##VIDEO ID:cww6pW7STJI## open up the Mee Jeff goes let him do his Spiel and then we'll do all two resolution items that's it to the public you could do both one done so however like is it part e and then I have to unmute go committee reports approval of District facilities I you want me to talk about it and then we'll so all I'm doing is just taking which one my little the little light right e e e e e e e e e e the New Jersey open public meeting law was enacted to ensure the right of the public to have advanced notice and of to and to attend the meetings of public bodies at which any business affecting their interests is discussed or acted upon in accordance with the provisions of the ACT East retherford board of education has caused notice of this meeting by having the date time and place thereof provided to the record in South Bergan night newspapers to have published and listed in the vesu of the burrow Hall and Public Library copies of agendas are available 48 hours prior to S meetings in the board of education office and are posted on the Eastford School website www. erboe.net uh please stand for the flag salute and remain standing for a moment of silence in honor of the members of our Police Department our department First Responders and our Armed Forces I pledge algi to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation God indivisible with liy and justice for all R Mr B here Mr carusso here M KY here miss Mana Mr Sanders here miss Shenley here miss laruso here fire exits are loated to your left and the front of the room we're going to do the audit first all right I'd like to call up our Auditors for his presentation we G give you a mic mic and Jeff you can Jeff you Jeff if you need the U Jeff if you need the podium there you can put yourself down we have it we haveing everyonee goal books and Records is to give an opinion on your financial statements well as an opinion on your compliance with major federal and state grants our opinion on your financial statements is UN modified un modified is a clean opinion it's the best opinion you can receive it's actually the only opinion you want um means your financial statements fa stated the cours for generally accepted par principle and they were no stroke indications uh our opinion are you compliance with major federal state plan programs also also meaning youing all theal expects with the compliance of your lab brands unmodified or clean clean opinions on financial statements um in order of compliance is not to noted no material weaknesses of significant deficiencies in internal controls um teror weaknesses and significant efficiencies or findings um that rise to the level of concern um we did not have any of those type of findings in our audit um we did have one uh recommendation regarding on compliance which I will discuss after reviewing the financials financial position with respect to how you um did one of the most important schedules in the audit report is exhibit C1 it's in the bigger report clear cover starts on Page 6 63 and ends on page 69 and um3 at the end of page 69 is a su of your fund balance and as a board member fund bance is important because as you get into the comparing your 2526 budget you're going to want to know how much funds are available uh Finance expenditures in that budget not all bance is available to be used for any purpose so I'm going to go through that at the end of that page9 C1 is one of the most important in uh the report it's a complete accounting of your budget revenues as well as expenses um the First Column is the original budget you adopted way back in April of 23 May of 23 any adjustments you made to that budget those lines U the final budget for those particular budget points and then what actually happened how much revenue did you actually earn and how much uh expenses you did you incur line by line if you as a board members ever want to know how much revenue you put in how much state aid how much property taxes there were uh and how much you spent on any particular item either teacher salaries health benefits tuition course transportation course you go to this schedule giv you complete counting line by line and at the end of this schedule which is on page 69 is the Su of fromont balance if you want to go yeah okay second to last column is the actual column I want to focus on the last three lines of that schedule um where you have net change in fund balance and the actual B that's the bom part um overall your fund balance increased 125,340 396 and you ended at 6, 6921 199 so you improved where you are financially um even though it says it's $125,000 increase it your reserve accounts which I'm going to go over actually increase more because the there were certain fund balance accounts that you committed money to last year that you knew you were going to spend and those monies were not available to fund future expens so um on July one those monies were were with the day they were spent on those on those items the first item I want to review is capital reserve on the restricted fund balance uh restricted fund balance are monies that have been put aside either by the board for a particular reason or have to be put aside by state and budget um the first item there is capital reserve uh 3,199 736 and those are monies put aside by board resolution to fund capital projects in the long range facility um the monies can only be used for capital projects in the long range facility you cannot take money out of here and buy books you can't take money out of here and pay teacher Sal can't take it out for any operating course it's specific Al restricted for capital projects in the long range facility um those monies in that first line almost 3.2 million has not been earmarked for any projects yet um so going forward if there's a capital project that the district wishes to do the board can appropriate funds out of here to fund those projects you don't have to go out and borrow money you don't have to issue bonds you don't have to do least purchase agreement you have the funds on hand to do up to $3.2 million for projects just to put it in perspective the long range facility plan projects are over close to $7 million uh you also had capital reserve designated for Subs your expenditures a little over a million1 mil 5,000 be 20 and those funds that the board earmarked in its 2425 budget to do specific projects those monies are funding those projects if we do not spend the money on those projects we only spend 500,000 the remaining balance we go back to the first one the capital Reser that has not been design Reserve increase 362,000 over last year it's good put money away Capital Capal you also had maintenance Reserve maintenance Reserve or money set aside to pay for cost related to required maintenance of school facilities these are not cost these are not Capital uh project course uh capital projects extend the life of a building uh and use for life it's like additions a total like replacing all the windows replacing all the doors maintenance is where you do repairs to keep the buildings in their current working condition uh we had a maintenance Reserve at the end of the year 574 684 that we have not ear Mark for any Main this project so that's available if uh you need to repair a boiler P money out of that 574 if you have doors that need to be repaired you have 574 684 um then we had M Reserve designated for subsequent expenditures 165 398 those are funds that have been de marked in the 2425 budget pay for maintenance projects again we don't use the money on those projects the money goes back to the 57 for 683 the M maintenance Reserve account balance remained the same as the year before we used funds during a year but we were able to put those funds back the total of the two the 574 165 uh which totals a little over 740,000 is the maximum amount of fund you could put into that Reserve so maxed out that number will be able to be increased next year when you when new Lincoln School building because you increased your square footage of the buildings that 740 will be able to be increase slate the next two accounts excess Surplus um in New Jersey when you close your books uh and you do all your transfers to your reserve accounts based on resolutions that the board approved any funds over 2% of the budget must be transferred into an excess Surplus Reserve by Statute the excess Surplus must be used as a revenue Source in the next budget um that the district adopts so when we closed the books June 30th 2024 and we did the transfers into the capital reserve the transfers into the maintenance Reserve we had excess surplus of $700,000 that $700,000 must be used as a revenue Source in 2526 budget so when you start the 25 26 budget you have a revenue source of $700,000 of fund balance very comparable to what you had the last year which was 600,000 which is the excess Surplus from June 3rd to 23 that we're using in the 2425 budget that's 600,000 on July one is gone you're using it to finance uh 2425 expenses next item is the Sol fund balance year in income which is 45,000 720 those represent those orders I was speaking about before where you assign money committed money to specific purchases those P those purchase orders roll into the budget they increase the next budget automatically and those as the goods come in and the services are rendered those POs get liquidated and expense those monies are no longer available to fund future expenses last year that numbers was closer to 400,000 so it went down about 350 that was line but that line is basically money you spent you awarded contracts you made purchases but you don't owe anybody money yet because you can get but you will uh you also have designated for sub expenditure 16517 in addition to the 600,000 of fund balance you had to use in the budget hard to use you chose to use another 16, 517 so when you do your budget you put all your expenses down put all your revenues in and to get to the point where you were comfortable with budget you added another nominal 16, 5177 to balance that budget um that leaves you with the unassign unassign is the funds that are available to be used by the district for future expenditures it's the area you'll draw down if the 700,000 that you have to use is not sufficient you can draw it down from the 384 824 represents the maximum 2% you're allowed to have there was a very small adjustment for unbudgeted State a around $500 um very nominal um so you ending the year with the max so overall 66921 199 um got capital reserve 4.2 million your maintenance Reserve is maxed out you have 700 in excess Surplus to apply to the 2526 budget which is very comp to the year before and you run assign fund balances at SM um financially you're in very sound stable condition really good real good spot M need to do capital projects you thatt you got Monies to do maintenance projects you got the extra Surplus to 25 26 expenses and you're at the 2% so the findings that small [Music] important questions on [Music] 14 is of the representations we we had three what we call three do General comment one comment that was govern stand finding financial planning accounting and Reporting first item deals with a withdrawal out of capital reserve that was transferred to the referendum during the year District approve the settlement doco the referendum didn't have sufficient funds to pay the full amount of the settlement there was capital reserve funds that make that that payment that settlement under the statute in order to transfer into the referendum project the transfer has to be in the original project you were done so um we have the transfer allowed it's very it's $200,000 compared to a $40 million project um so we it it's it's St the referendum has sufficient funds it's basically done um but next time you have to actually put it in the original budget that's stoped um can't really do it after the fact uh number two he deals with the posting of Revenue receipts um just need to take greater care uh to make sure that we post the receipts to the right Revenue accounts New Jersey has in adopted a uniform charted accounts um very detailed for all school districts so everyone has the same account structure um and we have some misp postings there going between funds and revenue caty so just just got to do a better job uh to ensure that the revenues received are recorded in the proper form and then of course will be M matur accounts School purchasing uh School purchasing especially in New Jersey is very restrictive uh there's a tremendous amount of requirements requirements contract requirements things that the board has to do things that have to be advertised after you award contracts um so we need to just do a better job to make sure we comply with the public contracts store in the state procurement guidelines specifically um local Co optimal purchasing program purchases and state contract program purchases um even though the district doesn't have to go after public bid is those agencies do that for you uh you if it's over the bid threshold the board has to approve those purchases and more importantly District has to get those Grant those uh contract award documents from those co-ops to make sure the vendors charging you the correct amount from what we have seen we do 85 school districts we see vendor saying they're in a co-op that they're not their contract has expired they charge you then with the contract so you got to stay on top of that only two minor ones but um also we had change orders uh that exceeded the original contract award just award didn't approve or has to approve change they was for Staffing Services as well as certain um Professional Services for engineering and Construction Services um re recommendations nothing that Rose to the level of material consist efficiencies overall financially as well as recommendations to good modifi opinions financially good shape and uh you know three recommendations but nothing major questions thank you have a wonderful Christmas everyone than you and I'd love to re through it and before is that a possibility it was attached when the agenda was sent out no but I hear what you're saying was the bank because we get it problem I didn't you're welcome you want you don't want paper okay what you do with this I I said by my TV fake fireplace roasting I'm the same way with Pap I need to look at yeah all right so I'm gonna have uh Mr verace do his uh Finance his report president um I want to thank Mr Bliss and his team once again so there are two resolutions F1 the approval of the discussion of the 24 fiscal year and audit acceptance of said audit approval of the 2024 fiscal year and corrective action plan and then F2 the acceptance of the 2324 annual comprehensive financial report of Auditors management report the big document and then this smaller version and then pf1 approval of District facilities this is a request by the by the rec department for a holiday Marketplace at linked the reason why we're asking the board to vote on it tonight is because the event is happening tomorrow de there's any questions any questions okay thank you Mr verrai um Mr Jean CASRO superintendent yes Madam president I only have one item for approval by the board uh which is under Personnel items travel expenditures um Administration going out to um important workshops prior to the actual board meeting that I need to move um there's no money I know one of the things the board was concerned about was having money and then going before but none of these um is across to the board that's that's all I have they were going before the last board meeting no that yeah no the only one was um p12 uh that staff member was supposed to go to the last one but we just found out that there was another I train just recently so we had scramble a little bit but that was the only one that other supervisors had gone to um but now she's the last one no no I was wondering did we no like did we know that they were going to these um workshops prior to the last bopped up 1.3 1.3 was Mr valori was supposed to attend but could not attend that one so this was in place of uh that's why this other staff memb is going to be going I'm at that date the qu I think what she's asking is did we know about these before the last meeting that you could have been on got it got it got it no the answer not sorry sorry about that there's a holiday you there's a holiday thing going on tomor like we did last year the tree lighting and the whole and then they use they use for like holiday bazaar thing the holiday bazaar in Lincoln use a facility at Lincoln not for us it's for the town right right have known last right right okay any questions other questions no okay thank you Mr Jean CASRO there's no correspondence to the board at this time um let's see should we just do the items yeah the items yeah move the items there's no none of the committee chair want to have anything then we can uh probably should just do a public comment we only need one public comment tonight okay it's a work session but if there's any public comment just in case before we adopt those res okay I will open to public comments opening public comments on any agenda or non-agenda items state your name address for the record address the board president each person wishing to speak will have five minutes each anyone wishing to speak will be given the opportunity to do so okay seeing none I close the public comment all right so uh Personnel committee Miss kuso sorry upon the recommendation of superintendent board hereby approves motion P1 the approval of travel expenditures roll Mr Banker Miss baruso yes Miss paie yes Miss Mana yes M Andre yes Miss shley yes and Miss Luso yes right physical facilities Mr Sanders thank you mad president upon recommendation of superintendent for hereby Cruz motion df1 approval any discussion roll call Mr Banker yes Miss Caruso yes Miss Callie Miss men Mr Sanders yes M shley yes and Miss Luso yes thank you uh finance committee Mr Ben oh yeah oh wait is that it yeah [Music] any discussion roll call Mr Banker yes Miss Caruso yes Miss paie yes Miss Mana Mr Sanders yes Miss Shenley and Miss Lissa yes any old business any new business just to notify the board that I will not be at the Board of Education meeting next week um but Dr K doson will take my place there's no exu question tonight correct okay all right so at this this time uh I'll make a motion to adjourn second all in favor any opposed okay motion adjourned at 6:31