okay I would like to call this meeting to order will the secretary please call the role Mrs Becker here Mr Cummings here miss guas Mrs herck here Mr Hong here Mrs Reese here president La here we have a quorum please rise to salute the flag I flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all okay the New Jersey open public meetings law was enacted to ensure the rights of the public to have advanced notice of and to attend meetings of public bodies at which any business affecting their interest is discussed and acted upon in accordance with the provisions of this act the East brunck board of education has caused notice of this meeting to be published by having the date time and place thereof posted at the Board of Education offices written notice was also provided to The Sentinel the New York Star Ledger the home News Tribune the alternate press of East Brunswick and the municipal clerk of East Brunswick all Board of Education meetings with the exception of executive session discussions are also videotaped for later broadcasts it is a policy of the board of educ ation that videotape meetings are not edited for any purpose individuals who speak at the board's public meeting should be aware of these videotaping rules good evening to my darhad fans um I apologize but as advertised we're going to go right into executive session whereas the Board of Education must discuss matters which are not appropriate for discussion in a public meeting and these subjects are within the exception to the open public meetings act and are permitted to be discussed in closed session the Board of Education intends to discuss matters as follows those items listed on tonight's agenda the length of close session is estimated to be 1 hour after which the public meeting of the board shall reconvene and action will be taken now therefore be it resolved that the East brunic Board of Education will recess into close session for only the affers said subjects and be it further resolved that the East brunic Board of Education hereby declares that its discussion of the affers said subjects will be made public at a time when the Public's interest in disclosure is greater than any privacy or governmental Interest being protected from disclosure in accordance with the open public meetings Act moved by Mrs Becker and second by Mr Cummings is there any discussion all in favor opposed extensions motion carries thank you and we shall return in an hour okay welcome back Dr vesy would you like to start us off with the superintendent report absolutely good evening everyone the artwork on display in the boardroom this evening was created by students from hamers shold Upper Elementary School the art teachers of these talented students are Mariam Sultan and Katherine Barrett Ross patranco is the principal and there's also some art work on the table over there by our our SSO bill on Thursday March 21st board president Lori laxy visited the East brunwick municipal center to to observe students in John palowski ipple one honors course where they presented ideas for redeveloping a community as part of the urban plan project students learn fundamental forces that affect development in our communities this intense stimula simulation allows students to experience challenging issues work with interest of private and public sectors navigate complex trade-offs and understand economics while proposing realistic land use Solutions to vaccine growth problems each group made its pitch to Mayor Cohen and a team of experts and responded to questions about their decisions this was a great experience that showcased our students ability to make Intelligent Decisions and think on their feet and we'll have the winners come and present again yes things have been shaking at East brunwick Public Schools uh kindergarten students at Lawrence Brook Elementary School found a way to celebrate the earthquake wake as only students can do each student made a special hat that read I rocked my first earthquake good for them and lights out in East Brunswick on Monday April 8 students were able to enjoy a somewhat clear uh Skyscape to view the eclipse and we are grateful to the east brunwick Education Foundation for supplying eclipse glasses by the way they were all certified eclipse glasses to all students it was a team effort to ensure our students could enjoy the eclipse in a safe manner in the morning we had Eclipse ambassadors students from Church Hill and high school visited each Elementary School along with hamers to give brief presentations on the eclipse and how to view it safely my paper stuck we thank the high school physics teacher Stephanie Holzman for organizing the students and helping them to develop their Pres presentations and it was great to see older students have an opportunity to interact and teach the younger students Church H the high school got an early glimpse of the eclipse while hamers was able to be out on the field during Pete coverage time elementary students were also able to see substantial coverage before beginning their dismissal the students appeared enthusiastic throughout the viewing experience and when the clouds cleared you could hear their excitement as they watched the eclipse unfold The Early Learning Academy preschool students were very excited to be part of the 2024 Eclipse students celebrated together with various crafts in lessons are those Oreos and so if you look at the picture those are Oreos in different phases of the eclipse around that's the way to teach Eclipse yeah so informative and edible that's great for them in reading news Central Elementary School challenged students to score the greatest number of minutes in a reading challenge the class that read the most as a whole won and earned the chance to play basketball against their teachers the Rucker mascot and lady Knights basketball players were special guests that surprised the students during the game di Yara agal a third grader at Lawrence Brook Elementary School was awarded third place in the countywide bookmark contest held by keep middle sex moving her original drawing was put on bookmarks that were distributed to all students at laurenbrook as well as libraries and other organizations throughout middle sex County so congratulations to her for the seventh time East bronic public schools has been named best communities for music education by National Association of Music Merchants being designated as a nam best communities for music education is a rigorous process where the music Research Institute at the University of Kansas reviews and verifies information about the district's funding graduation requirements class music participation instruction time facilities support for the music program and Community Music making programs in sports Z spr with girls swimming won the central group a sectional state championship at TCNJ for the first time in school history so congratulations to them and finally third quarter report cards can be viewed online through parent access on Monday April 15th hard copies will be made available at the request of anyone without internet access thank you thank you Dr veski all right Mr Juliana you ready yes for the budget update thank you good evening everyone so we're continuing uh discussions presentation uh with regard to the 20242 School District budget at the last board meeting the board adopted the tenative budget and one of the things that I remind uh everyone is is that the budget was a tentative budget uh it is subject to change and there will be changes in the budget as we move forward um I wanted to start out this evening with um just going over uh what our process is and what the process has been for this uh for this particular budget this process began in November uh that's when the uh green light pretty much goes off administrators start to develop their budgets um and then they have a period of time within which to submit their budgets their base budgets their budget requests and that's followed by formal budget manager meetings which are held uh administratively and that involves the assistant superintendent the superintendent and each individual budget manager uh within that period of time there are 35 meetings that take place with all the budget managers following that process we begin the compilation analysis and discussion internally that goes on January through March and a lot of that also happens concurrently with the finance committee meetings finance committee meetings were held the end of January throughout February and then by February 29th is when the state aid uh data was released by the Department of Education following that information additional finance committee meetings were held in March and then ATT tenative budget adoption what's really important in this time frame is that regardless of the amount of time that planning discussions um prioritization occurs that the time from the date that the state aid data is released to the adoption of the tenative budget was less than three weeks that's not a bad thing when you can count on your Revenue being in the positive it's not such a great thing when there's a surprise regarding a reduction in Revenue one of the things I also want to note during this period of time and I think even if we go back to last year's budget process one of the things that I advise the board at finance committee level and at board meetings was that we were going to have what I believe to be a difficult process coming up so let's go into budget facts I believe at the last meeting one of the things I noted was um that the district was facing um an approximately $8 million budget Gap between Appropriations and revenue so I want to talk about that for a moment um and one of the things that I I believe I also noted but I I it Bears repeating is that it will certainly Impact Staff it will Impact Staff across all areas but one of the things that's important is that no programs will be decimated I think there's a concern about that um it is being done in a thoughtful Manner and just for the record we can't go through the details of what those are because the courtesy needs to be provided to the staff the affected staff need to be advised first and those details will be forthcoming at the next meeting but in the meantime we have to respect that staff need to hear this internally from their administr ERS so that there are no surprises and they're not learning it from a presentation so let's talk about some of the uh some of the impacts so first and this is one of the slides that was presented previously uh health benefits we're seeing increases in health benefits across the board we're looking at 7% um in our increase in our rates in each of the health benefit areas I'll talk about what that means in terms of a real dollar amount as we move forward Charter School increase $740,000 increase in charter schools uh this is attributable to uh the hatia having been approved by the Department of Education to uh increase uh its sections uh it's number of students that it can accommodate so uh as that occurs any changes in enrollment in the hatia charter schools results in money coming out of the School District budget it is the School District budget is the source of funding for the hitia charter school and as a result as the funding increases to the Charter School it continues to remove resources uh from the school district now while $740,000 may not seem like you know it's a lot but it's not $8 million I think one of the important points in this really comes down to what I've said over the years when it comes to the Charter School East Brunswick has not needed a charter school and should not have a charter school it has taken through next year $5.8 million out of the School District budget when the school district and the East budwick Public Schools can provide the necessary and actually Superior educational product than the charter school so let's look at revenue and expenditure impacts so I'll start out by saying you know this is similar to a um listing that is done each year to identify what are the impacts affecting the budget uh last year I believe the total impact was uh five uh about $9.4 million in total let's talk about each of the components here and this year I've added the revenue side because I think this Bears um uh important note we use 6.5 I identified $6.5 million in a state aid shortfall and we'll talk a little bit further about that later but as we've seen state aid over the last several years state aid has been increasing because the state was moving toward bringing the district to where it should have been in terms of total state aid the district had been held back first capped for a period of time relatively flat and then started to see some increases very small at first and the last couple of years more substantial increases and that was supposed to take place over a period of three or 4 years two years ago the state aid increase was $7.4 Million last year it was $6.5 Million we were again as I said anticipating a sizable increase for next year and yet we had a state aid reduction of nearly of over $1.3 million those two components on their own are nearly $8 million in Revenue let's look at the expenditure side we have to take into consideration that state aid reduction that counts on two columns not only in terms of total revenue but what what's an adverse impact on the other side of the ledger so 1.3 million in state aid we talked about the charter school increase 740,000 special education out of District tuition this is an area that has substantially affected the district not because of the special education services but because of the tuition rate increases that have been approved to go on by the Department of Education if we look at the number of students that are in out of District placements what was budgeted for the fiscal 202 24 year and budgeted for the fiscal 2025 year the variance is only two additional students and we've had students come and go but that variance is still two I think the total number of students projected for next year I'm sorry not projected these are actual students 56 students 56 students two additional students from the current year does not coincide with a $1.2 million increase in in special education tuition but that is the reality of what we're dealing with special education tuition is based on the tuition rates that are provided to school districts by those respective special schools it is not a madeup number next contractual salary increases we have collective bargaining agreements uh with two associations and we have non-unit staff and based on those collective bargaining agreements and the movement of the existing staff now this is based on the staff snapshot that we took in November to project our salaries but that contractual increase is almost 3.9 million health benefits I talked about about that briefly on the previous slide health benefit increase of 7% but that's not the end of the story last year in order to close the budget the board approved a one-time adjustment to bring the health benefit budget down by about $1.1 million if was essentially saying we will anticipate that we will not incur the level of claims that might otherwise come in it was a calculated risk but that $1.1 million does not hold perpetually so that's a component that impacts uh the budget so health benefit increase of almost $3.3 million during the last year so current year and and even in last year after the budget was struck for fiscal 2024 you can look on board meeting agendas there have been numerous positions that have had to be approved for compliance compliance with special ed law compliance with individual education plans and the total of those non-budgeted positions is almost $1.4 million that could not be anticipated therapeutic Counseling Services we've been fortunate the last several years in a manner of speaking because it was the result of covid which certainly was not unfortunate event but because of the federal government's funding we have had resources from the federal government to provide therapeutic counseling services and we've been able to increase the level of those Services over the last couple of years well the covid funds don't exist anymore and so in order for those services to continue into the next year there's an additional 572,000 that had to be added into the Budget Transportation Transportation contracts when we look at the actual Transportation base for contracts awarded this year and look at that the increase for next year that's a 3% increase 3% when the Department of Education has issued with the state aid notices by the way saying that the CPI for transportation contracts was nearly 6% that's a non-starter for us we can't do that we're trying not to do renewals at 3% we're negotiating with companies to keep that cost down and maybe not even at that $300,000 but the reality is that when it comes to transportation servic it is an obligation that the district has we don't trans we don't provide courtesy transportation we provide transportation for students that are entitled to transportation pursuant to the law and IEPs and then the last item on this list is custodial this is our custodial contract we have a renewal coming up that uh the board um I believe it's on this evening's agenda but the differential and cost is an additional $245,000 so when you come to the total of all these impacts on the expenditure side so nearly $13 million so now let's talk about that state aid reduction and drill into that a little bit state aid reduction of $1.3 million and and I I will say and I I believe I've said this many times in the past when it comes to state aid and the state aid formula it is an extremely complicated bear to try to wrap your arms around it is complex there are many variables in the state aid formula and but I do want to get into a couple of the variables that seem to have had a direct impact on our state aid for next year so this chart provides at this point an analysis or a recapitulation of equalized valuations now equalized valuations are are what are the value of properties in town and the state looks at those values and because for example East brunwick is not valued at 100% of True Value the state takes a look at those values and adjusts to bring them up to a 100% valuation the same holds true with every other town in this state towns may be as uh valued at um 90% 95% anywhere in that range East Brunswick is roughly at about 20% of True Value the reason for equalized values and making that conversion is to level the playing field so that all municipalities are being looked at with the same lens what we can see here is that equalized values have gone up so when we look at from 2021 to 2022 fiscal year the increase wasn't that much it's about 48 million from 22 to 23 the increase was almost 563 or $564 million from the fiscal 23 to fiscal 24 year the increase was $49 million looking ahead to the most recent state aid calculations the increase in equalized value for East Brunswick was 798 million I'll talk about why that's important in a little a little bit so now let's add another component District income District income looks at the income tax filings with the Department of Treasury for the state of New Jersey from two fiscal two calendar years prior to the current year so it's essentially looking at data from 2022 District income so the income of households has increased well first of all the first year from going from 2021 to 2022 fiscal it went down by $1.6 million subsequently going to the fiscal 23 fiscal year it went up 22.6 million then there was a small increase from 23 to 24 of $9.3 million as I'm going through these numbers I'm working my way from bottom up but then from 24 to fiscal 2025 the income increased 36.7 million this information is all relev relevant to state aid and the state AIDS formula I want to go through a couple of more pieces of information so in the state aid calculations one of the items that is reflected is uncapped state aid so when you see uncapped well the other side of that must be well there must be a cap also on state aid but this is what we should have gten so in 2021 2022 2023 and so forth you see the incremental um increases through 2024 2025 there's a big decrease in the uncapped state aid so now let's look at the calculated state aid this is the actual state aid received in each of these years so you can see starting from the bottom up that the calculated state aid in fiscal 21 was substantially less than what it should have been and so as time went on the state I mentioned earlier was doing some catchup to bring us to a point where we should be fully funded but in each one of these instances we were never at Capp state aid well part of this has to do with the um fact that the state aid formula was not really being fully implemented I talked earlier about the equalized valuations and District income and when we look at the years prior to 24 2 it seems that equalized values in District income don't necessarily have any correlation to state aid increases were taking place state aid was going up until 2025 the increases in equalized value were substantial almost $800 million the increase in income for the district almost $361 million and our state aid is then reduced well that's a big thank you for having a town where property values have gone up where the town folk are doing well and what does the state formula say the state formula says you know East Brunswick you don't need so much state aid you support it and I think as a side note the legislature um in recognizing some of the impacts that it's had on districts like e Brunswick because we're not alone in terms of our reduction yes there are districts that have gotten very large increases $10 million and more but there are addition dists that are in the process of making tough decisions as well just like East brunwick but the legislature in recognizing that difficulty introduced the bill I don't recall what the bill number is but there was a bill that said well for those districts um that have seen Cuts in state aid and I don't know what the status of the bill is but for those districts that have seen Cuts in state aid you can raise your tax beyond the level that is in the State uh formula for raising taxes you can go to 99.9% well I don't think I need to say anything in this room or to those that would be watching this there is no way absolutely no way that this board or this town could sustain a 99.9% increase that's ridiculous our goal is to try and keep the tax levy down at a reasonable level within the Caps if that's at all possible so not withstanding the status of that bill we need to make decisions that keep us within the spending program that's available excuse me a moment Bernie just a note that bill is assembly Bill 4161 thank you Dr biski so I said there are tough decisions being made out of respect for the staff that are impacted we're not going over those details tonight but I want to go over a few other points let's talk about class sizes because I know this is a particular uh area of interest um at the elementary level so class sizes for next year our average class sizes are as presented on this chart kindergarten at 16 students grade one at 16 students grade two at 18 grade three at 17 and grade 4 at 18 so not withstanding the decisions that are being made and that will need to be implemented we're maintaining class sizes at very reasonable levels K to four so now let's go into the general fund budget a little bit uh this is a summary uh this is not the same number that was presented on the tenative adoption because we've been making some internal revisions and certainly the summary of revisions will be discussed uh once they're finalized that'll be discussed at the public hearing but at this point we are at uh 197 uh almost $17.3 million uh the budget's currently in balance and this is where we fall with regard to tax levy the tax levy increase is a bit less than it was reported at the tenative budget uh adoption uh at the last meeting uh the tax levy increase was for the general fund was 4.15% we've been able to bring that down a bit to 3.97 not where we'd like it to be but one of the things that's important to note and I shared this with h the board and the finance committee is that for every half of a percent reduction in that increase would require about $740,000 in additional Cuts you can't do that on pencils and paper that's people and I think we're about as far as we're ready to go at this point The Debt Service fund tax levy will go down next year almost $300,000 The Debt Service fund that's our mortgage payment so that fluctuates a bit from one year to the next but that will go down next year by 6% so the net composite increase at this point in time is 3.63% our public hearing is April 25th and the final adoption on the budget is May 9th thank you Mr Juliana I don't envy you this task um I do also always like to remind people you see one side of things when um Mr Juliana presents the budget to the board but as he mentioned all the months and months of work that goes into it and meetings where board members ask questions so please don't ever mistake sometimes when you hear he less questions being asked that they aren't being asked um I assure you they are and actually I'm going to put you on the spot Mrs Becker as our finance chair um because sometimes I think because we are asking questions and getting the answers um and the public doesn't see it I think it may be helpful for some of the big questions that we've asked as a board if maybe um I could put you on the spot and thank you L you're not putting me on the spot because um board members have been asking me questions I've had some of my own and there are also things that I think are worth even if they've been answered are asked are worth asked to repeat because some of the processes particularly illustrated by the presentation we just saw which is a very good presentation thank you but bit overwhelming needs to be kind of certain pieces need to be extra ated and explained further so um in no particular order these are questions from me other board members and things that I think need to be brought out and questioned I want to start with uh again no particular order Bernie sorry I want to start with the um Co Grand funds that are no longer available um when we received these funding which um transfer which seem to be used for special education staff and Mental Health Services costs were the staff and administrators at the time fully explained that these funds were going to have a limited shelf life that they would not go on forever was was this explained to the staff so absolutely I believe that was even done um at board meeting or two um but absolutely abolutely uh for any staff that were uh newly funded uh through the covid grants and there were a number of covid grants that came in um we looked at what we were going to be able to support through those grants how long that would be sustained and provided a timeline through which those positions would need to be transitioned out because it was very clear we could not sustain those positions beyond the term of that grant funding they were necessary but there needed to be steps to be able to wean off of those positions okay follow-up question to that um going back to the budget development page where you started talking about starting the budget discussions in November and the formal budget manager meetings in December and 35 separate ones was part of this discussion um the elimination or these funds no longer being available and uh discussion about how to handle being uh absorbed by their budget manager report for this coming this this budget that we're adopting was there guidance provided um discussion of of programs that could be implemented different ways or staff that could be used different ways it just wasn't going to stop the funding it there was going to be some kind had to be some kind of transition and I want to know um how much discussion there was with the staff uh affected and how much guidance was provided oh we had conversations they didn't just happen during budget meetings they happened throughout just you know as as time corre but I'm just refering yeah yeah those conversations absolutely took place um you know it was up to those Department areas to really address that because that's beyond the role of what we can do from our end so um you know without getting into the weeds and calling out specific areas I don't want to do that uh but yeah those were very specific conversations that had been had and specker the if I could just insert the 35 budget meetings that Mr juliani referenced in his presentation those were opportunities for those budget managers to have conversations and it was clearly identified things that were in their budget that were going to expire what they had to do differently if they hadn't already taken care of it so but many many managers came in anticipating that those those funds weren't going to be there so um the budget manager reports that ended up being reported to the finance committee and then to the full board reflected a series of conversations that you and Dr veski and your staffs had with the individual budget managers to help them figure out how to make this all work I'm sorry I didn't follow that um the budget manager reports that were finally reported that were finally given to the finance committee and then presented to the board board where the culmination the result of all these conversations that have been happening since December on how to handle transitioning the funds from being available to not and what we were doing with those programs and staff uh I think one of the things to remember is that the transition the grant funds are not accounted for in the general fund so the grant monies are not part of this mix okay that was a completely separate it's required to be a accounted for separately it's accounted for What's called the special Revenue fund that's where all grants are accounted okay so the two didn't cross over we didn't have covid staff within the general fund staff okay they're maintained separately so as those Grant funds expired so did those positions thank you because I I I don't think uh everyone totally understood that I think that um there was not a sense of the special Revenue funds guys I have a lot of questions um well not a lot I mean but I have a number of questions again from myself and from other board members but I don't want to monopolize this so if at any point someone feels like Vic you've talked enough like could I get in a question I'll just stop and then return okay thank um could you just talk for a minute about when we go back and look at state aid funding I understand this but I think it's it's a it's a very important piece for the public to understand and for new board members Why is flat funding really a decrease the state makes a very big deal about years flat funding flat funding but that's actually a decrease well yes we've talked about this for years um for all the years that that we had flat funding Fair's repeating and and yes and and I'm acknowledging um so you know flat funding when you look at if your state aid is just for purposes of of uh illustrating is at $20 million um and you have $100 million in your Appropriations budget and then the next year your state a is at $20 million but your Appropriations budget is 110 million and then the next year your state aid stays at 20 million but your Appropriations budget goes to 120 million the the the ratio the percentage of funding from the state to support the budget diminishes over time and so that has a and that that's essentially not flat one would anticipate that if decrease if funding were going to remain flat that it would at least keep Pace with its share of what of supporting the budget where it had had G and of accounting for the price the cost of everything going up absolutely right so okay staying on the subject of school funding we all heard the dramatic announcement as you referred to um that uh the governor announced that this year um I'm paraphrasing the state announced that state aid would be fully funded to school districts that's that was the first thing that we heard um and then we along with I don't know I remember reading the number in the newspaper I don't remember 100 150 other districts in the state found out that we were getting a decrease and we also found out that as you referred referenced there were districts literally getting 10 million increased 10 million increases $15 million increases $20 million increases even $5 million increases even $1 million increases I know you said it's it's hard to explain but I was getting a little lost amongst the terminology of the equalized valuation District income uncap state aid is is the state providing the equal Val valuation numbers and the um District income is is that all all those numbers provided by the state do you know yes so those are all uh that's all data that the state captures from its own data warehouses so it collects that information from uh the Department of Treasury New Jersey Department of Treasury uh whether it be the equalized values Department of Treasury is responsible for um arriving at what the equalized values are across the entire State uh it's responsible for in the division of taxation uh collecting the data regarding income so all of that is information that the state has and the state pulls from its own resources into the formula I think one of the things that's um uh I I didn't mention before but I think it's important when it comes to the state aid um calculation if you will is that the state has always regardless of how the formula has been written whether it's the current Formula past formulas here's how the state works the state says you know we're going to put x amount of dollars into the pot for state aid and while we have these variables that go into the calculation there are some variables some factors that are used that are are inexplicable there's no definition for what they are those seem to be um where they make the numbers work so there's a whole complex formula and then there's a little factor of some decimals that are entered and that's how they make it work to come out to what the total pot or to equal what the total pot of money that's available for state aid comes out to be I won't try to explain it we've gone through and analyzed the formula um to the point where we've got all the components but it's this unknown piece where it's derived that there's no definition for where it's derived so I understand that but um you said something before which actually kind of provided some clarity and it it reduced it to a a fairly common goal that based on the increased value of our homes yes and the increased increased average or aggravate aggre income for East Brunswick the state put that through their Matrix their formula and came up with the fact that we didn't need as much state aid we could afford for to pay for this on her own but now state aid numbers are not private they were public they were in all the newspapers so if I say but the same Matrix they used came up with uh Woodbridge couldn't afford $20 million of their budget I I honestly I'm not asking you to explain I'm trying to make sense of right so and and I can't help you make sense of what happened in Woodbridge or Edison I can speak to East Brunswick okay no I know I'm not asking you to so what I can tell you is this that there in in the analysis of the state aid formula that there is a direct correlation of the equalized value and income increases for the Town versus the state aid Vicky can I the wealthier the wealthier I have couple quote unquote wealthier in whatever terms the state is looking at its formula the community is the less State support I understand that yeah requires and I'm I'm Bernie I was not asking you to explain Woodbridge or or Edison I use that as an example because this just doesn't make sense to me um I was going to switch to the charter school for a minute but Laura you want to yeah because I actually just had a question since you're talking about funding I know we can't talk about other districts um but one of the things I wanted to point out and you mentioned it but I also would like you to kind of expound more is the special education out of District tuition the $1.2 million increase one of the things that we learned during the process was the fact that those are unregulated or uncapped numbers so when you talked about you know we only had a few extra students the 56 I think that's something that bears repeating because yes that it doesn't matter how wealthy are town is it doesn't matter how all those numbers go up this is a number that we can't um we can't control it's not regulated by the state well that's what I'm saying so this and they don't take that into account with the funding when we're getting these Cuts they don't take into account the fact that that goes up that's a right and and so um special education tuition rates for any um private school for the handicap for example um the rate is the rate they calculate a rate that's the rate that's going to be paid by for any student from any school district by they you don't mean the state you mean you mean the school that the school district will pay that rate regardless of what school district it is as long as they're placing a student in that program at whatever private school for the handicap that happens to be um one of the things that uh we experienced this quite a bit this year with private schools for the handicap and that is um numerous notifications mid year saying that um our costs are increasing and I'm paraphrasing but yeah our costs are increasing beyond what we anticipated so here's your notice that the tuition rates are going up now not next year they're going up now so we're going to charge you more now um we had received several notices like that for private schools for the hand AP there's no planning for that there is no magic pot of money to be able to to uh fill in that kind of a gap what it requires of us is to start to look at the entire budget and where can we not do some of the things that we had planned to do where can we reallocate resources to be able to cover those obligations because they are obligations we have real students in those placements Matt maybe this is something you can answer um going along with what Lori said so we talk about caps we talk about uncapped we talk about um designated increases but yet we so much of our special ed budget um hinges on a group of facilities that are not regulated by the state and can increase their tuition at any time to any amount and any school district has to pay that so there's no regulation and correlation to the amount of state aid you get or the amount of budget can be capped so there's no correlation and and we have been for I was trying to calculate how many years we've been talking about this not only at East Brunswick but among middle sex County Superintendent group it's going on nine years and addressing this issue with legislative and bringing it up to a variety of Governors to talk about this is an impact on school districts and no one seems to want to regulate it it's been allowed to occur year after year and even even now recently it it's not it doesn't have it doesn't have enough horsepower for anybody to do anything about it I can tell you Dr veski um and I know you know this from your previous superintendent it's been going on a lot more than nine years I mean this is one of the first things I heard when I got on the board no I know but right I know what you've been here advocating absolutely you're one of the best Advocates we have um I'm just trying to what I'm doing with a lot of these questions and what some of the other board members are trying to make sense of a lot of these these points and to take a bit of a deeper dive into the why before we come up with a how so to speak um charter school I remember when the charter school first came into being we there were a lot of peels there were a lot of things going back and forth and unfortunately we weren't successful with a lot of them um are can we still appeal is there still an appeal process for um if hottech wants to keep adding sections and grades they actually have they they've been approved right out to 2028 so when was the last and the answer to this question could be it would be move point it won't do anything it would cost too much money that's okay when was the last time we we appealed them adding another grade and um is it is it worth it is it is it worth what what is it's not worth it I mean I can tell you we we had l ation right where they first commenced operations in 200 N I mean recently No 9 and 10 uh that went all the way through the court systems um and basically what the Appel division ultimately said was we Grant the uh commissioner um deference based on their expertise even though things weren't done we challenged it again uh one of the issues that we challenged a second time was that you're supposed to be a uh Char school is supposed to serve the students within the district and so for example lots of the charter schools are in norc Camden Patterson um Jersey city where the children who reside in those cities go to those Char schools what you have it's very unique here is and then you can have charter schools of region so give you an example of the susex county Charter School the Char school that takes from adjoining towns in Sussex County Tifa and this was a challenge and again they said we give the commissioner great deference and this is when I think Brett schler was the commissioner um hatikva is basically a Statewide charter school they're taking kids from counties all over the state and that was and that's not in compliance with the law but it it but but we're we're only paying for East only pay for East but other other so I would say that it would not be a a wise uh to appeal okay yeah it won't because the commissioner who grants the expansions is granted deference and even when you and we've challenged it with the commissioner a number of times I it it was asked of me and I felt it was worth asking and one year we did challenge an expansion based on um how they were doing they were trying to expand a different grade and we slow We prevailed the next year they granted so of the of the current 640 seats at haa we have 3133 students that are East Brunswick students and by 2028 though ateka has been approved to expand to 690 seats grades K to8 something to look forward to I bear with me one more question and again I'm I'm trying to touch on different are areas that seem to go into um the shortfall the increase the tax the result trying to get a a handle on again some of the why more of the why uh you talked about renewals 6 or 7% increase for the transportation um we know that there's been a shortage of buses for a long time um I don't know if the Public's aware that we have a we have to go out to bid for pum routes um what are some of the shortterm or long-term plans that you have been discussing um with the transportation staff and with Dr veski to curb these Transportation increases and the shortages because they're not going away right so we've been talking at board level and in public meetings for a number of years regarding the lack of bus drivers and that certainly has a direct impact on what those costs are from the contracted Services um what are the things that we've done when we expanded our Fleet and first got into um actually creating a robust Fleet uh we were at roughly uh 40% of the services were being provided inhouse through our own bus fleet 60% of the services through contracted Services that's now flipped we are at about 60% of services being provided inhouse 40% contracted during this past year we purchased we're actually they have they some have just arrived and some are about to arrive but we expanded the Fleet um by Taking Back some contracted routs and using those funds to help pay for the buses and hiring staff but we're maxed out at this point pretty close to maxed out in terms of where we can house the buses our site you know you have to have a place to to to keep the buses you need a central Depot which we have but we're now maxed out so one of the things that we've discussed um I don't recall if it was at board level it may have been some conversation at one point I believe we've had the conversation uh at the facilities committee but this is a longer term process if we want to expand the fleet further and bring more of the services inhouse we need to plan for an alternate site to be able to have our buses so that's a bigger picture it's a bigger discussion figuring out a way to be able to do that um we have a location in mind but there that's not something that would happen overnight that would take several years but we've done as much as we can do I believe at this point to try to um maximize our efficiencies with Transportation um we have uh constantly looked at how the services are being provided by the contracted Services we've taken routes back from contractors if they're not performing we've negotiated with contractors to try to keep uh the year-over-year increase to as close to zero as possible which by the way we've been fortunate we have a number of contractors we had an update today with the with the staff a number of contractors that have already given a commitment to a zero % increase that's good but we have others that have come in saying we want like 7 8% well that's not going to happen because the state has already established what that CPI is so we need to try and work out with those holdouts to bring them more in line to where we need them to be thank you and I I understand that I but you also h on something I think that's important and an important reason to have have a discussion like this and questions like this some things are discussed in finance committee some things are discussed in the building and grounds facility meeting the transportation committee at the full board level and we we try and make sure that we're all kept up to speed out of all these committees but sometimes things slip through the crack so it's it's it's good even if we've been told to be told again to ensure that everybody uh understands but also so some of these things are things that residents have questioned over the years and they can still keep questioning it asking the same questions every year and they you know deserve to be asked so thank you for all your patience I could keep going I'm sure you really would want me to but I I'm going to let the other board members ask some questions I'm going to let I'm going to let absolutely absolutely go ahead Mr H so I'm talking about I'm going to talk about the number when our governor Mor very proudly announced this is our first time be fully founded by the formula and then I watch his speech I was very excited and then when I at the night when I dig out further I I was kind of very upset so the formula they use con still the number when everyone sitting here knows exactly how many student we have but the problem the same problem in me is that equalize valuation and the district income if you do the math you can tell say equalized value in East BR last four years increased 24% who got this made this decision is Bron the value increase 24% for last 4 years let's talk about the district income so this number even more troubling so 2021 2022 only actually decrease about Point 1% but 2022 compared 2021 is jump up 11% and then 203 compared with 2022 it's about 4% 2024 this year it increased 14% who got this see for two reasons why this number fluctuate this big and second who made this who got this number you said this is from the uh tax division and treasure Department could they simply make a mistake for this huge fluu fluctuation I can't so this is very bothering me this number so each BR I don't my personal experience I don't think is BR that changed that dramatic dramatically for last four years but the value increase 24% the income for two years one 11% and then this year 14% And the two other years old flat so this is TR me a lot I don't know where we can verify this number but this deeply impact our state a we won't be able to verify the number we have to trust the number well the N you know the the data that Department of of Education uh receives the data from the Department of Treasury treasury is The Keeper of the data when it comes to the equalized valuations and income I I I just don't understand this why this huge difference and huge uh fluctuation and again K increase which definitely caused the state reduction so that that that's is my concern I know you you're working Fair hard to try make both and meat but the when the income comes too little I don't think you can do too much that's that's but I'm going personally I will try to dig out if the so this year's income is 14% increase especially the tax season has now come up yet so I I it's bother me a lot such big decrease thank you thank you thank you Mr [Music] Juliana it's not easy your job I appreciate it to be continued to be continued yes um still have one more other question but on a positive note um Chris is back welcome back my friends um we've missed you we would love to know all the happenings at the high school and also dar I ask decisions made yet uh yeah decision finalized um I decided to commit to [Music] Princeton I love your staying in Jersey it makes it much easier for you to come visit because you will always be able to come sit in that seat so all right tell us what's going on with your classmates hi everyone uh after spring break clubs and classes at East Broner High School have wasted no time getting back into the swing of things however before we get into that prior to spring break on March 21st the East brunic win Ensemble and concert band performed at the Central Jersey music festival and received two gold ratings this was an improvement from the last two year from the last year where both groups received a silver rating an Testament to the dedication and hard work of the students in the Band program and the fine arts department at the high school in the month of April Asian Club held its annual Asian night on April 5th filled with lots of food delici delicious food Lively performances and live music from EB students then on April 8th staff and students at East bronck High School got to enjoy viewing the solar eclipse during the last period of school out on the football field which was a great experience and just a nice time off from studying after a week off from school you know no senior right is for you huh a little bit a little and finally for upcoming events at East BRS High School the Day of Silence will be held tomorrow for an entirety of school day the senior staff riy show by the senior class Council will be held on the 19th to raise money for prom and the APLE class will attend Nationals for the weed to people competition this weekend at DC and we're actually going down tomorrow so very exciting thank you thank you that's no pressure there that's no pressure yeah got to win every year that's great I have to tell you I know there's people that would be out there saying wow you're lucky you got into Princeton I have to tell you Princeton's lucky to have you yeah you you you you've been a wonderful asset to this board they are absolutely lucky to have so Sher what field of study are you thinking about at Princeton right now U I'm thinking about going to economics just because I like math and I like studying the markets and stuff then when he comes back to East Brun we're going to see the uh income go up more right St terrific look forward to it I do thank you wonderful thanks Chris okay bringing us to the good of the cause for the public the Board of Education recognizes the value of public comment and educational issues and the importance of allowing members of the public to express themselves on school matters of community interest to protect the privacy of all students and staff concerns regarding individual students and staff members should generally be addressed by first meeting with the appropriate administrative administrative staff in order to permit the fair and orderly expression of such comment the board shall provide a period for public comment in every meeting of the board a participant will be limited to 3 minutes duration a lapse time will be determined through the use of a timing device operated by the board secretary and I always like to remind the public um that this is your time to speak to the board please don't mistake our silence um for not uh caring about the issues anything that needs followup will be directed to the lovely ladies in the front is there anyone this evening that wishes to speak to the board okay if you could speak your name and address for the record please hi Mark sisar 100 fresh bonds road I don't have a lot to say tonight I used to do from that seat um just because I don't have details so I do want to start out with uh complimenting Mr Juliana I know what you've done over the years I know how you roll over debt I know how you balance the budget save money and all that kind of stuff so this isn't a knock at you it's not a knock at the finance committee because I know you folks are volunteers like I was but was the question asked because it seems to me and I don't have the details yet it seems to me this budget was built based on anticipating a $6.5 million increase in state aid to me that's basing a budget on the anticipated Revenue that we weren't guaranteed so I guess my question would be and and maybe somebody can ask it at that point or maybe they've asked it already but they didn't say it tonight did anybody say why are we building a budget with a 6 point expecting a gain of $6 million and I know you're not going to answer tonight and and that's fine um you want to say Mr hung I'm not an economist but I'll play one for a minute here because I can I I don't think I don't think those State numbers show that everybody here made a 14% increase because a lot of us none of us got a 14% increase but when there's a rollover in a Township um and that shows the value of of this Township in the district if you have retired people moving out that are collecting a pension for $10,000 and then you have a double income family coming in making 300,000 000 when all those numbers are bundled together you you you can see a 14% increase in in the total income of of a Township especially this size with 50,000 residents and that's just a guess like I said I stated at the holiday and express last night so I can play expert for a minute but uh I think that's how that because we can't look Apples to Apples on on that type of figure so yeah the question is you know like I said that's my one question why we build a budget anticipating $6.5 million from the state thank you thank you Mr sisar is there anyone else this evening that would like to speak to the board no okay seeing none I'm going to oh I'm sorry oh I'm so sorry doctors Z Vicki how can I forget good evening everyone Dana and bicki president of the East bronze Education Association I'm speaking tonight out of great concern for the members of the East Brunswick Education Association who will be impacted by this most recent budget crisis of an $8 million shortfall I feel like it's a bit of a Deja Vu as I spoke similarly in 2020 when approximately 70 ebaa positions were cut at that time there was not shared sacrifice with the other units East Brunswick principles and supervisors Association and Central Administration and my fear is that we might experience that again if this is the case it will be painfully obvious to my members and to the community that the cuts are not Equitable and rest fully on the backs of EA those staff members that have by far the more and most direct contact with students and parents in East Brunswick I don't want to see anybody lose their jobs or have their jobs altered but I do believe when the numbers are this large and this impactful there should be shared sacrifice it's actually heartbreaking to see this inequity of patching the holes in this budget if we do do this on the backs of the ebaa unit so I'm going to end with this I as the president of the East Brunswick Education Association cannot support a budget if there is not shared sacrifice among all units and Central Administration it should not be on the backs of the EA unit with this magnitude of $8 million and I do not understand how any one of you could be comfortable with that decision should it occur thank you thank you doctors and Vicki is there anyone else this evening okay now I'm going to just want to make sure I'm not missing anyone going to close the public portion and bring us to our Board of Education items this evening may I please have an motion for items one and two to moved by Mrs Becker second by Mrs herck is there any discussion all those in favor I opposed extensions motion carries we've got two items this evening for curriculum and instruction so move move by Mrs Becker second by Mrs glass is there any discussion all those in favor opposed oh I in favor yeah sorry that's okay extensions motion carries we have one item this evening on facilities Mrs Becker and who's the Mrs herck is there any discussion I had a quick comment on that I just wanted to thank the team of people who are working on that this is a huge contract uh for managerial custodial Services across the district and um a lot of work went into vetting organizations that applied for this and and I just you know uh this is a huge component of what goes into keeping students faculty Administration everybody who comes into our building safe and healthy so I just wanted to thank all the people who are a part of that process thank you Mr anyone else okay all those in favor opposed extensions motion carries we have six items this evening for financial services move by Mrs Becker second by Mrs gu is there any discussion on any of those items no then I'm going to ask the secretary to please call the role Mrs Becker yes Mr Cummings yes M GL yes Mrs Herrick yes Mr Hong yes Mrs ree yes Mrs LAX yes motion carries a new one I see Food Services move by Mrs second by Mrs guas is there any discussion all those in favor opposed abstention motion carries bring us to Human Resources two items this evening moved by Mrs Becker second by Mrs GL is there any discussion will the secretary please call the role Mrs Becker Mr Cummings yes Miss gloss yes Mrs harck yes Mr Hong yes Mrs ree yes and president L yes motion carries and we've got four items this evening on student services moved by Mrs Becker and second no discussion we have to move it first oh okay I'm sorry would you like to be my second I would love to be the second okay second by and I'm going to ask you then to start out the discussion I just wanted to know if we could get more information on item three this drive scan it just looked really interesting I've never heard of this before Dr figuro yes um miss samuro our um um k to2 um guidance supervisor um actually it's six to 12 guidance supervisor um she actually brought this to our attention this is one where the um students and their folks their parents there's no uh cost to them at all strive scan Works directly with the colleges and the student can register for any college they want to get their own information on so it's there no cost to the district or to the students or their families this is a fantastic program many uh other districts use this and are very happy with it and I'm very uh happy to say and I appreciate the board's support on this I think our students and our parents are going to really enjoy this Dr Figo the universities and the colleges actually pay for the they participate in the job fair or the college fairs they pay the fee yes they so they can collect the data from the students absolutely and only the students the students get to choose what colleges get their information and this includes trade schools right yes that's awesome yeah so Chris if you want to reapply for school we can help just stop by the college sh in case you feel sad about being done with the process just in case that's really good okay uh will the secretary please call the role Mrs Becker Mr Cummings yes Miss gu yes Mrs herck yes Mr Hong yes Mrs ree president LAX yes motion carries Mr Juliana is going to tell you that I forgot one but I'm going to say that I separated out the We the People com conference so I'm going to ask for a motion so that CHR can I have everyone all of us you going to make me okay we'll let you pick then all right then in terms of discussion I wish you luck this is something that started back in my day I love that it's still something we not only do but win so so it's a really old competition it's a really old competition he wants you to know how old I am my water yes it's a very old competition yes um Voice vote this is a voice vote so all those in favor I opposed abstentions motion carries I wish you luck on that um we are now to committee reports information items and for the good of the cause for the public the board excuse me Mrs Reese I just wanted to comment on the Princeton brass span that we had in our uh package today and just say thank you to the H PCA for it it oh thank you uh thank you to the Hughes PTA for bringing funding for that um so that they're paying for the bulk of these uh this beautiful uh presentation of instrumental music for the students and we know how hard the PTA work to bring in these kind of programs so just a thank you from all of us thank you Mr sure I just want to give kind of a collective shout out to uh all the athletes all the seniors all the you know faculty Administration in this season right now as we're kind of you know heading into are we ining spring officially yes are we oh good uh so as we're in Spring here but um uh it's just a really you know it's just amazing all the all the amazing things that are going on across the district uh Miss herck and I were were both sitting in the bleachers at the high school earlier this week cheering on the Churchill track team as they competed against South Brunswick and you you know there there's hundreds of kids out here engaging with one another and competing in Friendly and fun comp excuse me competition together and and you know it seems like that doesn't take a lot of work but it really does right it takes so much work and effort on the part of so many incredible people to pull that off and so I just want to you know celebrate those guys and congratulate them and thank them for all of their effort um and and you know what a special season Chris just hearing you talk about this upcoming new chapter for you and uh you know I know everybody up here shares our our common you know Goodwill for all the amazing things that you will do and you're one of of you know several hund hundred individuals who are going to continue to go out and Thrive and and do great things in the world so I'm really excited for you uh and for all the seniors who are in this season of life too so thank you remember those sentiments because we still have a few more meetings with him so we're going to be saying so I want you to remember what you said because it was beautiful you're going to say it again fair enough yes so you're not old like me so you won't have the senior moment of not realizing he said it to you before so you'll pretend Mrs G um just to piggyback on what Mr Cummings said and you'll have this opportunity I am sure when you get up to the high school but also a huge shout out to the booster clubs because what they do for the kids is amazing and and you definitely with all the pollen in the air should come by the high school any weekend morning because there's always a car wash to support some team um and there are always a bunch of children out there shivering early in the morning waiting to wash your car um I wanted to comment though on the phenomenal job of the elementary schools um for the children watching the eclipse I had the opportunity to be at Memorial not that I was there in any official capacity I was just there to pick up a six-year-old but it was amazing um the kids were spread out they had their little towels they had their glasses on they had coloring pages they were working on to keep them busy while they were waiting for things to look at it was the most orderly group of and so many I mean Memorial's got a very large student population it was the most orderly group of little children waiting for something I mean we've all had to wait with a small child and it's no small task and to just see how many hundred of them sitting engaged talking to their teachers following directions and just being so excited for this event um and I will stop there because my daughter also wanted to calculate how old we would next be at the next eclipse and the one after that 106 oh she was so excited right right come on you could say it but I was I was just watching as a parent and then I looked at it for a moment as an educator and I was like look at all of them being attentive and safe and following directions the teachers did a phenomenal job just keeping everybody safe and focused and it was just a great moment to watch so thank you wonderful well actually so speaking of kids um I know that we're talking budget right now but I would like to extend an invitation to the board members you may not realize this but our next board meeting also happens to be take your child to work day so since we are in the business of children I know some of us have more than others um um I would like to put it out there that any board members that would like to have their children join us that evening on the deis I would love to have it seriously absolutely can we make it can we make it bring your favorite child to work so we can because my dog is coming Madison 100% is asking I mean if you've got to sort them down just take your favorite it's going to get crowded right here but we have some space Quinn can sit with me Madison is asking she wants to be a board of Eder that is her feeling that that's what we do of think I think it's it's a nice thing so for any of you that are willing and able um I would love to have uh the young ones I miss the young ones so um just wanted to put that out there to all of you and yes we will certainly I will find a way to provide seats as I said I will share mine they are little people some of them so um yeah I'll give mine up for the night yeah so is this a dog friendly environment cuz seriously since she said favorite child child I'm thinking that maybe oh my goodness Scooby's going to come right we can he's not he's hypogenic so is Scooby a therapy dog he is a therapy dog yeah is is in he'll be in therapy every time I leave and me separat anxiety my children run willingly into the world my dog is uh desperate for my return so um just wanted to put that out there to everybody okay Mrs herck um I know we talked about sport and it was great to see Mr Cummings and a lot of parents out to support track the other day as well as last night I was at Churchill Junior High for the Middle School softball team um and there was a lot of parents there too um so it's really great to see everybody out there supporting our sports teams and uh a few weeks ago I went to Churchill for their drama club um The Adams Family and I have to say I was blown away the kids are just amazing um the singing the dancing the props that they used everything and you can just tell how much they loved it how engaged they were and they were so proud of the work that they put on so kudos to the students as well as the faculty that supports them because it was really nice to see such a great time that's great and we're going to have the Uli kids maybe some more learning across the district I love all my kids and my favorite person I see sitting there my first I have to come visit your class not that I play favorites but I play favorites um all right well we do have a need for another closed session so where's the Board of Education must discuss matters which are not appropriate for discussion in a public meeting these subjects are within the exceptions to the open public meetings act and are permitted to be discussed in closed session the Board of Education intends to discuss matters as follows those items listed on tonight's agenda the length of Clos session is estimated to be 1 hour after which the public meeting of the board shall reconvene an action may be taken now therefore be resolved that the East bronic Board of educ a will eress into close session for only the affers said subjects and be it further resolved that the East brunck Board of Education hereby declares that its discussion of the aers said subjects will be made public at a time when the Public's interest in disclosure is greater than any privacy or governmental Interest being protected from disclosure in accordance with the open public meetings act Mrs Becker and Mrs G any discussion all those in favor opposed extensions motion carries thank you and good night everybody