so where will the money come from bricks schools continue to be largely supported by local taxes with local tax levy being 7 26.5% of the revenue pi as indicated earlier local tax levy will increase by 99% above the 2% S2 mandate due to an increase in health care costs with reductions in state aid federal aid and surplus utilization miscellaneous and preschool expansion Grant will help offset the reductions for the overall Revenue increase of 1.16% as can be seen on this slide state aid continues to decrease as the district finishes the final year of the S2 legislation brick schools continue to be under adequacy Now by almost 26 million as compared to the 17 million in the prior year as the school funding Reform Act continues to consider brick a wealthy District the amount of local share continues to be below the New Jersey Department of Education determination for Brick Now by over $57 million can you hear me I know some people were taking pictures this will all be posted tomorrow right to the website uh soon as miss m can get it posted with the technology uh tomorrow morning so like every year that presentation uh will be updated for you to uh peruse I need a motion in a second for approval of minutes motion pan second Mike any board comment oh doing just on the budget okay I'm sorry I apologize public comment first [Laughter] [Music] correct let me do my okay that'll help Dr frell that'll help we're going to do public comment just on the budget first is what Mr Edwards was saying so we'll do that separate um but I wanted to read my comments superintendent's comments first because I do have much about the budget the history um for some people that are here tonight for the first time if you haven't been here over the last five budget Cycles I've done here um so that may give you uh some information that can help so let me get um to my superintendent's comments bear with me going a little out of order this evening first I do have congratulatory comments which I'd like to start start off um congratulations to Mrs de Benedictus for receiving her board member certification um last night at the Ocean County New Jersey school boards uh she was recognized um Master board member certification is a huge undertak and it take some time uh and work and I know she's going to pursue her master board certification I think like miss picala and miss wrab next so um congratulations also to Mr Edwards for being selected as the recipient uh for the distinguished service award from the New Jersey Association of school business officials New Jersey as welld deserved Jim thank you um over the past month we've had some Student Activities uh bravoo I want to send congratulations to everybody involved with our High School Musical Productions of Matilda and Shrek the dedication Talent hard and hard work displayed by the entire cast and crew were nothing short of exceptional and the performance were truly outstanding brick Memorial's production of Matilda featured 21 graduating seniors and brick High School's Shrek featured 14 and they will all be sorely missed the commitment to Excellence and the creativity displayed in every aspect of the Productions from the set design to the costumes to the musical performances was truly commendable Matilda and Shrek are both the love stories and Mrs O'Brian and Mrs best interpretations of these Tales was both captivating and enchanting this past month is Autism Awareness acceptance month brick schools celebrated autism awareness and acceptance Spirit day on April 12th to help raise awareness increase acceptance and promote inclusion The District encourag staff and students to wear blue red or their favorite autism t-shirt throughout the district students engaged in activities read books created bulletin boards decorated doors and participated in athletic events we've even released bubbles for autism at our pre in elementary schools and this Mo month culminate culminates with a walk for a difference on Sunday April 28th at the Lakewood Blue Blue Claw Stadium from 11:00 a.m. to 12 on to the budget 2024 20 25 budget um as you saw in the presentation uh something I'm not proud about fifth budget cycle in a row um but before I speak to that I want to sincerely thank my fantastic Central off office administration team uh this team has worked so hard and they're so passionate about brick schools they put in the time and really really work the details especially with this budget I'm proud to say that um I was able to support and build this great team no one person is an expert on everything and the strongest organizations are built on the aggregate of smart hardworking people never one person so thank you tonight is our budget the fifth budget as I said that I've been a part of each one has become increasingly tougher to balance to compliment Mr Edwards again in our cabinet uh they really really did a Yan's job in putting this together and each year it gets harder and harder we continually continually do exactly what the state requires us to do we're mandated by state law to balance the budget every year we have a state mandated tax levy cap and continue to manage with additional state aid laws we now have cut almost 300 50 positions in The Last 5 Years yet according to the state brick schools is 27 million under adequacy and 58 million before our local fair share below our local fair share if you read some of the papers even recently I've testified in front of our state legislator and State Senate and I've been quoted as saying that fully funding a formula that is Antiquated and flawed is the definition of insanity and I know the governor has said that and I stand by my statement the state has fully funded only one part of the formula when you really look at it they fully fund what's called Equalization Aid portion which is something in Brick we do not get because we're considered too wealthy that is the portion that's actually adjusted based on enrollment uh decreases and we don't get that they did not fully fund special education Aid or Transportation Aid which are Brick's two biggest areas and still we have some Urban school districts that get an additional $100 million in state aid and they average almost 30,000 per student in just their state aid um where we and brick average about 2500 per student in what we get in state aid over the years we've closed three elementary schools we repurposed two as to expand our Stellar prek program and we sold one we become self-insured fiscally responsible and this has resulted in large Elementary class sizes less electives at the secondary level and a huge reduction in support services for our students and yes this has impacted our students performance scores and our implementation of our strategic plan timeline in New Jersey the public school budget process and funding notification schedule scheduling is harrowing and quite honestly backwards the timeline for us as you know we had a tentative budget that means nothing changed drastically we had test testified and testimonies in front of the state legislature they have bills today on the floor and tomorrow I told that could change the timeline and give us even additional money or take more um even districts that have gotten additional millions of dollars I don't believe they know what to really do with them that adequately because they get notified in such a short time period um we're basically asked to run a $150 million organization with unknown information the state also codifies certain requirements such as class sizes and student support services but does not provide money for these unfunded mandates even though this is the last year of S2 this was the toughest budget cycle process I've been part of here in brick in my last five years and this is not a budget I am proud of as we cut many positions once again we continue to reduce staff in order to balance our budget due to lack of the state funding and consequently student services diminish although we have maintained programs as best as possible our high schools have moved slowly away from what we consider to be a truly Comprehensive High School with the reduction of electives and class offerings our middle schools have seen student support services such as counseling interventionist reduced drastically and our Elementary class sizes have increased along with BSI support diminishing as I've continued stated annual expenditures increase yearly by approximately 5.6 million just in salary and benefits which is 80% of our budget if you saw on the budget slide 3 million of that increase was benefits the increase in benefits so we started the the budget processes you were to short fall $4 million that's not something you could cut supplies in when 80% of your budget is people with the tax levy cap we can't raise more and we can't go less so we're forced to make Cuts our total budgets 149 m6635 our operating budget as increased 2.04% the executive county superintendent and the executive business administrator from the county have worked with Mr Edwards and approved this budget uh prior to this evening and even complimenting our district on our budget process decision making again something I'm not proud of but we put in the work I believe we've done the best we could with maintaining programs considering 50 positions 35 instructional being cut 14 about $992,000 is due to that Federal Esser funds that we received years ago if you remember we got about 10 million and we the minimum requirement was to put about 20% of that in the classroom we put a little more than that we did not do what some other local districts did and put the majority of that money into classrooms and Staffing because it was kind of kicking the can down the road where they would have to cut a 100 positions now this year as some local districts are doing um but when we hired for those positions we let those people know those non-tenure that those positions would go away when the grant money uh went away and that money is done after this year uh that's about $990,000 uh due to the federal funds the federal eser funds and that accounts for about 14 of those lost positions we do have the hope that the majority of these job cuts are absorbed through retirements and attrition along with some vacancies that we will not fill and of course many non-tenure non-renewals with the budget cuts of 5050 positions we now have cut almost 350 total positions a 24% staff reduction over five years even though this budget is dire our hope is that we'll add some of these positions back over the next coming weeks with the change either in legislation or um budget numbers I wanted to be positive tonight and not negative about the budget um this is the last year of S2 and it is our hope that it's the last year of these drastic Cuts we now need to look forward and not backwards and work our plan like our strategic plan and build the district back up to Excellence I promise to stay the course maintain our high expectations and move the district forward to success I really believe being positive in a negative situation is not being naive but rather good leadership in my opinion so despite our budget wow and lack of resources our student students and staff continue to make us proud as you've heard tonight um and I have some more student and staff appreciations uh school bus driver appreciation was Tuesday April 23rd uh that was school bus driver Appreciation Day brick schools is fortunate to have dedicated school bus drivers work tirelessly to provide safe and positive transportation for our students to and from school E de Administrative Professionals Day was yesterday uh we're very fortunate to have such wonderful and dedicated staff Administrative Professionals supporting us in the best service to our student staff parents and Community uh thank you to my Administrative Assistant uh Sandy Byer and of course we have Mary Cary out here tonight so thank you to our administrative uh Professionals for all the work they do school lunch hero day is May 3rd uh Janine Richardson is lead leading our amazing group of food service professionals so we're so grateful uh as our district for their hard work and dedication to our students and staff teacher appreciation week uh last night at New Jersey school board's Ocean County meeting uh Jacqueline pochar uh from brick was honored as the Ocean County uh teacher of the year Jacqueline's a seventh grade math and science teacher from Lake Riviera Middle School we're so proud to have her as a member of our schools and represent Ocean County teacher appreciation week is May 6th through 10th take a moment during the week to thank a teacher please our teachers are committed to fostering academic growth and positive interpersonal relationships helping to prepare our students for their future and empowering them to assume altruistic roles and embrace lifelong learning of course that's in our new mission statement in our strategic plan online so thanks for putting that in Dr Anderson uh and please join us our May meeting uh which is at Brick Township High School we'll be celebrating and honoring all of our teachers of the Year from each schools the Educational Service Professionals of the Year from each of our schools and our district uh teacher of the year Wednesday May 8th is School nurses day we have an awesome group of nurses with amazing heart in supporting our students staff and Community uh please take a moment on May 8 to thank our School nurses for all they do to keep us safe and well lastly uh again to try to finish on a positive note I want to thank you our community for your support as we navigate these fiscal challenges I feel like I'm a broken record each year um kind of communicating uh some of these that's Doom and Gloom but in recent weeks you may have even me seen quoted in the newspapers uh talking a little negatively about the budget and the process that has happened here at Brick schools um please not it I will continue and I know we have many community members uh that I see here that I've talked to and board members that help uh me continue that fight with our local legislators and the state uh Board of Education uh this funding formula is not Equitable and our children deserve better please reach out to your own local legislators and ask them to support brick schools as well spread the word text post and talk to your friends family and Neighbors about the importance of State funding for education and ask them to contact our local legislators encourage them to join us in advocating for our schools and students because I don't believe it always goes on deaf years and together I do believe we can make a difference and since I always end up with a quote Miss Kennedy in the words of Thom Thomas Payne it's not in the numbers but in the unity that our great strength lies thank you thank you Dr frell um so we're going to open it up to public comment just on uh budget the budget presentation does yes sir why don't you come on just take Mark Vasquez I don't know do we have to give the whole address to no you're just just name is fine thank you so bear with me because we just went through the township Council budget and now we're doing this one so we're it's been a week but uh kind of start off number one I I have I get frustrated when when we're supposed to be given the Budget prior um and we didn't have that so my question is if the taxpayers didn't get it did did even the board get the presentation prior to this they did okay number two uh we're talking about having to cut a lot did anyone up here get a raise or is going to get a raise I'm sorry I couldn't hear that I apologize most of them are collective bargaining units but okay yes no you're getting raises yeah okay well my public comment is to question as well so because it's really frustrating to hear that we're cutting and then we're also going to probably give raises out too right so how many how much is the cost of the 35 teachers that we're cutting What's the total cost of that if you don't have to answer that right now but the question we're just going to have you go through the right down there your questions the question we really to understand is the cost of the 35 teachers that were in cut and I understand we have Vice principles that are probably making a good amount of money we should really consider if we're talking about we're not getting Revenue anymore and we're being fiscally or or responsible it's time to look at really what else do we need to do does that mean cutting some certain Vice principles so that we could fund you know whether that's five extra teachers that's five extra teachers so I know that may be tough but and and then the other thing too that frustrates me is you know and this has nothing to do with you but I would love to know if the township talked to you about the MUA million dollars that they're getting that should have come to this board when this school system needed it more so I would love to know if the township at all talked to you about it cuz they try to Swerve the question and basically tell us that they gave you what you wanted which was that uh some a property I guess that they bought from you or something in that regards but uh that is very frustrating when you need it more the kids need it more so that should have been addressed and and I would love to hear if the school syst or or the township talk to you about that I I think at the end of the day my my biggest thing is you know you guys represent us we've elected the board to to to represent us you guys work for this Township you need to be more transparent like you just showed us a budget and where is all that money going where's the line items who's getting what what programs are going to be cut are there clubs going to be cut what what's going on we're just getting a budget and saying hey this is what it is it sucks but that's what it is so I'm tired of seeing that at the council level I'm tired of seeing here because it's unfair to the taxpayers especially the seniors that are already on a tight budget like my grandmother who can barely afford food and then you're telling us well you know what we're going to keep Vice principles at whatever cost they're getting we're going to keep raising your taxes and the last thing I would like to know is if the 9.9% increase does get approved by the assembly or by the Senate up to what percentage are we looking to take are we looking to take the entire 99.9% increase and so if there's any plans of that so I know I threw a lot at you but the biggest thing tonight is the transparency part the township didn't do it you guys failed to do that today as well you showed me a budget you didn't give a line item and you failed to give that to the public prior to showing up here today so thank you thank you Dr far sure uh let me talk about our budget process because I talked about it every year if you've been coming through the past years this budget is so fluid but I just explain the timeline up until today with retirements and attrition and changes the budget is Ever Changing we meet constantly since last October with board members in finance committee with Administration to develop a budget it's never set in stone and that's part of our IR um I said tonight to many board members you know I didn't want the IR to be directed internal right in the infin and and I'll explain why because the IR quite honestly is with the state and with the governor and I'll be the first one to say this is not an either or proposition when you talk about cutting over $4 million 3.4 million is in the 35 teachers an average FTE a full-time equivalent is about $90,000 with salaries and benefits okay so it's not an either our that's an administrative function we put that we sit through the line items go to the board members actually they just got those line items updated about two weeks ago from the business office because we didn't get the updates from the county office um it's just a mess the process and the more I learn about it even from the inside how the state processes our budget and the legislature and the requirements we have and the mandates it's just it's a joke sometimes and I testified of importantly to that 3.4 million is out of almost that 40 million is in the 35 say let's say teachers right now if you remember last year we cut about 60 jobs we didn't lose many bodies at the end of the day due to attrition retirements putting some positions back physical bodies I don't want to say I'm proud but I am a little proud of the fact that no tenure teachers were affected where many local districts are doing what's called a riff a reduction in force when you get the 10e teachers you got to cut there become senor already and there's a whole statute on how about you cut that I also want to add that we are the lowest in the state in administrative costs we have four of our six elementary schools that do not have assistant principles with the rise of hibs and disciplinary issues uh many of our surrounding districts that are making Cuts have assisted principles in almost all the schools that's something that we talked about in our strategic plan in the future that we've never been able to do right we we're just not at that point to put positions back really and our at risk student population that's growing requires Us by law to add teachers or positions in those areas right whether it's special services elll um or the contrary um to that uh I I cannot talk about the 99.9% tax levy because that's not a recommendation for me because it's not even Pest and I know that is what the board is elected for the Board of Education members are elected by you the community just for that right look at our line items look at our budget you know whether I come back and say Hey you know we may want to go out with the point I will tell you we are not as dire as some local districts that need to go out for the whole 9o we're not there um you know we've done a very good job unfortunately and I say this to the state over the last five years doing what we're supposed to do balancing the budget not putting an item and say we're going to balance and take a loan out which you can't do under the law and put the onus on the taxpayer we haven't done that so um and that would be a a board decision uh with that so I could tell you we're as transparent as we ever been with the budget and it's going to change again because if we get some money back if you remember last year we got that 1.6 million in stabilization Aid I wrote a white paper about and we got some money back and put positions back um after it uh you know I I am not going to apologize for the state but I want to make sure that we as a community understand and I have no problem that's where our IR should be and I've been saying this year after year I I knew this year would be tough I didn't think it would be this tough and I didn't think it would get noticed this late um but this is the last year that's kind of the good thing I think slowly we'll start building back um they are changing the funding formula next year I was told that I actually have a seat at the table on the state level um so um my my hope is that next year it will change with state aid it will change uh to give you another a quick idea and I know we're getting into a lot of bud but I think it's important the state puts 15.9% for special ed costs that hasn't been changed in 20 years special ed Aid and transportation Aid no special ed Aid was changed five years ago or seven years ago Transportation Aid hasn't been changed in like 20 years 15.9% you know the state average is 19% classified students we're at 22% so the cap for us so that means if districts have below 15.9% they're getting more money and they talk about following the child $30,000 per student just in state aid is going to Nork schools we get about 2700 following the child so I I'm I'm telling you that you know as administrators we really did our work and doing what we could not proud of what we had to do but let's make sure we focus and keep our eye on the ball and that is that this department of Ed under under the state has had the big reallocation of funding that we have seen since the late 80s and 90s in education when it was Abbott district and it was going money was going from Suburban to Urban and that's what's important to know I I think I answered all that so I can't answer the 9.9 because it didn't even get past you know but I don't think it would be but that would be a board decision if they do anything uh right now we are submitting a balanced budget uh to the county superintendent without going out uh with an above tax levy but if we want to look at putting more positions back in that that would be a a board discussion obviously at at a board meeting I think that answered all thank you yes sir anyone else yes sir hello Justin Delaney um few questions we obviously I feel like we just did this last month but it's been a year and um it's been the same thing every year we know the funding from the state's being cut we know costs are going up and we got to make up for it somewhere every year you know layoffs come I don't like to see layoffs because I don't like to see people lose their jobs I don't like to see class sizes going up so it's twofold there so one of the questions I have is that we knew this was coming this time last year why would we hire teachers already earlier this year if we're going to be laying teachers off in a month like it doesn't make sense just keep the spot open then rather than lay somebody off 4 months after you hire somebody um I just don't think that really adds up to much the teachers that are at risk of being laid off have they been notified yet or what's the deadline to notify them that they will be laid off and the um the policy the school follows when you when you have your 35 instructional personnel now that are getting laid off how do you go about the process of selecting who is going is it a last in first out kind of thing or is it I don't like you you and you you know how's that work you know is it the ones that we just hired in the last few months are they the first ones out the door like what I'm curious to the process of that and we laid off 350 people about in the last few years how many administrative positions have we lost because obviously the more people you lose down below the less people you need up top you know then you become topheavy at some point so I'm just curious to know how many that we have laid off um the other my last question for now I guess would be um the the probably the most unpopular one um so in both public and private sector when there's Financial issues and budget issues some of the higher ups and the executives and the administrators in those organizations to help with the budget agree to take a like a pay freeze has that been something that's been spoken about amongst any of the administrators or they have they been approached to saying hey can you maybe foro your whatever percent this year and do a pay freeze so that it saves US money on the back end of the budget and that's all I have for now thank you thank you Dr frell um so we we knew we would have a reduction in state aid but again like last year we don't know that's the problem with this process we don't know we didn't know till after our tenative budget the exact numbers and it's still changing now so I want you to know that now we set the budget this year by law where as a public entity we set a budget we have what's called a position control roster so last year had X number of positions you fill them anybody we hired that was non-tenured either through Federal money we let them know you know right up front hey you know this is funded through Federal money this is funding through State we have reduction of State also it's been bricks practice even before I got here we've always non-renewed all non tenders every year even my my first year here we cut about 50 positions but we repurposed Herbertsville to a pre and by doing that we saved 25 positions because there's about 24 teachers that were Elementary that without a pre-ert we can move them there and we got about 25 retirements so we didn't lose any physical bodies but didn't renew or fill those uh vacancies um so that's something we did our first year and we still do it so we non-renew all non- tenures every year you know I'm happy to say that this is only affecting non- tenur right our tenure teachers um you know like I said there's what's called a a riff a reduction in force and that's the you know last in first out kind of seniority Thing by law and that's really a nightmare when you start we didn't get to that yet we're getting close in the secondary level where there's really only tenur uh Personnel left uh in there but it's all non-tenured every year um unfortunately um you know we I think we do a good job in delivering the message because we our principles are here and I'm big on telling them it better be humanistic they deliver them they talk to them they said I'll write you a letter reference and by the way it may change with your job so hold tight you know we're going to fight for you and things may change we have those discussions personally uh they don't get notified before the budget because nothing's official right until it's official but by law you have to notify them all by May 15 to get back to your question that um and we personally talk to each them because like special education teachers right we increase by law so if there are teachers that are non-tenured and dual certified we move them into special ed or if they're in special that we say hey you're pretty safe even though you got a non-renewal is a non-tenured you know we need these positions that's how we go about the process um and I think it's humanistic and it's right and it does follow the law with that just talking about raises and all those things you know we're talking $4 million right I could tell you a freeze you know in certain areas and not even going to come close to that but they also legally we have collective bargaining Association right I think we have four or five here in Brick you know we have tww which were're also civil service we have um four or five bargaining units four or five so those are all contractual and sidebars and all uh part of those uh bargaining uh agreements uh would it make up the difference no I mean when you look at just the benefits increase in our cost of benefits I know the town's increased a couple milons ours is three million right there has nothing to do with a a freeze or a rate just benefits are going up you know I know I talked last year about like it's the perfect storm but you know the cost of living inflation cost Transportation cost all these things have gone up the state budget has gone up 40% the department of Ed's budget's gone up 33% our budget's has gone down over the last five years why costs and cost of living have gone up so again I I I want to answer everybody's questions but I want to keep our focus and our eye on the ball here um you know what has happened to this District over the last five years is um you know it's almost like education malpractice on the department Department of EDS side I would go that strong as to say that because and they've been welcome and invited to come see and see what we do I don't even like saying we do more with less anymore I'm embarrassed to say that and I'm could have refused to say that anymore so I hope that answered your questions I hear you anyone else there answer two question which ones one of many admin oh administr discuss so so do you want to come up Mr Finelli yeah answer answer that so yeah I mean so um so let me let me say this way the total administrat I said this before we are the lowest administrator cost in the state we would like eventually in our strategic plan to add some assistant principles on the elementary level that is not happening so that's number one when you say a freeze I thought I answered it by the collective bargaining agreements we are governed by collective bargaining agreements we would have to open up the contract and the negotiate that there would be a freeze in salaries with our Administration Union with our teachers union with our tww or whatever because they come up every three years sot well it has you're right though there has not been a freeze and it has not been voluntarily offered I will say that that has not been offered can we wait until you get to the podium that wait it's not a debate he questions when it's your turn you'll come up questions you didn't answer them going to use my time okay well then stop yelling out coming up want okay Larry Reed um couple things I agree with Mark that these this presentation on the budget the numbers go by too fast first of all not everybody cares about the numbers because they go by so fast but those of us that do care about the numbers you couldn't read them we should have had this material online or a handout when we got here the slides so that I think that could be changed and you know that that's not hard I know it's a a snake pit trying to put this budget together I've been through it I understand it uh you don't know what your Aid is going to be but I'm confused about a couple things um when you quickly went through the state aid numbers and there was an article in the newspaper about state Aid when it listed brick the state aid was reduced less than a million dollar is that correct okay so this year so so that's kind of important uh when trying to figure out where where all the uh shortfall is coming from so uh the only thing we had online about this budget was uh item 15 that's up for approval and it it shows uh general fund Special Reserve what's the Special Reserve money where's that coming from I I don't know what that is uh but you could have had last year's items compared to this year so we had a little bit of comparison um okay so that's that's on the budget as far as where the bad guy is what the boogeyman is everybody is focused on the wrong thing here the the the members of the community brick are focusing on the board of education volunteers which is wrong to begin with but I'll address that in general comments um but the boogeyman is the state in 1976 they P I think I went through this before they passed the state income ta tax law and the state income tax law all the money is dedicated by Statute to a fund called the property tax relief fund and it was to Aid communities with all the extra expens that's going on with salaries benefits and picking up pensions and all that so that fund was set aside just for that purpose so as of this year that fund is $20 billion the general fund is $31 billion so the split between what's spent out of the general fund and what's spent out of the property tax relief fund is totally been taken over by politicians at the state level so all the people worried about the nickels and dimes really here aren't focused on the big numbers nobody is but it's the point is until you get a new governor and New Politics in this state you're not going to get you change in that so I cite one example so the governor goes out and he brags how he's fully funding the schools and we all know right here he's not fully funding so it's a bunch of baloney it's a bunch of political BS so when you go through the state budget when they finally put it out and it's this book you can all get a copy from your elected representatives and you go to the first page in the education department page d55 if you're interested the first line item they have is Equalization Aid okay and there's two lines one says Equalization Aid $5 billion and the other line says Equalization aid and there's only four letters in the parentheses after it ptrf and it means Property Tax Relief Fund so who decided on the split there's billions of dollars there so somebody goes through in a political move and says oh we're going to take this money because we can out of the property tax relief fund so so that's where the boogeyman is in this whole process and that's what people need to focus on so I formed a 501c3 nonprofit PTR nj.com hopefully. org I'm sorry. org hopefully we'll get more information out on that uh what I promised Dr frell I would get him is the uh what I've gone through and break down the $20 billion I put it on an Excel spreadsheet and I'll give this to to uh hand out copies for everybody where does that $0 billion go it's all on here okay and instead of paying things out of the the uh general fund instead of the property tax relief fund it details it on here okay so in Essex Hudson Union Bergen and uh and Essex Hudson Union Bergen counties they've taken substance abuse programs for jail prisoners out of the property tax relief fund instead of the general fund okay legislature decides that's a good item take it out of the general fund not the funds that should be going to schools I'll give you these thank you and and we've met before and talked about this um at nauseum there's actually there was a bill that didn't pass last year there's another bill so I want us to keep focused on we're we're so 7 million below adequacy when I say that that means the state not us the department of EDS says this is your adequacy budget to have a thorough and efficient education not where we should cut and who we should C we should have it that adequacy budget is 27 million over what our budget is now if you took all the districts that were under adequacy I I want to say there's like 30 in the state like us and someone totaled up all the millions of dollars it was like 1.2 billion or something total and there was a bill out on the table last year that you know that Bill gets passed they would get all the districts that are under adequacy up to adequacy without taking away from the districts that are over adequacy right um that's up again this year uh doesn't the likelihood of passing is probably not likely but I also want to go back to you talked about the shortfall yeah we knew right we knew our state aid was going to be under a million we actually was lower than we anticipated the loss but it's still loss but it's also cumulative and the problem is the timeline again things changed so much from the state last year we got 1.6 million back right in stabilization got some stabilization this year and we were told oh you're going to get this much more back to compound that you know the benefits went up this past year which was a little more unforeseen that you got a month ago like every other District in town went up a little more unforeseen than we had that's 3 million plus the 900,000 in Esser funds that we knew was not being renewed this year that's the majority of the 4 million yes do we know it was going to be crunch time absolutely and uh did we know we'd have Cuts again sure were we hoping that we got maybe 1.6 million 2 million in stabilization Aid again yeah bet you darn because that would save like 25 30 jobs and we probably wouldn't be kind of eating our own and given the either or propositions we're doing um and that I and that still could may happen but I doubt it um but I wanted you know you asked you asked also about the Special Reserve which I wanted uh Jim to add on uh is that the 12 million right yeah so it's not it's a it's actually special Revenue Not Special Reserve special revenue is where we account for Grant so that's the preschool Grant Title One title two title three idea uh so it's the state and federal grants that are accounted for outside of the general fund okay anyone El Mr finale don't start the clock till the answer my first question we still didn't answer his question about administrators you have high schools with four administrators four Vice principles in them you keep bringing up the elementary school three four yeah you got one on the agenda right now to replace how many of those positions have you gotten rid of in the last few years figuring that every administrator with salary and benefits probably three or four teachers answer his question about that the ad the high schools so every administrator is not three or four teachers Mr Finelli $90,000 is the average FTE our administrators and assistant principal starts anywhere from 105 to 120 that's number one number two we have three assistant principles at the high schools with a principal we have an ad who also picks up some duties because he's an administrator and we wanted them to have the title so they could discipline so I want to make sure you hear that I said before what I thought I answered the question is we are the lowest in the state with Administration I would tell you I would love to tell you we need to add assistant principles on the elementary level because of the increase in hibs and discipline where you got one building principle and it's really really tough to manage right now and it's in our strategic plan but obviously we are not adding so no there hasn't been a subtraction but there has not been an addition since I've been actually there was a subtraction I think it's supervisors the first year yeah in a supervisor position but we also have supervisors filling in in the elementary level when and administrat cover so neither one of the high schools had for has forced assistant princip three assistant principles and an ad who also has an assistant principal title because that's the certificate they work under 3 plus 1 equals four when I went it's an ad okay okay Mr here's my here's my comments first I just want to say it's nice not to be up here by myself for change there's three of me now at least so that's what you have to deal with second of all people talked about the town council meeting and the budget being two within two days that's almost too much for my old body to take but we got through it you all every one of you needs to watch the town council meeting because there were people in this room fighting for you and I was one of them right I'm not looking for metal but you need to understand what you're up against second L please do me a favor I don't know how many times in the last five years that you've mentioned that that you're you're stuck with a cap of 2% you're not stuck with a cap at 2% because you're doing almost 3% so when you when you talk about the cap you got 2.99% don't say two say three it's a lot more second of all class size I'll talk about that at the end of the meeting um just a couple of things that that I observed and understand what we as the public are going through you gave out a budget on um 425 right no on uh 314 and then you did put it in the newspaper now I don't know if people realize that it goes in the newspaper but nobody gets the newspaper anymore so if you don't get the newspaper online you're not going to see the itemized budget which you put out last week which changed so it's very difficult and very frustrating for somebody that wants to get into this to even do it and and then we're doing it twice in one week all right right um just a couple of things and then my my dissertation I I admit that I know absolutely nothing about child study teams all right I'm looking at Financial opportunities for the district and just questions that pop into my mind when I look at your budget child study teams two years ago was 3.3 million and then 3.7 million and then 4.1 million that comes out to $400,000 a year in increase in just that one category I have no idea what that's about but I think it's something that you need to look at and say that's a lot of money right and if that's going to continue you need to look at it the other thing is is what you talked about uh employee benefits all right and it's like 31 million 34 million 35 million is that is that good numbers Mr Edwards yeah you can't afford that either all right and when when we talked about the contracts and and and and the pay raises and everything you know I was up in arms with the last negotiations when everybody got pay raises and nobody gave anything back on the benefit you can't afford that anymore you you got to do something different I mean you you're just you're just stuck there there's nothing else you can do and and let me just make sure everybody here understands what you are up against financially and you use the word hope take that word out of you out of you vocabulary all right just in case you don't know Jackson last week was told we're not lending anybody any more money all right so you you make it work you're not getting any money but the real big one that you have to understand what you're up against Kyrie Booker is that is that a man or a woman the the uh assistant education commissioner is it a man or woman what what anyway he was the one who responded to the court mandated review of lakewood's financial situation all right now if you don't know it Lakewood has 6,000 students in the public school system their budget is $300 million you got $8,000 and your budget is what why is that Lakewood has 50,000 public school private school students that they have to bus to 125 different schools in the township 125 different schools and on the school bus you can only have boys you can't have boys and girls you only have girls and all by the way make it a little more difficult the bus driver has to be the same sex as the students that are on the bus now this was a court mandated review that they had to do and they gave it to the assistant education commissioner and uh he came out with his ruling this week and quote unquote all the problems are theirs the whole thing is their problem right the 50,000 students busing is their problem the money 300,000 in order to balance their budget they have to make a they have to borrow $100 million do this year added on to the 100 million that they already owe this is what you're dealing with these are the people that you're dealing with like like Larry says this I'm not beaing you up about the budget I just want you to understand this is what you're up against all right and the last thing is um and I'm done with this one the the superintendent in Jackson talked about all the things that they might have to give up during the budget one of the things she said was we might have to give up courtesy busing now I don't know why anybody today would be doing courtesy busing when when when you're short millions of dollars and I sure hope brick is not going is not doing any courtesy busting right now any at all because you sure as hell can't afford it thank you Mr Finelli Dr Farrell sure thank you Mr Finelli um so let me let me talk about the cap because something that came up that I found this first time this budget ccle so as I've said every year we've gone out with the 2% property cap because actually because we're under adequacy and effect that we are mandated couldn't go less couldn't go more this year because of the health benefits increase that was exorbitant they called a health benefits cost of living waiver spending grow I didn't even know it the county soup actually told Mr Edwards and I you get a 0.99% uh additional waiver that you could go out with because of these unforeseen inflationary C whatever it is spending cost so that's it's not like I could just pick that every year and say yeah I'm going to go out with 2.99 every year I can't um just like you can reduce your Surplus a certain amount by being meeting certain criteria with County superintendent's approval we've done all those uh to balance the budget so I think that's why the 2.99 is this is this year no I know this the first year I can't say two you're correct I can't say I Oh I thought you wanted an explanation I wanted I okay I want to give you an explanation the tentative budget as we said when we gave the tentative budget and I put it in caps every year as Mr Edwards um eloquently said to the senate committee it's not worth the paper it's printed out but there is statutes that say you have to publish and advertise a tenative budget you have to publish an advertise and itemized budget before tonight and those things obviously change because not only did legislation change but funding could change and the county superintendent and County ba come in and change so uh that's why they are but the itemized budget is publicized two weeks earlier which is the budget obviously tonight with all the details they get it's it it's crazy because it's like you know and Dr Farrell got add to that I would welcome you I mean your comments were were right on target right I mean the process is insane and we made these it was amazing to me that Dr frown and I went to the Senate Ed committee and testified and we put that into our testimony the process and the the legislators didn't know that they didn't know that the it still got advertised in the paper and that most people don't get the newspaper anymore there was like puzzles on their face so I would love for you to attend one of their meetings and talk about it as a taxpayer not as administrators but talk to them about a taxpayer how the whole process makes no sense that you know you said before that you don't get the information that you would like the information before the meeting go tell the legislators the process doesn't make any sense because we're giving what we're giving you is the process that we're told we have to deal under that's the process we're told we have to operate under we don't have any other choice I would love to give you the actual budget for tonight tonight we should be adopting our tenative budget and giving you the details so you can come back at the May meeting and talk to us about it but they don't let us a choice Ben and I talked about it earlier we have to have the public hearing has to be done by May 7th no this is the we're actually early in the window you have a window for the public hearing and the board has to adopt the budget no later than May 14th it's it's a crazy process so I would love for you to go to Trenton with us I'll I'll go with you because I would love to see you I I I was hoping you were me when you were talking I I went at them I really went at them but I would love to have you accompan this and say I'm a taxpayer of this state I have no I have nothing I got no I got no you know uh skin in this game here's what I'm going to tell you this process is silly and get them to change the process the process makes no sense I've been saying it for po longer than I can remember it makes no sense and uh so true and uh you know there's a lot of local districts I don't want to say districts by name that are not even meeting the statutory deadline not submitting balanced budgets things like that over the next week or two um but you know I I digress on that you talked about child study team which is part of special ed a little bit how costs have gone up um our at risk student population as I I've said the cost to educate any at RIS student whether it's title one which socioeconomically uh special ed classified elll students these populations have exponentially increased and the costs have exponentially increased uh from that um so special education G we've done and thank you Mrs gr have done an amazing job in keeping out of District tuition which is down this budget which has cost us that's a whole another area we could get into where there's public providers of outed District that aren't don't have to abide by a 2% cap that can increase our tuition on a contracted student by 30% and we just have to pay it so that's a whole another area there but special ed costs have gone up we've done a good job of keeping our out of District tuition uh payments down and what I'm saying is the subsidies from the state on special ed have not and this is where you know we're getting pinched kind of like many of us with the economy you're kind of getting pinched right where things aren't going up in accordance to what the costs are so um those are going up and are at risk student populations are increasing uh across the board like many other districts anyone else for public Dr F I just want to mention one more thing in regards to his comment I want to make sure that the public remembers in7 The Brick Township Board of Education put out a special question to fully fund courtesy busing and it passed and therefore we have to maintain courtesy busing in perpetuity unless the Board of Education were wanting to put a question back out on the ballot asking for that question to be overturned we passed that ballot in 2007 so right now that money is in our budget is in our tax levy to support courtesy busing ongoing unless at sometime it was reversed and it would take the vote of the voters to do so and that's approximately 800 800 I think it was four and change total question was 800 but that included some money for Middle School sports it included some money atics involved but yeah the courtesy busing piece of primary call was about 400,000 okay thank youy busing Mr Edwards can you give a definition so the state requires transportation for students um elementary and middle school is if their doorstep to the front of the school is two miles and two and a half for High School uh the our board policy is one and a half in one so we deducted one out of that so anyone that is in that middle area so if a student lives let's say a mile and 3/4 from school and they're bus that's called courtesy busing SPS anything like no no no no has it's only transportation to and from school something you yeah it would have to be a question back to the voters to have It reversed right now it's it was passed by the voters okay what I want I want to I want to go out on a limb and think that you voted no in 2007 yeah anyone else anyone yes sir go ahead before I start I have one thing first I'm Charlie bacon from 366 Ram cookus I would love to be in the car when Mr Edwards and Mr Finelli go to Trent I'll sit in the back seat it'll be interesting at best so so I have a number of questions I do appreciate the effort to go into these budgets um but I still some of it I still have questions on and I think there were some good points raised by some of the comments and one of them is uh a budget of this size needs to be in front of the public sooner right and it sounds like we still have a little time in terms of when it's due from the county I think somebody said May 5th I'm not mistaken so I recommend a couple things there uh in all honesty the Powerpoints are appreciated we do need copies of them I do agree for people that are numbers guys and some of these people behind me are way smarter and definitely numbers guys that we need to see comparisons of 23 school year versus the new school year coming up it's very helpful to us so I'm going to try to crawl through what I had and what you've answered so thank you for that uh so the budget hasn't this the full budget line item base will be posted tomorrow is that correct okay and the PowerPoint as well thank you very much so my next few questions are going to be on elll because I think it's an important topic I did see some of your numbers I think you said uh student population is 8,275 if I jotted it down correctly does that include the elll students it does okay thank you I heard 6.5% is that uh roughly what is the amount of students the next question I have with the El L I would assume there's been some level of increase over the last few years and as administrators managing the district what is your reasons that those uh numbers are escalating I'd like to know how many different languages are now embedded in our school and what impact that has on our not only our general students but how do we support multil language uh students I think that's important I have a bunch of questions which are not complex but I I'm in by U and I know it was shown on the slides the ratio of students to teachers and my concern there if we have a weighted uh level of elll students in the lower levels um do we need to and I know there's certification involved reorient our teacher you know student to teacher ratio in the high schools where we're preparing young students to go to colleges some of those classes are 4 or 500 so something I think I I don't know if it's been looked at I think would be important you also addressed the uh the school buses and I saw something I think I caught it it was uh we're projecting through Consulting a $240,000 saving so I have a number of questions about that in that study what was how are they justifying that number uh if you can answer that what impact does it have on our drivers and were parents involved in any of those comments when it was being discussed in earlier levels of this budget because I realize you only cited 10 minutes but some of these parents have a lot of obligations uh getting their children to other options to uh share with them um just want to look at some of the other things we talked a lot about S2 I've been in front of this board multiple times I've talked about S2 in front of the the council and the mayor as well and I think there's some things that really be need to be shed about the history of S2 right and if you really go back to 2018 when it was introduced in July a lot of that was not based on whether we're a wealthy or not District let's be honest with everybody in this room we do have a lot of waterfront homes that are high valued but the vast majority of our our student population is nowhere near those type of homes let's be honest okay so here's what I thought happened with us too there was a deal struck between Sweeney and Murphy not to close the state and that what I I've heard and I see somebody shaking their head and that's fine uh when that took place they specifically went out and targeted a lot of districts in Ocean County right that are Republican leaning type districts now let's talk about the funding formula because a lot of that came up tonight and it's come up for since 2018 I've heard various things there's been lawsuits to have that whole funding formula actually out so we can f fully understand that we had to sue the state of New Jersey not to release to release it right now I heard and I was corrected a few months ago that that formula the algorithms and everything else was not introduced in its entirety Mr Edwards I know your background I'm not sure if that's true or false but I don't even know if it's been fully explained to us and I don't think the state can because if if they had transparency you don't need lawsuits to show it and I think if it got exposed to the public then it would be political and not what the school district needs and in closing thank you for going me over a little bit finish I'll let you finish your thought thank you I have to say this in public because I believe it I think the public needs more time to review these complex budgets and as a citizen I feel I got I got to say I don't think it should be um uh voted as a yes tonight I think it should be a no because I think there's a lot of people here had great questions they need more time to digest it so I I recommend that this board vote no on it thank you very much for the extension I appreciate it thank you Dr far sure um so as I said the budget uh will will be online tomorrow all past budgets and the userfriendly which has the detail have all all been online are still online so you could compare last year to this year uh that's you know required and and we put that online um you know this budget process for school districts as you know everybody's been around for has been the same you have elected officials at a board that work with us for months they review line item by line item and ask questions prior to this we actually have separate meetings Mr Edwards and I individually with each board member as well as through Finance uh committee uh for that so those are all there uh for everybody to look at I also want to say that you know not that I'm the expert by no means um but you know the operations of a school district is an administrative function I always say that right um the school boards really are a policymaking body and look to approve that the details and the knowledge and the expertise whether this certification for ell is required whether this is getting funded through the state are all things that we need to communicate on on different occasions with the board whether it's through Finance or curriculum instruction on a monthly basis so that the board is educated enough uh to look at that budget the other thing is you know you see these other districts you talk about the budget and the voting on the adoption and Mr Edwards can add to this and then get into the formula for the algorithm but the executive County Superintendent right requires a balanced budget or will not accept it or will make their cuts on their own period without us which I don't want anybody else doing our job we're we're charge of District we we know our kids our students this is us I don't want the state I don't want a state monitor uh you know I feel that's what I'm hired uh to do and the executive County Superintendent will approve which approved this budget right um moving forward anyway um that's kind of the argument some other districts you know if they don't give you a balanced budget what is the executive County and it's been told uh through the state you know we're part of that law solution as you know for the algorithm and the formula and they keep moving the field goal post every time they release something and this is where Mr Edwards is a little more of an expert in and he could tell you because they released in one part but didn't tell you what the four-digit Factor was and they released another you want to go to that I know you talk about it every year on the formula Al as you mentioned before it's ongoing litigation the judge ruled in the district's favors it's uh brick Jackson uh Tom Z and Lacy are the districts that got together and sued the state over the formula we wanted to know the details that the you know the nitty-gritty and uh they refused to release it at first so that lawsuit ended up the judge ruling that we were entitled to the information uh the information they gave us could not be read it was in a format that was unreadable uh we've been asking for the information our attorneys that is representing the districts in this matter has been asking for the information ongoing keep asking for extensions uh it's still tied up there it's there's not it's not been released so so the information that was the judge ruled we are entitled to they have not given to us in a format that we can read uh their responses that they provided the information and that's you know they provided information yes but if you can't read the information you know if you need a special computer to be able to get into the information and there no that's that's no good so uh that's ongoing litigation in that regard we're continuing to fight the fight I you know as as um mentioned in the PowerPoint presentation and have mentioned in past years I know Mr Finelli hates when I say this but brick schools don't have a spending problem we have a revenue problem we're one of the lowest spending school districts in the entire state of New Jersey we've got he mentioned already we've got the lowest cost per pupil when it comes to administrative costs we're the lowest in the state um the states answered that and I know uh Mr Finelli mentioned it in regards to other school districts the state's answer to that is your local fair share in Brick is $182 million you raise $123 million so it's not the state's problem it's your problem you don't spend enough money on the kids and brick from your local taxpayers and our response to that is twofold the first is you capped us at 2% this year 2.99% because you gave us a 0.99% waiver so even if we wanted to raise the taxes to the point that we need to get to we can't we don't have a vehicle or mechanism to get there and the second thing is we don't believe that that's true we don't feel that the taxpayers and brick aren't paying their fair share we feel that this that if like Dr Farrell said if new Yark schools is getting $30,000 a student in state aid and the taxpayers in Brick are getting $2,500 student in state aid are we paying $2,500 at state aid to Trenton in the form of state income tax and sales tax I would bet you that we're not we're paying a lot more a lot more and so the money is going out of your pockets to Trenton and not coming back to the kids of the district that you live in that's there's an inequity there so something's wrong with the fundamental mechanics of the formula itself Y and and that's you know that's where we we keep saying that's where we need to we need to focus and we've been saying it for years and years and years we need to focus our attention in the right direction Mr Reed thank you for all your comments because I know you're you're behind it on that you you know he's he's got the idea he's he he knows that the money is not coming back to Brick when it's leaving brick no and it should be yep uh the El so I've said this multiple times over the last year when I first got here I want to say there was about 90 elll students were now over 600 um or 6.5% and uh you know the more I delve into this um and talk to Dr Anderson and I see Mary came back there and and talk about it you know most of the money for elll comes from federal money called title 3 with immigrant status the money is so minuscule from the federal government where we get a large portion in Title One money for poverty or socioeconomic we get hardly anything I mean like $177,000 let's say for 600 plus kids you know in in total title three money um the also the state funding for elll comes in that Equalization Aid which we don't get because they saying that should be funded out of your local community um that again is a perfect storm and then you were talking about the increase so we saw I want to say like 60 some odd students in January what I found out for the last few years is January is the southern hemisphere summer we get an influx usually of students in registration now here again is where to state is backwards and I mean Department of bed those students come in in January they do not count on your October 15 roll so you get nothing for them and they all have to test in May many of them have to take an English test and with math they have to take the math test so um this this is kind of uh where we're at Dr Anderson if you want to add anything with the LL I I know you asked about the different languages and the multi language a lot of different search if you want to add anything to that yeah so we we do have 18 different languages represented in in this uh Community um Spanish being a predominant one but we do have we have Ukrainian students Portuguese Russian Vietnamese Arabic so and then a host of others uh Bulgarian Chinese Creole uh Filipino French Georgian Haitian hungaryan Hungarian uh Lithuanian Thai there's we we have um the United Nations we really have a real strong Community um in fact we just had a multicultural showcase at Lan's Mill just last week was beautiful display of our of our programs Mrs Kain is our um K to2 ESL supervisor and when we talk about administrative support she that with over 600 students um and it it's a really complex process because when kidss register it takes time to screen them to get them in the appropriate programming um to get the supports in place uh and what's really remarkable is that she's able to do that as well as being an elementary Ela social studies supervisor and so that is a huge job in and of itself so and talk about administrative support we'd love to get an ESL supervisor because there was a time when I was a principal when I had uh there are more students at Lake Riviera now than there were in the whole District when I left five years ago so it it's it's really become a more complex program to to manage and support and Dr Anderson and I are working on a white paper I did the white paper last year on the school funding it got some you know Headway um we're doing a white paper on elll because uh when I went to the National superintendent Alabama many many states are seeing similar issues and because it's Federal title 3 mon is not seeing any uh money and we're not the only ones I know plumstead and talking to them times River have you know five times the amount of ell Learners over the last four years so um this is an issue like I said that's one of our atrisk populations so that's again another uh unforeseen cost um that we got to meet with that and services uh provided uh student teacher ratio you looked about that's happening now unfortunately in the high school right um because of less electives and less stool enrollment and AP because we we can't really run a class with 15 kids in it you know we're doing more online and through Ocean County College and things you can't really run those classes at 14 15 so therefore that student ratio is is getting higher in in the high school level and obviously the ones that are going to college are seeing larger uh classrooms so that kind of mirrors that where you want at those especially those tested grade levels in elementary you're married to an elementary teacher you want those smaller uh classes sizes down there um talked about the $240,000 savings which I like last year you know our our transportation costs across the board went up almost over a million for a myriad of reasons right fuel costs a lot of things right uh driver shortages you know salaries all those things went up um and this board got a consultant like last spring started talking about when Dr Morris was here and alive uh Dr Morris worked with the consultant all through the fall the consultant came here and presented in January right here um and actually presented and it went through finance and committees to the whole board and Mr Edwards has been speaking about it every month presented like five or six plans I mean there was one that could save like 7 800,000 but it was like putting prek at like 11:00 a.m. put in high school like it was just it was too much of an impact we took the lowest impacting plan that would save 240,000 and what it really meant was no chains of high school and middle school but it meant get 10 minutes more in between in the tiers right the 10 minutes Elementary so they didn't have to do double backs and we didn't have to all the covers sitting you know around that we had extra covers to cover those runs um for Less routes um because as you see in the high school we still have to have buses for 53 kids and if you watch the high school buses leave they're not in there right you have to have a seat for them in that and the prek uh by moving up and putting it into we really have five tiers not four putting it in between that tier really helped us and then balancing off elementary schools because we had four in one tier and two which had more buses and then you had drivers sitting that weren't in the fourth tier that didn't start for that um we're actually if you saw on the position sheet we have a net reduction of cutting 51.5 but on the right there's additional positions you'll see it tomorrow a majority of special ed prek one elll teacher but we're adding six part-time drivers I I said to Mr sluka before tonight I mean one thing we couldn't we can't find which is substitute drivers or part-time drivers that's huge for us that helps us out tremendously um for that and that is how we're realizing um the cost savings for that so okay you you can do it and we're going to do public comment right after this so you can ask a followup so let me just get everybody else sir you had your hand up before do you still want to how you doing uh John kitrick um first uh Dr Farrell I want to say uh thank you very much for uh for what you put together here and uh and for your exclam uh explanation of uh you know your your points on on the budget and I could I could see the pain that you've gone through um and from every comment I've heard from people in the audience and at the day as here uh the state excuse me has uh served us a sandwich and the governor gives it to you to hand to to the people so uh you know it's not an easy job but uh we could we could see the effects that's it's coming from the governor and his administration um one thing I'll say that uh I think everyone has mentioned uh the process of this being dumped on everybody at the 12th hour uh the 11th Hour um I I read when did the state's first numbers come out is it a month ago or before tenative budget or the the Thursday before the tenative budget right okay and we had our tenative budget I think a week or later got uh I I would I don't know it's probably maybe it's a lot more work but I look at it as uh you know tax day is April 14th January 1st if you have an investment account with Bank of America you you get get a uh you get an account notice of what your tax is going to be couple weeks later you'll get another one this is what we know so far and they'll update it and I'll give four or five of them by the time tax day comes is it possible to get the budget out immediately I know you work on it for a long time soon as State numbers come out get it up there with with the notification that you know these numbers are going to move um maybe if that if that's done and it's adjusted a couple times until this day people can follow along and it's you're not you know dropping a bomb on everybody at at the last minute um and just one other quick thing if I remember correctly in the uh the special needs we've been talking about it it I think in that presentation it costs have exploded 34% is is that the number that I saw um do you know where that why is that why where did all the special needs come from it seems to be a a huge uh aberration what you know people just start feeling bad and all of a sudden we classify them as special needs or you know that that just a is it some kind of outlier that's a big number and if that 34% is the increase can you put a dollar value to that thank you thank you Dr F sure um so we we start the budget process John in in October here um so there's a a myriad of reasons why I do not want to put budget in public right people's livelihood first of all people start gaming right you you you may be telling people we're looking at cut in that job they start rallying people you know you're going to cut I don't basketball here or do some things so there's a lot of you know reasons right communication wise when you're trying to lead a staff and the most of it's because of jobs and people right this affects people's livelihoods and it's so Ever Changing with retirement to nutrition this is a big organization right A lot of people big budget so things are so fluid where a job could be saved tomorrow in something because we're not going to fill a vacancy because of a retirement or attrition or someone resigns um so we don't put that out to the public because quite honestly that's what we have the board for we discuss it with board and the truth is it's not final till that the things in the budget details wise are really superintendent recommendations and we'll go through them we'll talk them through and I'll say hey I think this saves us here and this goes here um but until they're kind of finalized and adopted by the board I hate to announce or put anything out to the public and I've been doing this now 12 years and I could tell you if you haven't been on Facebook or any social media things get out there that are totally false right surprise surprise and then people start emailing me what do you mean what do you mean we're uh you know cutting lunches or you know or doing you know something that's not true and and really keeps our eye off the ball on that um we do get it out as fast as we can we do work with the board on that as for we do post it as soon as we come uh uh can we're very different from the Town Council in a lot of ways right because we have oversight from the Department of Ed and the county super really could approve it and come cut so there's things uh different in that um but the itemized budget actually was advertised I think a week and a half ago but there are some things in there air till tonight out of chains um you know between now and then so um it's kind of uh the sandwich we were dealt and we'll we'll manage through it um but um so the 34% is not special what you saw on the first plot and you'll see it tomorrow is that's the actual uh amount of our uh socioeconomically disadvantaged all right number students 34% of our population are socioeconomically disadvantaged I'm going to digress because I think this is important because we are not considered a title one District poverty socioeconomically which is based on free and red L but we have a a bunch of schools that are considered Title One schools now the reason why I say that because in New Jersey there is a statute that if you are a title one District you cannot have more than 23 students in an elementary Class cannot and they fund it now you tell me I have Title One schools but because we're not considered a title one District I can have more than 20 3 students in that title one school and don't get funding for it when we have 34% we don't meet the 40% or whatever the numberb is to be a title one District aggregate wise but we do in many of our schools backwards totally backwards we're 22% in special ed population our percentage the state average I think is around 19 uh percent yet we're capped we get funded for 15.9% which that number hasn't changed as well um special ed costs you know go up and they're obligated and mandated and contracted right an IEP is a legal contract between a parent and a a school district that you have to fulfill um special ed costs like all other costs Transportation fuels salary benefits they all have gone up I think and again I'm commending Mr grer I think we' did a great job in reducing some costs in special ed meaning add a district placement first of all I believe uh keeping our um class ified students in District is great for them socially uh and educationally because they're with their peers and the exorbitant price for out a district tuition but sometimes that is the appropriate placement whether we're told that legally or not and we have to pay that the costs there are very high um we've done a good job in reducing those those costs um but costs across the board have gone up but the number you were looking at 34% was for our socioeconomic disadvantage population poverty okay I think that right the budget yes Dr can I just add one thing about the process because I heard that come up twice now in regards to the process so um and and Ben jump in if I don't say this correctly but so the board is required to have a public hearing on the budget by May 7th which is what we're doing tonight uh any anything that's any changes that are going to be made to the budget uh have to be discussed and acted upon at the public hearing and once the board concludes the public hearing the board does have up until May 14th the vote on the budget but no changes can be made between the end of the public hearing and to the vote on the budget so it's again we're talking about process the process makes no sense right because why would you give an organization additional time to vote on something that they don't have the ability to change because they didn't change it on the night that they should have voted on it so as an alternative Revenue Source Mr kler had a great idea we're going to live stream the car ride with miss me and Mr Finelli out the Trenton self subscriptions it's not that funny I'm not so but no I mean the process we're going again back to the process the process doesn't make sense um again I would love to get you the details sooner than we can but this is the again sandwich like you indicated that we're dealt with and we and we have to abide by the state's rules thank you Mr Edwards um any other public comment yes you're next sorry she was faster good evening Mary L poer um couple observations I was going to actually mention and I don't have my phone I left it at home so item number 15 tonight is the actual vote to adopt the budget right I was going to ask that you table that but now hearing this process this thing that you can't the board members can't even make changes after tonight unless could you call another special hearing public hearing no um then that makes no sense but so I was going to suggest you table the vote you know because you have until like you have another meeting on the 9th and that's within the the time frame um a couple questions I know what elll is terminology has changed over the last couple years I don't know if the viewing audience so can you tell people what elll is um uh what else oh the class siiz thing did I read the the slides were so fast I have to say and I'm a fast writer but the uh in grades three four and five is it there there's possibly going up class size is going up to almost 37 students right that's kind of disturbing to me because that's an age group where you're starting to see disciplinary problems pop up and everything right so class size that side is just going to be you're saying you have trouble with hibs and everything already right so that's an observation on my part um at the town meeting the other night uh it did come up people were asking uh did the school approach the town ask for help right and I know they said there's been ongoing dialogue and there you know whatever assistance they've been asked for they've been able to try to help in but I guess you didn't ask for money okay now we all know now that the Town Council or Town Administrator wrote to the MUA and asked for a gift right so they got the million-dollar gift from the MUA well I believe there's a way that you can ask for a gift from the municipal municipality they're sitting on$ million surplus right and in one of their resolutions the other night one of the Appropriations lines is a transfer to the board of education so just it's too late to change it I'm under hearing and my hearing that right but for future reference if their town is sitting on $1 million and you're facing these kind of cuts right I would say you need to go knock on their door and ask them for money okay and specifically request cash that's that would be my not not just like extra trash pickup or something you know um or plowing or whatever so that would be my suggestion um everybody else kind of covered everything else um oh Surplus I have a question because that I I kind of didn't what is your Surplus and what are you going to what how much of your Surplus are you you using how much is going to be left um and does that Surplus include I think at the T at the council meeting they also mentioned the possible transfer or sale of property and all that stuff does that include that all right the the estimation for that sale of the property so I think that's my questions thank you Dr F thank you um so yeah yes you're you you correct me elll is now which were English language Learners used to be ASL now it's ml multilingual Learners and I think multilingual is one word that's why it's ml not MLL but there's a lot of acronyms uh in education so um thank you for correcting me on that um I want to talk about class sizes um last year when we did the budget uh we really did the best job we could we had no class sizes over 30 to start the school year I think 30 was our highest we ended up having about three I know I'm looking at Jan and osbornville and some other areas where they went to 32 when people moved in 32 34 um this year so you it wasn't as drastic I as I thought but we have we so kindergarten as you know by law has to be 25 my wife reminds me every day that when you have she used to think it was at 25 I said No at 26 you need to have another adult in Aid or open another section but that's that's the law and if we ever go over 25 we open another section that has happened in the summer that's one of the areas where you do kind of amend the budget you get board approval for a transfer and you you you add a a section on right now we're at 30 in grades um in total grades one through five in just three to five the tested grades it's 31 we do have a one with 37 and I think one with 38 um my hope is over the next few weeks I cannot accept those two grades I just can't it's just too high so um my hope is over the next few weeks with some manipulations obviously like we do with opening sections to try to get those down um and then as the year goes on obviously you know when students come in those those classes uh do get tough to manage and you're right discipline and all that 100% And I've said this every year that's our priority actually every year when we go in the budget and we meet with our P principles and uh we talk about that especially grades three through five the tested grades um I'll let Jim talk a little bit about Surplus but in we're different from the town um and let me say we'll we'll take money from anybody um you know Beggars can't be choosers and I thought that message as I thought that message has been out for the last five years for me um all ACR you know we'll take anybody's money um to help balance this budget um our Surplus criteria we're very different I know we get compared a lot with Town Council we're two different entities right I know people want to call the mayor about school districts or people want to come here to me about two different entities I'm not an elected official uh we have anytime we go out for debt or a bond we have to go out to the public and get voted in they don't have to do that we um you know um and we don't have any debt after next year's budget we'll have a zero which is not a good thing any businessman would tell we'll have zero debt um but in the town uh their Surplus requirements is different we're required to have 2% % and now with the waiver we're going to be at 1.5% in Surplus uh school districts aren't allowed to have anything greater than 2% Surplus so our our so when you submit your budget you have to show that you're have 2% we got to waiver this budget from the county office uh we're going to be at 1.37% which is uh $2.2 million um in hopes that the reason why we got the waiver is because of the land sale that they must have talked about on Tuesday night we're hoping that they're going to buy a piece of property that we are not utilizing behind one of the elementary schools and that's going to replace that Surplus to bring that back up to 2% Europe up all right so my name is Kristen sturz and the topic I wanted to talk about which the gentleman in the American flag Tha really did touch on um earlier was with that line item regarding the 10-minute difference in like starting and closing times what I didn't see in there though was which schools was it going to affect because like you said I don't like to listen to like Facebook chatter or bus stop not like people are speculating that it's going to at least affect mid-stream school one of the L I think the latest starttime school in the district at the moment they're getting out later as it is now and then additional time and these kids are already being late to activities such as CCD sports music lessons and those things that are really important I've heard even though you may not see my face here I do watch you guys every month on the YouTube live stream and I do hear you guys preaching about how important those things are to kids um outside of the school so I was just wondering if you could please clarify for the people here watching at home which schools are going to be affected by that um uh wait what was my question she'll finish her I can't remember sorry yeah if you remember it you can come up at the next public comment it's late I forgot okay it might come to you go ahead Dr so all the elementary schools which was presented in January all the elementary schools are going to be have a 10-minute you know later right all of them early tiers and late tiers they're all going 10 minutes I talk to what's Beth ton principal at St Dominic's right because we bust them so they will also be moved and it won't so therefore CCD and things like that are also at St Dominics being adjusted as well the ideas for the 10 minutes is to allow us more time in between for Less covers and hopefully that'll affect the less late buses many times I mean I know there's parents here because I get the emails our buses are late a lot lately because of what's called double backs and part of this besides the cost savings is supposed to alleviate that by having the 10 minutes in between now it was discussed specifically about moving a elementary school from a later tier to an earlier tier the the idea is that vet L because of this congestion here after school by going earlier tier because of the outdoor um the fields and the co-curriculars in the Athletics I think Miss Kennedy mentioned it a couple months ago uh that would be the best school to move from the later tier to the earlier tier so you'd have three and three but all elementary schools not one school all ele and I got to be honest I only got one parent email you know on that um and it was about CCD um I don't know if that was I mean I'm actually going to the middle school next year so it doesn't necessarily affect me but I know it affects some parents on the board parents in this room people that are watching online and quite honestly we're going to evaluate it I mean maybe we want to do even more to get a larger cost savings but to me it it saves for in my head saves for teaching positions and save some cost savings and and it's it' just be silly for us not to take that consultant even know it's the lowest one and to look at a 10-minute difference you know um for all elementary schools I mean it's 30 minutes for the prek but I'm told by a ton of parents they love it because what is it 35 that it's earlier you know for the prek so many parents at work and then have them go to to daycare so uh and that's been talked about for a while here um but which were the four that were starting earlier and two that are going later right now no so so right now the two early schools on early tiers are drump point and Lanes Mill thank you the other four midstreams uh osbornville Emma Havens and vets L are later tiers right all of them right now even if we didn't move from late to early are moving 10 all of them have a 10-minute differential now to get a larger time in between from our Middle School pre all the different tiers right so we can get back not do double backs and have less covers we are going to instead of have four late tiers in two we're going to go three and three so the recommendation and this is an operational recommendation by me you know to it's part of our cost savings for transportation the budget is to move vetel from the later tier to the earlier tier that's all all right yeah I mean don't get me wrong I'm all about saving money but now you got kids coming home at like 4 4:15 now it's going to be 4:30 4:45 10 minutes and they don't get to participate in those things anymore because of the time changes well things like CCD and activities that are on our campuses that we sponsored because we all will be 10 minutes later as well so um that's something I wasn't aware of coming into here so appreciate that card thank you thank you anyone else yes ma'am goe hi uh Nicole and droit I just wanted to kind of touch base on what Kristen said I know I've heard about the 10-minute differentiate I just don't understand why it wasn't presented to parents throughout the district it is going to affect every Elementary School parent and they all have jobs and they all work and 10 minutes may not seem a lot like here to you but 10 minutes getting late to an office job could be really crucial to them because that's 10 minutes or later on the parkway or you know and that you all drive on the parkway you know what the parkway looks like in the morning so I just felt like the transparency to that nobody was notified and you're voting on it tonight and they don't have a say in so I just wanted to let you guys know um so uh it it's been talked about since January number one um again this is an operational uh recommendation which is from me uh the board does not vote on a change in transort they're voting on a whole budget of which we're incorporating Transportation costs the reason why it wasn't communicated to parents or anybody just yet because it hasn't been official and it's not and up until even about a week ago we were talking about what school may change could we get that to maybe five minutes with talking to the consultant and talking with Dr jenko and our transportation department but again you know day-to-day operations are an administrative function not a board function um to me you know when that consultant gave us us we took the bottom of the barrel recommendation we'll look at it again in a year I think us not doing anything and then having to maybe cut four more positions uh to make up that 240,000 would not be appropriate I do think it's going to alleviate all the late that are happening now as well so I think there's an added benefit to that and then we'll adjust it and we'll talk with transportation for that um but it has been I mean actually vets L has been discussed right here Miss Kennedy Mr Edwards suggested I I know Mr be our our our Union president has talked about it with teachers and then of course you know it gets out and people you know I guess they espouse what's not true sometimes you know um to maybe work their school hey I hope my school's going earlier now not later or my school's going later so those kind of things do happen but it is it is my recommendation and I stand by taking that Consultants report because um we have to look at every way we can for our cost savings and to me for 10 minutes for just for elementary right now and actually prek is even a bigger exam but I'm told um parents because many of them have the daycare pick up for them actually helps them with work by going earlier so um we will re-evaluate it we do it every year um uh but the consultant did a pretty good job in giving us that recommendation and breaking it down to minister and the board heard all that presentation so thank you Dr any other public comment go ahead you were under your five minutes go ahead real quick all right um I just was curious even though we are saving almost a quarter million dollars with that transportation change what was the cost of the consultant that made that decision because then it's really not a $2,000 I don't it's $240,000 saving on sorry 30,000 yeah I think it was 30 if I remember correctly it was 30 he spent months but I think it was 30 grand now he did have recommendations I could have saved as that I'll do that for a lot cheaper just [Laughter] saying I just that that sounds is just like astronomical to me $30,000 like that's some people's salary not mine but some people's thank you any other public comment no then we'll switch to board comment Michael would you like like to start strictly on budget yes right Jim that's okay strictly on budget okay so I just have one question so I know you said at the end of the public hearing the budget cannot change correct so my recommendation is can we have some sort of a Caucus meeting first where we can meet present the budget to the public they can look at the data the board can look at the data more we have more time and then we can come back and vote on it no I'm not talking strictly tonight I'm saying going forward is that tonight is our public hearing when the public hearing concludes any any changes that were going to be made to the budget have to be done at this public hearing after tonight's public hearing there's no right so for next year forget about tonight I got tonight oh change the process my recommendation to the board and to you guys is have a meeting prior where everyone can voice their concerns you can post the slides you can show them line it detail we could potentially learn things we didn't know um I heard a lot of good comments I wasn't aware of so I think that would be beneficial so that's just my recommendation moving forward thank you Mike meline I really don't have much to say until we vote about um what's going on I can say that I am not happy with this budget at all am not happy with anyone losing their job not one single person and I'm extremely not happy with grades three through five having 38 children in those class and I know that Dr Anderson is working her butt off and to try and get these kids the proper education and so are the teachers but I will tell you I'm sure uh Dr frell is receiving the same thing I am I'm getting phone calls emails people work coming into my work couple of people who are teachers CR saying they can't do it anymore it's you know they're teaching children who are non-english-speaking children and they're teaching children in that same class that have um problems I'll put it that way and then the General Ed are just not working because it's just too much and we don't have Aids in those classes because we can't so um this budget is killing me I've actually had to go see a doctor over how much it's bothering my stomach that people are losing jobs and um I want to thank our wonderful governor for screwing us and our assembly and our Board of our state board of ed because we do need this money and so you know I I can't blame our Administration I can't blame Dr frell at this point but I wish our mayor who was a former teacher would have thought of us and given us a cool million that would be nice but I think we should still ask and I think we should still ask the btmua because it's not out of their reach to give that money so we should ask I mean I know it won't take change its budget but it might bring everybody right back and less than our class sizes I'm uh hoping and praying for that that's my thoughts on this budget thank you madine um Fran um I hate this budget it's a trend it's not a nice one um as a mom it hurts my kids are suffering all of our kids are going to suffer and we have problems with our um we we have a lot of classifications we have a high number of special ed and what's going to happen now because of these class sizes it's going to go up because they're all going to have behaviors our our poor teachers are going to leave it just I'm literally shaking it might be cuz I chugged the Red Bull but it it could be either one but um I hate this and I wish as I say every week every every month that we have to bug bug bug bug our legislators this is horrible these are kids these are their lives and we are literally messing their entire Futures up for what for what it's horrible and I'm H just so frustrated and there's nothing really that we could do here nothing we can't do anything because it's all about the money and it sucks because we're the ones that are gone after and it's just sucks sure go ahead I did want to say that um when John Catalano was in the assembly he tried to move a Bill a525 3 that would have given our district and every District their fair share that bill was never moved it was never even looked at um but now the assembly has brought their own bill and it's a1125 and with that bill that's the bill everyone's speaking about that you your taxes can be raised without a vote from the public to 9 .9% I mean Hello who wants that um I think we need to call our assembly and ask them to fight for us I don't want my taxes raised another 99.9% I'm sure you don't but this is how they're telling us that we can now get the money that's much needed there's money in the state give us the money give us our money give us our fair share don't raise our taxes our taxes are high high enough and again I'll say John Catalano tried to get a bill through with Greg mcgucken and now another bill was passed by the assembly by another group to raise our taxes that's it I'm sorry thank you [Music] meline okay um for a second I want to talk not about the dollars but I want to talk about the people I work in a um District that has a pre- 8 build that has a principal and a vice principal um our classroom sizes are about 15 to 18 kids in a classroom I can't imagine my building without a vice principal and to think that we would even put it out there to have any of our buildings that don't have the support for our administrators um Dr faral says it all the time we are one of the lowest numbers um as far as administrator to teacher to student ratio I'm not sure if I'm saying what that ratio is but we are low for administrators um I've had the pleasure of being in our elementary schools as a PTA president I have had the pleasure of being in our middle school as a PTA member and I've seen what these administrators and these teachers go through and um it's crazy to to even put it out there to to take away a vice principal from a a a school so I would um urge the board and the district to please not even think about that um as far as the class sizes looking at those slides as quickly as they went through 37 kids in one building that's three miles to four miles away from another building that's only got 21 there there has got to be a way to even those numbers out um I know that's what gets us to the 30ish as in um as an average but holy heck I can't imagine 37 first graders in a classroom um but administrators we see you teachers we see you staff members we see you and we appreciate the heck out of you we know what you're doing with as little as you're given and we appreciate you that's all thank you thanks Ally Victoria excuse me hello we have children to educate we have children to educate so much of what's decided in any school district across the state not Ocean or middlex or Hudson but all counties is decided by laws that dictate educational standards they tell us that we have a law called child find every public every student in the United States above the age of five is entitled to a free public education child find tells us that the research show shows early intervention is what affects our special it numbers so therefore child find obligations begin at the age of three we have standards in special education that dictate how many students adults what type of curriculum needs to be taught in our classrooms I can't agree that a reduction in staff is making schools more efficient I don't care if the staff is a custodian I don't care if the staff is a teacher I don't care if the staff is a coach because we have safety issues we have efficiency issues we have technological programs and upgrades that need to be made and what does the research show class size will promote education and learning we all have to make a choice there was the day that I had the luxury of putting my oldest child all through private schools so these discussions were never had in my family then I decided 10 years later to start my next child in public school and you know what I demanded a heck of a lot more from that public school than I ever demanded from the private school it was just more appropriate that we fund our schools and support public education for the benefit of all of our children I want to thank Dr Farrell for his leadership and President W Ram our School principles who've agonized over this budget for months and months I I want to thank the bus drivers the teachers the Paris the school secretaries and everybody who contributes to a healthy happy day for the students in Brick I was there at the Department of Education I was there at the state school board's meeting I was there in the hallways behind the Department of Education to weed out with Stephanie somebody that would just listen to us and I think it's Our obligation as District leaders to support the laws balancing our budget according to state law putting it out after it's approved according to state law and just working all the more harder tomorrow and the next day because we have children to educate I feel strongly about that thank you Victoria sorry are you done there was a pause I just you're done okay thank you Victoria um I'm gonna keep this moving along it's obvious we're all miserable about this budget so I'm not gonna beat it up any longer um can I get a motion in a second uh for approval of minutes uh what do we have to vote I think we have to close public comment on you have to close public oh I have to close Okay I need a motion then you can move on okay I need a motion in a second to close public comment as well as board comment on the you know I wish it was on my notes on the budget motion Aly second Fran Mary Miss Kennedy yes Miss Ste Benedictus yes di yes Mr Mesmer yes Miss Bala yes Miss wre yes now can I get a motion in a second for approval of minutes for the third time motion for second Mike any board comments seeing none Mary Miss Kennedy yes Miss D Benedictus yes Miss a yes Mr Mesmer yes Miss palala Miss W yes um committee reports uh why don't we start start with Miss mcnare no no committee reports for right now um Dr Anderson curriculum and instruction thank you Mrs WRA the cni committee met on April 15th at 430 uh in attendance was Miss Bala the chairperson Mrs Zan Ron Dr and Dr Farrell and myself no we're doing that um we reviewed the items on the April cni agenda uh those items under tra travel and training field trips student teacher placement and grants uh next I provideed an overview of the district performance report from the 2223 school year which included um an overview of the data that was presented back in October as well as some additional data points that was shared with us um the cni budget highlights I provided an overview of items included in the cni budget and then I highlighted the important dates that were coming up including third marking period uh report cards being posted in Parent Portal uh a teacher of the year tribute which is May 9th um May 18th our green fair and all of our green teams will be participating in this Township event our April 29th through May 24th is our njsla testing Administration window and on April 29th we are hosting a parent Academy at the PDC to help parents support their child's math growth using our I ready platform we also have the brick Bridge coming out next week and our next meeting will be June 10th wow um m your uh your yep uh special education sorry I'm sitting here sneezing now contested um the special education committee met on uh April 18th myself um M Benedictus Miss Sebert and Mrs wrap were in attendance uh we just gave a quick Spotlight of all the Fantastic things that went on for the um uh disability awareness Autism Awareness uh highlighted um the Fantastic pulling of the preschool Lottery that is finally over um it's a heart attack evening um but we all made it through pretty pretty well our special superheroes uh that we are acknowledging this month is Doug nardello in transportation and Martina orth they have been outstanding uh special superheroes um I had the privilege of giving um Mr narel his keep and I will be on my way to get Mrs worth her keep uh just a few uh Spotlight events Unified sports on May 9th we have our uh brick memorial mustangs versus Toms River East at the Field of Dreams Tuesday May 21st the dragons versus Point Barrow at Point Barrow fields and June 5th our inaugural uh Brick Mustangs versus is our Brick Township dragon game here at vets memorial turfield thank you thank you Mr Edwards yes thank you Mr wreb the facilities committee met on April 15th um an attendant Miss Bala miss wreb Mr Mesmer Dr Farrell myself Mr Pico Mr dubovich from fvhd Architects Miss Cashman from spel Architects and Mr yor from Neta Architects uh we discussed uh the ongoing construction projects Lake Ral Middle School air conditioning that project is complete uh all we're waiting on now is for the contractor to do final inspections and closeout documents Veterans Memorial Middle School boiler replacement and air conditioning U that work is in process it really will kick in with the electrical upgrades this summer um Emma Haven air conditioning uh the uh Mr y informed the committee that we're still waiting on the Transformers the electrical gear for that job uh there is a change order for the contractor in regards to the electrical switch gear that's on this evening's agenda and gas piping that need to be run through the main of the building and uh Mr kri also discussed with the committee a change order for Jersey state controls to relocate the control panel which is affected by the redesigned switch gear at vent Elementary School the air conditioning project Mr y informed the committee that there's a change order for the contractor which is on this evening's agenda for the electrical upgrades Drum Point Elementary School boiler replace replacement in air conditioning uh Mr yor informed the committee there's a change order on this evening's agenda for this the um disconnect for the solar panels in regards to the Transformer work that's being performed in this in the uh Transformer room Lanes Mill Elementary School Miss Cashman informed the committee that the work is on hold until the summer uh we do have the transformer for that school so that's great news so that work will be completed this summer U midstreams air conditioning osor Veil air conditioning War Wolf air conditioning and Herbertsville air conditioning I informed the committee that the uh schools are on hold we've received Rod grants for all of them except for um the waren wolf uh we're still waiting to prove to the state that we have the local fair share for that those projects are all all the local share on the rod grants is in contingency on the projects that are being done this summer so once those projects are done we'll be able hopefully Advance those projects osbornville kitchen Edition M Miss catchman informed the committee that the bid opening would be on April 19th uh as an update to this to the minutes we did have the bid opening we only received one bid which was uh not encouraging and it was significantly over budget so that's on this evening's agenda for rejection of that bid um we were planning on having the architect on for the phase four and phase six of the that project but we pulled that because we can't award the project at this time R Township High School kitchen HVAC Mr procure informed the committee that the township is requiring um engineering and sealed drawings for the uh project that is being done by Hutchinson which is through a co-op we have on this evening agenda to have spel architectural do the drawings and the mechanical drawings and provide the sealing so that we can get the drawings certified by the township and approved for permitting purposes drump Point Elementary School kitchen Mr pror informed the committee that the contractor has performed all the necessary upgrades and the startup of the unit is pending Park and lot assessment Mr procur informed the committee that he met with the represent resentative from Remington Vernick on March 11th and March 12th they walked all the complexes and uh they'll be relaying a report uh just as an update again to the minutes for the board I received the draft report this week so I'll be sharing that with the facilities committee at the next meeting midstreams kitchen Mr y informed the committee that the design and drawings have begun and he will relay them to myself when the when it's ready for planning Board review rck Township High School track and long jump Mr pror informed the committee that he has issued a purchase order for the track maintenance work and that the um long jump work is in the 2425 budget which was as we discussed earlier and then the SDA emergent Grant projects Mr Boro informed the committee that the uh projects identified at Brick moral and Veterans Mor Middle School are currently being held for p po pending uh from some more information on a program known as direct install where we could get up to 60% of the work uh done under a grant which would allow us to take the SDA grant that we received and do more work with that uh next meeting is May 6th and then group of us which included Mr Mesmer Miss walde Miss Malla Dr F myself went into the finance committee meeting uh first item of discussion was the 24-25 budget um I don't know that I need to rehash everything that we talked about because it was already discussed this evening during the public hearing we then talked about the community solar and building performance RFP uh we got two responses uh dco energy had the most comprehensive response and therefore they're on this evening's agenda for approval um just as a recap for the board I'm I'm sorry the public uh the uh Community solar project idea is that we're going to try to put Community solar panels in as carports on our parking lots whereby we wouldn't be buying the electric the community would be buying the electric and it would be a revenue source to the school district uh capital reserve motion correction I informed the committee that last month we had a motion on for a capital reserve motion that had a typo in it and that need to be corrected it's on this evening's agenda for correction demand response system I inform the committee that theand what demand response is it's a program that we've been a part of whereby the utility asks us to shut down buildings during the summer months when Peak loads on utility are great uh they pay us to do so um the program is administered through the Educational Service Commission of New Jersey and we'd like to continue doing that so that's on this evening's agenda for approval Green Cove Marina um gave the committee a little bit of a history of how Green Cove and the Board of Education uh became in business together with the sign that's located at the warehouse um they uh have paid us $1,200 a year for the rental space of that placement of the sign and they're willing to continue that they also helped the Board of Education with the hooked on fishing program uh the committee concurred that that should be on this evening's agenda for approval the health center update I provided the board an update I'm sorry provided the committee with an update on the Board of education's Health Center uh all the data shows that we have increased part increased participation for the fourth year of operations and it appears to be moving in the right direction uh the ARP Sesser dollars I informed the committee that uh I was asked to do a presentation on behalf of the New Jersey Department of Education in regards to spending the American Rescue plan Esser funds uh the reason why we were selected is we were one of the only districts in the state that had their audit from the Esser folks and received no findings so they were very happy with that wanted us to share with all the other districts how we did it uh I shared with the committee it was an interesting presentation because we gave a presentation to a bunch of school districts on how to spend Esser funds when the essr funds are no longer being spent the grants are all done think they would have wanted us to have to do the presentation before the money was being spent but yeah that's just way I would have done it but anyway uh New Jersey school Insurance Group safety Grant uh we received the grant for $1 16,298 uh once again we're going to use that money to utilize it for purchase of school bus cameras uh that Grant is on this evening agenda for the board approval bright har bright Harbor Healthcare uh has expressed interest in renewing their advertisement with the school district for stadium signs at both high schools uh I informed the board of the new board C board secretary certification that has been implemented by the new County School business administrator uh if you um mayy show show that on the agenda just so everyone knows oh Rich scroll up to the scroll down sorry scroll down to operations so up up up up up up so operations there used to be on the agenda number one or I think it was number three actually uh was a certification by the board secretary that all line accounts were within order and now we had enough money to make it through the end of the year uh Rich if you click on that blue link that says board secretary certification under operations yep can you click on that now with the board the county business adittion has us doing is I actually am attaching a sign certification which says the same thing the board's not voting on it it's just a certification that needs to be on each agenda so you can close that thanks Rich um rfps and competitive contracts I inform the committee that we have uh many rfps and competitive contracts that will be uh expiring on June 30th and therefore need to go out uh for public procurement they include um the insurance brokerage service for health benefits the wellness clinic Services the the school physician services financial advisory services and legal counsel Services uh so those will all be on the June agenda those rfps will be released soon for vendors to provide proposals and next committee meeting is May 6th thank you Mr Edwards um that's that's it we're going to move on to our first public comment session on agenda items only this no I I H it yes she doesn't have a report first public comment session on agenda items only this will be the first opportunity for public comment and will be for agenda items only the board invites thoughts and reactions on agenda items each participant is asked to give his or her name prior to making a statement all statements shall be directed to the presiding officer the board will not during the public portion of this meeting discuss matters involving employment appointment termination of employment negotiations terms and conditions of employment evaluation of the performance of promotion or disciplining of any specific or perspective or current employee Andor student I saw your hand go up first I caught it out of my peripheral vision so this is going to be a lot because I wrote a speech on a lot um my name is Rachel Bor excuse me one second do you w to go back to the first public comment section on the agenda the one on agenda items only yes sorry just just one second there you go stop and then we get the clock and now um thank you for being patient go ahead my name is Rachel borga and I'm here to express my concerns regarding the level of lack of control parents have over our children's use ofro School Chromebooks has come to my attention that the children are able to access inappropriate contact such as the word porn and Associated words during school hours in class an agenda item so you're I wrote a speech I will get to because it also has to do with there's one teacher to 25 students so if my child's able to access inappropriate content during class that's a problem the fact that they're used to be uh I'm I'm not saying it isn't I'm not saying it isn't well I I'm sorry it's just they we have another and we have a second section I have to leave and get my kids cuz it's almost 10 okay um so I'm leaving right after this but it is a very big okay we'll make the exception since you have to go and I understand you have to get your children so is does the board have an issue with us making this one exception thank you go ahead so as parents we entrust our children's education to the school system with the expectation that they will be provided with a safe and productive learning environment allowing students to access explicit content on school issue devices goes against this trust and puts our children at risk of being exposed to harmful material if you give parents more control over the school Chromebooks we can protect them from accessing the content by implementing stricter rule controls and filters on these devices parents can have peace of mind knowing that their children are not being exposed to the harmful material at the school as a parent who regularly monitors my child screen time we recently discovered that he was able to search for an accent content on his school issued Chromebook during class this incident was not only raised concerns about the school's supervision of students online activities but also highlighted the need for parents to have more oversight and control over the devices this is not the first time I brought up issues involving the Chromebooks to the school itself the elementary school has pushed me away in the past as if it was an issue for bringing anything to their attention and assured me that there were no problems even though I walked them through exactly what my son showed me and provided photos for them but this is why I'm standing in front of all of you today the film principal today is handling this matter differently than the past with Mrs Kerr but this is also a group effort to ensure these children are protected from such things at a young age and they were not always able to delete the history and now they are which is a big problem because as people that do monitor now we have no idea what's going on and I under I understand technology is now and the future but it needs proper monitor age appropriate sites and everything else blocked there's a will there's a way and children will always find a way but to access it at school is insane so by bringing by giving parents more control and either bringing back the fact that they should not be able to delete the history or letting us send them in with our own devices where we can monitor and protect them from anything um so this can instill responsible digital citizenship and ensure that students are using technology in a safe and productive manner so I urge you guys to take action on this issue thank you thank you okay um Dr frell do you want do you have anything to add to that I I just said to miss mcar will discuss with technology uh most so we do have on intern I'm years old and words are up okay Miss mcnamer could you step out with them so that miss mcnamer is going to step out with you to talk to you in a little bit more detail so we can continue with the agenda items so she's in charge of Technology thank you any other um comments on agenda items only yes Mr Reed okay the uh board secretary's report it's a month late so I brought this up to the board before so this is as of February these these reports are supposed to be available unless they change the law 15 days after the end of the period no that's incorrect it's not 15 days it's 45 days okay 45 days yes so how many days since the end of February well we're it's April 25th we didn't have another meeting to put them on so it would have been April 15th but we're there was no meeting before that put it on so we need these in a more timely fashion so this this is the only way to respect this is the timeliest fashion you're going to get it it's the February report we're in the April meeting you can't give could give the February report on March 14th we weren't done closing the month so what we did in the past we would have the meeting after the 15th of the month so so you could have the more current report so when you have your your monthly meetings before the 15th we're like a month behind in what you're showing and this is no that's it's I'm sorry to interrupt that's not correct so if you go back and you look at the history of the Board of Education here even when when I was on the board that's what we did that's why we scheduled the meeting meeting would be the February board secretaries award is it is it my turn to comment or not let's just okay but let's let him comment and I'm sorry Mr Reed can continue so so these are important reports so when you're presenting the budget and we only have information through the end of February you were you were months behind before this is important for the public to know where the money is going and what the status is of what we have Etc and you know you're you're planning for next year and we've got old information so that's my point when did when does the State give us the extraordinary Aid and this this is one of the items on here so that's my question uh one of my questions and are all the boards uh Members First of all thank you for volunteering for this I totally disagree that you should should not be paid you you should be paid you got a you got a $160 million budget you're the board of directors for this public corporation and you don't get paid everybody else in the state in the country gets paid on a board of directors so who decided this the legislature our wonderful legislature all they worry about is getting reelected anyway so um I my my other question is other than the general fund what parts of the budget are in uh section 20 fund section 30 fund section 40 is it all in all the budget items in section 10 fund that's my question thank you thank you Mr re Dr far um I'll I'll let Jim ad so the good news extraordinary Aid as we actually have a side bet every year Mr Edwards and I um I don't think he's paid up but extraordinary Aid has increased over the years and uh the last couple years and I'm going to let Mr Edwards say when it comes in when we adopt it also when you talk about fund 20 revenues that are coming in uh we do a pretty good thing here I think most districts do it I know in my for we actually when we do our itemized budget starting in October with our principles and Department EDS if we have a position that's paid out of fund 20 we'll actually note it with that amount so that we know if we lose that Revenue and it's coming out of that we'll actually know that it goes to that position or to that documentation so why don't you add to those two things extraordinary Aid and how we handle the fund 20 um so extraordinary Aid notifications come out in usually July we notified how much money we got for we're entitled to for the 23 24 school year um again a as anine process in regards to like the fact that we're getting money for 2324 when the 2324 school year is already over um and so that money usually lapses into Surplus we do budget for it so right now in our budget for this year we included $1.4 million I'm sorry $2.4 million in extraordinary 8 is what we budgeted for so we're hopeful that we're going to get that um Miss grener has done a great job in making sure that we put all the cost that we can think of into the application so that we can get funded for it I think she's not alone in doing that because other school districts might be doing the must be doing the same thing because if you're as you know we have gotten more money in extraordinary Aid however each year the state has reduced the percentage that they funded it at so um three years ago they funded it at 96% of all the applications two years ago they funded it at 88% last year they funded it at 76% so even though we're getting more because Miss grer is finding more things that qualify the percentage that we should be getting has been lowered so we should be actually getting a larger number so to answer your question in regards to extraordinary Aid we find out how much we're going to get in July uh which when the school year is over but we do project into the budget even for next year Dr Farrell's has increase it to 2.5 million for 2425 so we are projecting the revenue we just don't get the money until the year's over um you know again apologies for the Outburst there but I don't know how we could get the reports done any sooner we're in February I don't agree with you that it's outdated information it's February of 2024 we haven't even finished April March is being worked on right now will be at the May 9th meeting um and for the 24-25 budget when you look at the 2324 column they use February 1st as the date that they want us to report on so you're looking at the February board secretaries report that is used for development of the 2425 budget so it's very accurate current information so I don't agree that it's outdated um there was one more comment that fund 20 so I I I don't know if I fully understand the question so if I don't answer it correctly you and I can have a discussion about it online um you know if you're familiar with the silos of fund accounting fund 10 is where we account for our general operations so that's like the largest fund that's where most of the expenditures flow through uh fund 20 is strictly for Grants so any onetime grants that we receive flow through fund 20 that's where they're accounted for in fund 20 your revenues and expenditures need to match there can't be a deficit any way fund 30 is utilized the account for capital projects that are done through uh Debt Service issuance so um there's very little money in our Capital project right now because the last Debt Service issuance we did was with esip that we had done so and that's almost over we're about six months away from that being over uh fund 40 is where we account for the actual Debt Service that's the repayment of debt think about that is like if you had a bank account that you were paying your mortgage out of um then there then you get into the Enterprise funds there's fund 50 which is our school Food Service fund fund 20 is Grants correct I don't know if you want there we we do a pretty good job at labeling and itemizing each one in our budget too is what I want yeah so if you look at the board secretary report you'll see fund 20 and it's got it's labeled each one of the grants are itemized there as well where revenues and expenditures will match thank you Mr Edward any other yes Mr Finelli I wouldn't forget you oh you only got one okay Dr but they still it's stuck in my CW item 24 if I'm reading that correctly that's the can you just state your name for everybody say what state your name yeah [Laughter] right item 24 if for I'm reading correct that's the preschool budget and it's all itemized the whole thing and if I'm reading it correctly and this is for the 2425 school year it says 468 students and I always hear the number 500 thrown out as preschool my question number one is is that the plan going into you know fall you're going to do 468 um preschool or you going to plan to do more and if so and this is the whole funding part of it how do you get the money and and this is going up I mean it was 5 million then it was 6 million then it was 7 million then it was 8 million to me when I read that sheet and I'm not an expert it looks like it's it's fully funded the top number is 8.45 million 148 million and the bottom number is 8.48 million it looks like it's fun funding but Dr F tells me we only get 80% of the money or 85% of the money but then you get special needs money thrown in there so my question is number one are you going to increase over 468 and number two if you do who pays for that and number three I'm making a prediction somewhere along the line that might not be in my lifetime somewhere along the line they're not going to fund this as a separate item anymore it's going to be rolled in to your regular school funding and somebody's laughing down there she says how does that guy know he's right right and you're going to take it on the chin when they do that and when you take it on the chin we take it on the chin because we pay for this we we we are the people that are paying so my question is explain that to me that I understand it and everybody else sure um so um prek is the best thing we've done we've been really recognized with our prek we repurpose schools which save jobs we get 83% so 83 cents on the dollar uh that we spend we get in the P Grant uh it's expanding it's increasing I I disagree with it's going away I don't think it will go away in my lifetime it's becoming a national Norm it's the best return on investment because we're remediating students that if they're reading at everything's about reading at grade level by grade three pretty much otherwise the cost to remediate that student is exponential over the years by having all of our students in prek right and especially mainstreaming with our classified population that helps over the years not only keep enrollment and increase enrollment but remediate those students so the Need For Less Support Services right now we actually have 612 students and I'm going to pass it to miss grunger around there now we did our Lottery the other night for how many uh 275 spots now this is the so obviously our classified students have a spot and we have a lottery for our um gened students right to create that um mainstream inclusion environment we're expanding next year because that's part of the requirement of the Grant I think we're expanding two classrooms we've had this year over 200 on a waiting list uh part of our strategic plan is to expand that not only does it save jobs teachers that have that prek c can move in there um again it's the best money we get 83 cents on the dollar best return we get we just got to find some space for that expansion uh in the Years P so right now I believe there's 612 total so I believe the 468 maybe yeah the 468 is the general education population that the grant funds uh the grant does not fund students with IEPs that is from the local share um and that is where our portion comes from but you are correct that 400 and number that you see and it is the 100% because the other portion is the classified students which comes from the local share so you are reading it correctly say again which is not funded the special education population but you get other funds for that uh we supplement with idea uh preschool funds yes um but some of it is from local funds so what's the number how many students are you September 1st how many students are you going to have in prek um it all depends on how many students move in how many students we get referred from early intervention it we but if today was September 1st if September 1st was today um I would say we would start the we would start about 612 612 612 preschool students in our but you but you're only getting funded for 468 yes that's again because you're asking me the numbers right now we have students that are three and students that are four students that are moving to kindergarden can I just help because I think I might be able so because I sometimes I it's weird I actually think like I think like him whoa scares either either you change me or I change you Jim I know it scares the hell you ain't changing me I'm too old so the difference between the 468 and the 612 that you're I think you're asking about who funds those yeah there are special needs children that would have IEPs that we have to educate if we didn't have the grant we'd have to pay for those kids to be educated and we'd be sending those kids out to be educated because that's what we used to do we used to send them to private carrier or private providers for inclusion education right and pay tuition for those kids to go now we're doing it inhouse and we're getting grant money where we're using our own preschoolers from the district that the state's paying for 83 cents on the dollar so that we can ED include inclusion our special needs children with the regular children and not have to send those special needs children out of District so it saves US money so you what you if I understand you correctly one out of five pre students in special need no not one out of five no it's it's 13 and two there every classroom's got 13 regular ed kids and two special needs children it's 13 and two well here's my here's my problem Jim the difference between 468 and 600 and that gender said this to me so so the the 468 number if you divided that by 13 that's 36 classrooms and then there's 72 regular kids hold on 72 regular kids on top of that right or special needs kids on top of that and then there are kids that are self-contained three and four year olds that aren't inclusionary they're the they're the I guess you would call the severe special ed that are self-contained that are on top of that that equal to 612 but all the special needs children whether they be inclusionary special needs children or self-contained special needs children we are required by law to pay for it no matter what whether we have a preschool program or not so that that there's and we always were there's three different classifications in the classrooms now well there's not three different classifications you have your preschool classroom that's got regular kids and inclusionary special needs children and then you got self-contained classrooms that there are no regular ed kids in at all that's required by law though we have to that's that's a trip that you and I make to Washington DC we we Wast we was we wasted enough time okay any other thank you Mr yes sir my name is Charlie bacon 366 ran cookus Drive do we have to pay for this entertainment or is this just part ofh so I want to go back uh Dr Anderson you made a great point about when we're talking elll 18 different languages right now how many teachers do we have to support those 18 different languages in the school district you can keep asking your questions and then we we'll answer everything and then I want to go back to title three if I read because I know there's a lot going on tonight I think I'm going to sleep very well on the title three I think um Dr frell you mentioned we went from 90 to about 600 elll students and the title three is to help support that funding and it hasn't gone up is that okay does that does that come through the federal okay so my question on that is how do we as a district get more funding for that because it sounds like it's outside of the scope of the state of New Jersey those are my two questions thank you very much don't let her start she'll go too long I wrote it down okay um thank you that's awesome because we are starting with the white paper and I was invited when I was at my National Convention the new president from Alabama is actually going to Congress July maybe regarding title three so Federal money's title one two three and four okay Title One is poverty socioeconomically disadvantage from free and reduced ons we get a decent amount in title one right funding from the federal government that's always been increasing pretty much but we have not seen the increase in 3 funding in accordance with the increase with that student population and that's a huge issue and that's lobbying the federal government on the state side though like I said there is funding uh for our ml students I got to get in the habit of say an ml instead of elll for our ml students but it's inclusive of the equalization Aid which we don't get so we're expected to use our local fund or local fair share to fund uh uh those students and those support servic which require an additional teacher or certain languages so yeah now go to all right there you go so we have two kinds of programs we have a bilingual program which we have bilingual teachers in grades K 1 and two that means um the state requires if you have more than 20 of a specific language you should be opening a bilingual program uh for that language and so we have more than 20 at kindergarten first and second grade um and at other grade grades they may be from all over the district so you don't necessarily have to offer a bilingual at that grade level um and you can apply for a waiver but we currently offer in G grades K1 and two and then we have 16 teachers throughout the district uh providing services in several of our schools so our our programming is at U lanville on this side of town on the other side of town it's at um Emma Havens osbornville and then at the middle school level it's at Lake Riviera and then it's at both high schools brick high school and brick memorial we expanded it to M brick memorial last year so we would love to expand it to all of our schools so that our ml population is educated within the schools in the community but that would require about four additional staff to grow the programs and so that that's the long-term goal but in terms of professional development all of our teachers really support our ml students because really it's a bit more diverse Community than it's been uh years ago so teach teachers receive sheltered instruction training so that they're able to meet the needs of all their students and those are best practices that are good for every child in the classroom they involve visuals and um prompting and queuing um and making a multisensory approach to learning so um that's basically and and Mrs uh Caine is the supervisor and then we have um an ESL coach who goes ahead and screens students that come in and helps place them and um works with with the teachers to help them uh with accommodations and modifications for their learning thank you Dr Anderson any other um public comment at this time seeing none we're going to close that portion okay Dr Anderson curriculum and instruction thank you Mrs wreb under curriculum and instruction the superintendent recommends that the board approve the following items 1 through five I need a motion and a second motion meline second Aly any board comment seeing none Mary Miss Kennedy yes Miss D Benedictus yes missan room yes Mr Mesmer yes Miss picala yes Miss WRA yes Mr Edwards operations thank you m w this evening the superintendent recommends items 1 through 33 I need a motion in a second motion for second and Victoria any board comment seeing none Mary Miss Kennedy yes is Sten adicted yes to all but 15 which is the budget so is that a no or anain no Miss room um I need to abstain on number five scheduled ID 22968 21301 0 21 21347 21315 and also number 28 and no on number 15 Mr Mesmer no on number 15 yes to everything else Miss picala yes Miss wre um I need to abstain from operations number four vendor ID 12667 and yes to everything else excuse me this was a long one Mr kler thank you Mr wreb tonight the superintendent recommends to the board items number 1 through 32 for approval I need a motion in a second motion Fran second Mike any board comment seeing none Mary Miss Ken yes Miss T Benedictus yes Miss yes Mr Mesmer yes Miss palala yes Miss W yes Miss mcnam policy and planning thank you Mrs W the superintendent recommends the board approve the following items under policy and planning one I need a motion and a second motion Ally second Fran uh any board comment seeing none Mary Miss Kennedy yes Miss stadius yes Miss room yes Mr Mesmer yes Miss Bala yes Miss wreb yes this is the second opportunity for public comment each participant is asked to give his or her name prior to making a statement all statements shall be directed to the presiding officer comment shall be limited to 5 minutes and each speaker may only speak once the board will not during the public portion of this meeting discuss matters involving employment appointment termination of employment negotiations terms and conditions of employment evaluation of the performance of promotion or disciplining of any specific or perspective or current employee and or student anyone for public yes M John sluka 950 Soviet Court I'll tell you after tonight's meeting uh just so I have an idea we had free nose and free yes is on the budget the fif number 15 what's that mean it means that the county superintendent will now decide oh correct Jim 33 3 3 three Perhaps Perhaps I mean I don't need you can tell me at the end if you rather but you know I don't really no it's it didn't pass and now it goes to the county superintendent correct I so we'll notify the county office tomorrow that the budget didn't pass 3 three so it didn't pass that answer to that question 3 three passes no no it didn't pass did it didn't pass we have a meeting May 9th we have until May 14th to adopt the budget I think with the county off but nothing can change after tonight can't change anything but I think what the county office will tell us is to put the put it back on the agenda for May 9th because they don't really want to get involved in certifying the budget they want the board to do that so I think that's what's going to happen but I'm I'm speculating at this time okay so we'll find out more tomorrow okay well I when I I said wait a second it's a wrong number here not seven like it's supposed to be so but even if I'm sorry just one second but Jim just to clarify further but even um if it goes back on if they ask you to put it back on for board vote again it still means that nothing it will be just like it is tonight correct okay yeah okay at least I know U I'm going to read part of my letter not the whole thing because I just voted out about you know this morning uh but so it's April 15th Dr farell Stephanie wall the Board of Ed members blah blah blah okay um it's sort of the agenda related to 15 mostly but 11 12 and mainly what the letter says I know you guys kill yourselves with this S2 stupid thing that tries been driving me nuts for years and driving you just as crazy uh I just don't you know so I I know and I know that we say we say oh we shouldn't bother with the city and everybody else the boogeyman is really the state or something and I don't really care and whether it's the town hall or here it's not going to take money out of my pocket this it's going to be the same it's just going to some of it's going to go to the kids and some of it's going to go to the town and I'd rather go to the kids so that's why sort of what I want to do is maybe for next year at least if if the B BT MUA can give them a million dollar five times now in the last 10 years which is basically $500,000 a year you know maybe we should talk to this town or we don't have a liaz on I don't think we have one like we used to have made crate before she was made she came here couple meetings at least you had somebody to talk to now I don't know what how it's done you know but you know whether there's an open dialogue or whatever there is why doesn't the board for the kids get the $500,000 you know you know basically every year that's pretty much what they've been given the the town uh again out of my pocket it's the same amount is either going to come out through taxes one way or another but I'd rather the money be directed towards the kids um so and that's how thing the other one is the groundbreaking of this coming up soon of the sports complex thing whatever it's not the Dome anymore cuz they did away the Dome they finally got approval to have the fire bio thing worked on uh now they're going to start getting money but they don't get real estate taxes so we used to get it 55% of the money would go to real estate tax would come to the board of ed right now you're going to get zero under this new Under the setup this agreement uh if we had leas on or maybe we should have AAS on or somebody wants to be Del the A on on the board have talk to them about getting your 50 50% or 55% whatever the number happens to be uh every year for the next 25 years they're going to get the money and you're going to get zero on it and so that that's pretty much what real lettera says uh the other thing had on the bottom I wrote I just wrote myself a note uh one of 12 students are now M ml that's what I get out of this one of every 12 we only have 16 teachers do they speak just Spanish or they speak do they speak all those different languages that's wow so they um our ESL teachers may speak another language but typically it's a certification that enables you to learn how to um help with language immersion with with helping uh learn a language and language AC okay so this s of helping them learn how to speak English not trying to right talk to speak with to them in their native oh okay that's all I want that's and my letter was pretty much whoever got the letter I don't know who I wrote it to it was seemed like about four days ago I think it was this morning you know thank you I got it thank you any other Mr um go Ahad got there got an hour left it says I have an hour left it says I have an hour left Charlie bacon 366 ran cookus Drive uh some point just came up about the sports complex and I think there's a couple things that you go on the record over here about that and a lot of you folks know it it's a pilot program is what they did there was a number of questions asked that night they were excellent questions there was also an attorney present that night that's an expert on pilot there was questions about the length of that contract and the last question that was asked that night could that pilot program giving you money and the answer was yes and they said no I'm going on the record saying it you can look it up thank you very much thank you Mr [Music] Finelli I know you did before I get into my Mr finel just before you start just so I can clarify something from Mr l in regards to that and I know we've had this conversation at one of the prior board meetings so as Dr farell indicated earlier the township and the board evet are different in the way that we we're structured so we're not considered what's called a taxing Authority so as an example we're going to strike a budget hopefully at some point because we didn't do it tonight but we'll strike a budget at some point that we're going to say we need 123 million to operate the schools we then basically send that tax bill to the township and the township is then going to include it in their budget that they tax the people on to collect those monies so whether they're collecting it from and if I give you like a simple equation if there was five homes in a community or 10 it wouldn't matter to us we would need the same amount of money it's just how much those five houses are going to pay versus the 10 hous are going to pay so when the athletic complex comes on board and like you said the typical tax bill when you look at is about 55% for the school tax when a athletic complex comes on and pays that tax or Pilot or whatever it may be to the township we're still going to get the same amount of tax levy we got before no matter what doesn't change for us so if there's more ratables added to the roles in in the township the Board of Education doesn't get more money because of it it's just the taxpayers pay less because of it because the overall taxing amount needed is spread over more entities I confuse it by saying that all right so we we it doesn't no because we get because we're not a taxing Authority we're going to get the 123 million that we say we need no matter what they get raising the taxes is a burden on the township not the Board of Education they don't get any tax money that well so now you entered into a whole another realm now they entered into what's known as a pilot program so they're getting payment in Lee of taxes so that really has more of an impact on the taxpayers than it does the Board of Ed because the taxpayers are now now having your taxes reduced over that value okay thank you if you have any other questions you can [Music] ask so I think the the last question Mr Finelli asked at that meeting was could they could they through a pilot program Direct money to the school district the answer to that is yes oh they can they can that was my question right but if it wasn't through a pilot program it was just a normal rable that were on the books we wouldn't have seen that money anyway Mone yeah yes anybody could give us money remember we said that we will take it from anybody okay let's Mr Finelli I have to correct something I said last Tuesday in case anybody heard me I thought Tom rer was the one that got the money from the MUA but it was who who Lacy lawn La I'm on public record as I made one of my two mistakes a year it was Lacy Township that got the money not Tom's River okay and number something else I wanted to correct before we go into that I don't have a problem with which which pocket money comes out of if I have to pay it but but there's one thing you have to understand right A lot of people in Brick are senior citizens and they're on the senior freeze program so if you raise their taxes they get the money back to raise all right however if the MUA raises the water or sewer so they can give you or anybody else a million dollars they have to pay that and they don't get it back so when when this whole thing goes with the MUA senior citizens are taking it on the chin all right just so you know that my my last comment about the budget you got $162 million budget you decide how you going to spend all that money if what you do or don't do causes clar size to go up that's on you please stop complaining about class size because you control that and now for the meat you might want to put your Teflon vest on everybody but Mary she's you get a Buy on this one all right I got a long memory your report card is in the school performance report if you were here last year you remember at this time I asked the question of are you going to do a presentation on the school performance report and I was told very emphatically we did it last October and I argued until I was blew in the face and then I gave up and the next meeting I come back and I proved that you did not do it last October that was a different report that you did and the response I got to my question of whether you're going to present it was no we don't have to legally do it so we're not going to do it and if you don't believe me go to the tape so you're not going to do it I'm I'm going to do it but I'm not going to talk about the the Scholastics at all because Dr F said we did that so I'm just going to talk about my favorite subject absence 1,641 students can anybody tell me what that represents no I bet you if you read the report you know what it represents all right 1,641 students in the brick School District are chronic absentee students that is 21% of your students and you can't do all the things you want to talk about because you can't get the kids to come to school two years ago it was 17.4% % then it was 19.8% now it's 21.1% of your students 1,641 Miss more than 18 days and unfortunately the report doesn't tell me or you how many more days than 18 it's just more so I carried it one step further where we can see just exactly how it is and before you start forming all of your responses to what's causing the problem I'll tell you that it's spread out amongst all the schools and it's spread out amongst all the types of students that you have but the ones that you think are the biggest problem are not right so if you tell me that it's because this or that I'm going to tell you you're wrong it's not it's spread out all over in fact the white population for the school district is at 21.4 which is right at your average and I'm going to embarrass every school when when I give you the numbers I really I don't care brick toown ship High School 24.2% of the students are chronic in the category 11 to 15 days 20% of the students in the category over 15 days 28% of the students which means 48% of the students in that school Miss more than one day a month brick memorial High School 18.4% chronic 18% Miss 11 to 15 days and uh over 15 days 24% so you had 42% of the students in that school missing more than 11 days and oh by the way that's the best school district the best school in the district 42% Lake Rivier middle school I'll skip I'll skip the regular numbers just go their 44% Miss more than 11 days Veterans Memorial Middle School 47% Drum Point 49% heon's young 49% Lake River Area Middle School Mr Finelli can you just finish one more school and then we have to move on I finish I got two more schools 54 right after you can let me finish or I'll just bring it up at the next meeting you can bring it up at the next meeting that that would be so what you've got right now is absence that has gone through the roof it's getting worse it's not getting better whatever you did with your little signs of everything is not working until you fix the problem of of getting kids to come to school nothing else is going to get fixed and I'll tell you right now I hold every one of you accountable for that and I'll explain it I hold you accountable before you run the school hold accountable because you're not holding them accountable all right the problem is getting worse you don't have to kid thank Mr of the things that you want to do without thank you Mr Finelli yes sir sure com all right I got to wake up in five hours so I'm going to try to do this as fast as I can so I I say this at the council meetings and I'll say it here if you don't like what the people say and it bothers you so much that you can make a face like you do Miss Kennedy then resign because it's not fair to the people who have the right to say what they want to say and for you to sit there and act like a child that I don't accept number two if any company tells us that the budget is changing you better sure as hell make sure that the budget is appropriate and that you're following the rules to say well the state's fault and we got to work with what we have and we're going to keep all that we have is unacceptable either my company in the Northeast region we got cut by 15% guess what I got to do operate within that 15% right that means for the EMB betterment of the company we're actually now getting rid of managers and putting two lead positions cuz it's cheaper so if we got to get rid of assistant principles guess what you got to do get rid of assistant principles cuz it's more important to educate the kids that there's teachers in those classrooms who yes maybe there needs to be a program so that they can do disciplining as well but there should be no reason at all to make the excuse that well our budget is lower it's the state's fault yeah the state we got to deal with them as well and we will show up to the state and tell them that but here in Brick Township these kids need the education they deserve and that means we make make tough decisions sorry you're not getting a raise sorry we're cutting some administrators fine but there needs to be something done about it and so Miss Kennedy I remind you again we voted you in right we can vote you out so don't forget that thank you um lry Reed 475 Normy Drive just in case you forgot okay couple points uh number one the legislature it was a pilot project that they approved payment in Le of taxes screws the school systems once again the legislature you know elections matter you got 12 different languages you got 10 million people coming over The Bard you know open borders you think this works so I know I'm preaching to the choir here in Ocean County and Monmouth County so I'm waiting wasting my breath in a way but this whole issue about the property tax relief fund is being abused okay this is money that c comes in through the income tax so I have this page here from one of the year's budgets and it shows that in 2021 the actual Property Tax Relief Fund Revenue was $15 billion okay it's now $20 billion so from 21 till now 24 it went up $5 billion how much of that went to the school districts how much went to the pork projects it's all in there I could talk for hours and maybe I'm going to ask the board to let me use the auditorium and one day and make a presentation to the taxpayers that want to know where their money's going and why they're not getting their share they have a line item in the Community Affairs departments called M Consolidated Municipal tax relief that M that budget has not that line item has not gone up in 5 years so when your town doesn't get the increase in the monies that are supposed to go to the towns and the school districts get cut you're not participating in that $5 million increase and so so how do you change it you have to change it through the elections process so the biggest job in the state regarding the governor is making the budget okay so he makes the budget and he can change all these line he has line item vetos and so right now you have a legislature that is not interested in funding the schools the way they should be and it's only through the election process that you can change that so that that's one of the issues that you know kind of wasting my breath here but as we get more and more into social media maybe we can get the kids to watch some of this stuff instead of that other stuff that's online uh okay the other issue is the New Jersey school boards Association now I'm sure you're all aware of it but maybe the folks in the audience aren't do you know how much we pay for New Jersey school boards uh dues it's $26,000 a year how is that determined it's a percentage of your school budget what a great deal so when they have all these services for the school board members that you can go to and this that and the convention it's for each School Board member so whether you have three a $3 million budget over $160 million so that's one thing that school the school boards Association is not doing for the schools the other issue they have relates to workman's compensation so we went to in-house workman's compensation to F fund our own and we're saving money right Jim we're saving a lot of money so the school boards passed this years ago that when you're out on workers's comp and you work in a school district you get 100 % of your pay without any deductions and when I asked them about this when I was on the board the day they go down to Trent and you get to talk to the the School Board Association actually said well the teachers wanted this but but but so it's not the teachers that abuse the workers's comp it's the custodians the bus drivers they know this so they go out on workman's cop in May because they're not working during in the summer so so the school boards Association they give these Awards and they're great people but they're not doing their job for the school boards so that's just my public comment thank you thank you any other public comment seeing none we'll close this portion um we'll switch to board comment me oh I'm sorry I didn't give you a chance to respond I want to go back to the budget and I I want to be clear again and you heard it from Mr Reid we do follow the rules and we make very very hard decisions um this is something that I I am trained for I do have an MBA and a CPA and started on Wall Street and Mr Finelli is kind of right we're forced to make these tough decisions so but when you talk about $4 million we're not cutting supplies cutting cut some administrators cut some here you're talking about $4 million you're talking talking 40 probably people and at the end of the day as Mr Reed said the state says this is what you should be spending on education for your child and brick and we're not getting it they're saying you spend it and they're saying you you either got to get it from your town locally because we're not giving it here and that's not fair and then what happens is when you make these tough decisions you get a lot of infighting either or hey let's you know guns or butter during a war right you're if you take any economic class which i t for you during a war are we're going to spend the money on guns or butter right at the end of the day those hard decisions are made by administrators that not only are trained but we look at past practice and we try to look what's in best for our students in this district with the tough decisions so I do take a little I mean not only do we follow the rules and follow the law but you know we take an oath when we get a certificate for chief School administrator principal business administrator the board takes an oath to uphold a laws of the state constitution of New Jersey in that law we have to balance a budget that's what I have to do and I'm going to tell you and they told me this when I first became a superintendent 12 years ago every budget cycle because I would say I want a unanimous vote I want I'd have all my mentors say you know what you'll never please everybody with the budget you'll never please but it's your job to balance the budget and make sure you match and balance what is in the best needs for your community and your students with the input in the data you have and I'm going to tell you we do that take that very seriously I know I do and I know my team does and I think we do a very good job in that and we follow the law and we we we follow the rules with that um you know I want to just to comment on because Mr Finelli and I I want to thank Mr Finelli the attendance day he's talking about is last year he's been bringing it up for years and we made that a goal starting this year uh with all these signs and all that so when you say they're not working you know I hope they are I hear things even from my wife when we have a perfect attendance classroom they're taking pictures they're announcing it over to loudspeakers we're trying to do some things the state even there's an article uh epidemic of of missing class New Jersey schools uh with attendance the chronics absentee uh rate in the state of New Jersey went from 10% to over 177% in the state and we're hired in that and I know that and this is last year's data and that is a goal of ours because he's absolutely right we can't move the needle on anything else if they're not here and we need the parents help a lot with that because of the age of the children and and we've seen that and I want to talk last year we we talked about this performance date and and I misspoke and I said I probably got to do a better job explaining uh what we do in October by Statute we're required to present out on test scores student performance data which Dr Anderson does every October when uh when the report card comes out it has some of that and it has these other things that we don't report out on in October and Mr Finelli said that to me last year he said hey you you know you you said you reported out on this I was thinking we're talking just about the performance side he wasn't he's talking about all these other things that go into the report guard which we have to analyze and put in so what happens is so everybody knows last year let's go back to actually 20 two test scor in the spring of 22 that October of 22 we reported out on the test scores last spring of 23 the report card comes out with all the other data attendance graduate all the other stuff and the test scores comes out gets published they called archived for us gets published into papers so last spring we took tests here that Dr Anderson reported out on all those scores njsla and all that in October now you're seeing data attendance data all that from last year that ended in last school year that we knew last year that became a major goal for us this year in attendance rate um and we do track it a little differently internally but we look at how we move the Le and we made it almost a three or fiveyear uh goal over the the course of strategic uh planning with that so you're absolutely right um attendance chronics absent to see is not just a brick problem but it for us it's it all starts and stops with you com to school someone once said you know 80% of being successful is just like showing up or something that that famous quote that's absolutely true and it's true for our students and we need the teach set and we need everybody's help with that and we're trying different things from the state toolbox this year uh we'll probably try some more things next year we'll have updated data again uh next year from this year to see if we move the needle forward um and I I've shared that uh with Mr Finelli I want to thank Mr Reid because we've talked a couple times on the phone and uh this gentleman has done his research uh with the property tax and um I'm glad he comes here to educate us because the truth of the matter is we don't have Alternatives with this budget I said it last year every year you know this is a simple budget I can't wait for the day where we can have these debates about what we're adding what programs are we creating are we creating more vocational programs are we putting more AP programs are we reducing class are we doing all those things that's the stimul right now this is a simple budget you got to cut $4 million well you know it ends up in people and you go through and you go Point by point you look who's not tenured who's tenured because there's different laws for it's it's brutal and it's simple in the same breath but I'm here to tell you if we didn't get affected by S2 we would not be having this infighting that's just the fact and the money's there and I don't care what anybody says the money's there we'd be sitting here even if we were balanced we wouldn't be cutting jobs we say all we're going to hold say we're not adding administrators we're not adding this got it and we got a strategic plan that says we want to add more security we want to add more guidance counsels more support service okay well we're Bal we can't we can't even touch into that timeline of all those goals those expectations we would love to do so so I'm here to tell you that it would be a lot different but to do the either or is not going to help any of us and I'm here to tell you I'm not going anywhere and I'm a strong leader that we will get through and we will get better over the years but I'm not going to sit here and say we could do this we could do that at the end of the day it's really the superintendent's recommendation and they vote on it yay or nay what they want um and I'll justify and explain my recommendations as best as I can but at the end of the day that's where my experience and my education has to come in and to keep people from infighting because we'll never go in and I was kind of hoping we would direct most of our IR at the state and the governor and I know people say it won't change but the truth is we need to we need to change it and I'm hoping next year since the last year asked to it will so anyway so thank you thank you Dr verell um board comment um Mike if you have anything that you don't have to I'm just Yep they're they're out the window um uh now so this this was my first budget cycle and I think Dr frell this has been the toughest one in your ten you know as superintendent so it was something to get thrown into I'll I'll tell you that and I really appreciate I asked you and Mr Edwards a lot of questions you gave great answers you were very helpful um and I just want to be clear you know I I did vote no on the budget but as we know this is a state issue okay I'm very concerned about 30 kids in a class with you know my son and every other child in this District also concerned about teacher retention I think that's going to be an issue there's a shortage of teachers already you know why would teachers want to stay in this District you know we got to do something about that so my thought was Voting no I I can't agree to that and you know I'm hoping someone at the state sees this realizes that we're pushing back and we're trying to do something about it thanks thanks mine I agree with Mike we're hoping that someone in the state will see that we are not going to put up with it anymore we can't afford to lose our teachers we can afford to let our children not get a proper education and it's not anything that we have done here it is we need the help they need to give us the help and I do want to say one quick thing I went to Shrek it was adorable that they had the uh musicians there which made it great I also went to Matilda very cute but my favorite was the wax museum at Drum Point that was adorable I want to tell everybody you know um hopefully we get money from someone and people open their eyes thank you good night FR I need another Red Bull um so tired um but yes to everything that Mike and mine said we're just hoping that somebody sees this is a this is a White Flag we need help and we're not getting it we need help nobody is listening nobody feels like nobody cares and it's it's not okay um on to fun stuff so this has been a really busy month um what what I do but I'm I'm gonna go very Cliff note version quick quick quick so yes all the plays amazing I went to too many of them I haven't slept which is uh um went to Matilda at Memorial they were amazing they were so fantastic and um the indoor Color Guard championships they were so good all the teams were fantastic we have some seriously talented kids in our district um went to Brick Township indoor guard they hosted it was fantastic um they had I went saw the brass and the Woodman ensembles like these kids are so awesome and I came directly from midstreams doing Willy Wonka which was fantastic as well they were so cute um and I wish Miss Tran toess was here because it was so fun to go to the um the students ver staff basketball game they killed it that girl can run she is pretty good um and this G Mr G was like he was in it that dude he obviously played basketball cuz he was awesome did he okay I knew it he he was amazing um and they did not go easy on the kids which was good they were all red face it was fantastic and um I want to give a huge shout out to Ben neller from um brick memorial our boy going to Harvard next year so big congratulations to vanen n and done thank you friend quickly I just wanted to say thank you to everyone for saying so late um it's nice to see some new people it's maybe your second meeting you've been to Marilyn I love seeing you um you know the hardest part about a volunteer public service position is that I am a real person and you are correct that you do read things on my face and my friends told me Al this is going to be the hardest part of your job is watching your facial expressions however 8600 residents in Brick Township like me being real and that's what I am up here and I will stand by that and I look out for our schools and I look out for our kids and I look out for our teachers and I am me so thank you Brick Township for voting for me uh Fran I mean um I'm sorry Victor you I'm tired I know you arewe you want me to close the meeting all right I have um some really great things to say because I love being a school board meeting member because I really feel like I can bring an insight to this board and support to our administrators and our teachers and our children and I uh had the pleasure of attending uh two uh recent New Jersey School Board Association uh meetings I was at the inaugural women's leadership conference in Trenton the theme was connection balance and inspiration and uh these women from all over the state from many many Industries came out and talked about how important it is when women are empowered everyone benefits and there was a lot of talk about being your authentic authentic self being a bold leader and just trying to um uh bring your personal talents into your leadership role I also attended the Ocean County School Board Association meeting last night first our um our Middle School teacher jacn pochar from Lake Riviera Middle School was introduced by Kevin Campbell and and um uh jacine gave a very inspiring conversation about um her journey to becoming the 2023 2024 Ocean County teacher of the year and she talked for quite a bit but not one thing she said lacked inspiration and I just Kevin really she's great and also last night at the Ocean County uh School Board Association uh Fran uh de Benedictus was recognized because over the time that she's been serving on the brick School Board she has attended conferences and training and has earned her certification as a new board member and I think that's a huge thing because those of us that can pursue that um we just brings so much to the district and um and we really get to see what's going out beyond our our hallowed walls here in Brick so um I just want to thank um the board for that opportunity and last but not least I serve on the Brick Township Green Team I'm appointed by the mayor every year as in a um Lia on to the board of education and I've been on the Green Team for about five or six years and our big annual event is the green Fair that's going to be held Saturday May 18th from 10: to 2 at the Bo Bob anet Cultural Arts Center on Herbertsville Road and this is the first time some of our schools have New Jersey sustainable School status in one degree or another but this is the first time all of our schools will be participating under a tent and every one of our schools has a green team leader uh a volunteer teacher who um creates wonderful products for our kids to learn about the environment and climate change and to also learn how they can be leaders and be responsible for the planet themselves and um this is the first time all of our schools will be participating so come out on May 18th at 10:00 on Under the Tent I understand there was rain last year I didn't make it but this year everybody's going to be under a tent and um just just so much to learn so much to celebrate with our kids they love to show off uh what their projects are and I think we should all support them thank you Victoria uh May 9th is our next regular meeting at The Brick Township High School auditorium at 7 p.m. uh I need a motion in a second for adjournment motion for second Mike yes Mary Miss Kennedy yes Miss Benedictus yes Miss Mr Mesmer yes