##VIDEO ID:rdsgWJfUCnU## e e e e e e e e for for pursuant to the open public meetings act adequate public notice has been given by by the secretary of the eam Township Board of Education in the following manner posting written notice on the official bulletin board of the Board of Education Office emailing written notice to the Bron and County Times in The Courier Post filing written notice with the municipal clerk of eam Township Mr Yates can we have a roll call please roll call oh hold on guys I'm sorry bear with me Mr Brown here miss buter MTZ here Mr deori here miss Fox here Mrs null Mrs N is absent Mr Thompson here Mr peelman here Mr Bach here and Mr conon here we have a quarum thank you Mr Yates we'll now be looking for a motion to enter executive session whereas an njsa 10 4-12 allows for a public body to go into Clos session during a public meeting and whereas the Board of Education of E Township has deemed it necessary to go into close session to discuss certain matters which are Exempted from the public and whereas the regular meeting of the Board of Education shall reconvene following the end of Clos session at approximately 7:30 p.m. now therefore be it resolved that the Board of Education will go into closed session for the following reasons as outlined in njsa 10412 items 2.3 to 2.4 do we have a motion motion by Mr Brown seconded by Mr Thompson Mr Yates roll call please roll call on Executive session Mr Brown yes Miss buter MTZ yes Mr Mars Mr dear Pardon Me Miss Fox yes Mr Thompson yes Mr peelman Mr Bach yes Mr Compton yes the motion carries thank you Mr Yates we'll see you all back at approximately 7:30 p.m. [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] e e for e e [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] he sh sh for for for [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] for for for [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] n [Music] [Music] [Music] sh sh for [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] e e [Music] for e [Music] [Music] would all those who are able please rise for the pledge iedge Al thank you today's mission statement will be read by Mr Brown the mission of Eve sham Township School District is to promote excellence in an environment that engages students in meaningful learning experiences in partnership with students dedicated staff families Community the district provides a strong Educational Foundation that will Empower our students to achieve their unique potential Embrace self directed lifelong learning develop the skills necessary for appropriate risk taking and responsible decision- making respect themselves and others problem solve individually and collaboratively become contributing members of a diverse Global Society thank you Mr Brown uh moving on we'll move into our recognitions for this evening e for [Applause] where's Miss gorley come on down congrats Kendall this is you that here and I see Mr h man here if you if you'd like to come up okay well actually congrats Kendall [Applause] gift cards so don't want to forget those so thank you and and I want to say just this is like uh a streak I want probably was the hour back Celtics that won 10 straight championships I think but I think MMS might have 10 straight Cooper levenson holiday card winners which is an amazing feat um a dynasty a dynasty we will now move into our preliminary budget presentation floor is yours Dr Smith for [Music] okay so preliminary budget presentation 2025 26 it's January 30th so it's significantly earlier then we normally present budget information this year's budget is particularly painful and we wanted to get the information out um as soon as possible it is a lot to take in and there will be a a lot to talk about over the months ahead the uh in the past few years we have communicated um budget impacts first through meetings with staff those were individual meetings in the schools typically in early March um that's that route just isn't possible this year given the number of changes that we're going to be talking about our mission which we read at the beginning of every board meeting is what guides all we do including the budget development always focusing to maintain as much as we can for as long as we can for as many as we can and that has been Our Fate as a district that has lost state aid seven years straight this is my fifth spring presenting budget and every one of those has been talking about Cuts context to the state aid so we've lost over 7 million since 2018 that's over half of our state aid total couple that with the rising costs of goods and services which people experience in their personal lives but certainly districts have been experiencing across the state and Country special ed in transportation are particularly um increasing areas for costs salaries and benefits continue to go up all of this outpaces the local 2% tax levy cap for the state of New Jersey so every District loses ground um you know the cost of operating exceeds the revenue through the local tax levy and we generally are looking at around $3 million gap each year between uh revenue and Appropriations this year that's a bigger Gap because we used some one-time Revenue sources last year to Stave off additional cuts and again in the effort to preserve as much as possible for as long as possible we went with um more conservative um uh projections in our budget last year which um with the increasing expenditures led to um less Surplus actually no Surplus um as we found out recently which is creating another $3 million gap put that into the larger context of where we are and have been um we are the fourth leanest so we spend the fourth least per pupil of all 76 k8s in the state that is not enviable no one wants to be there it means we spend $3,566 less per student in the state average for a K8 which you might think oh okay 3,00 566 doesn't sound too bad but that's per student so times that by about 4500 which is our enrollment over $16 million missing from our budget and I recently talked about this at the state public comment hearing on the new school funding law it's absolutely egregious and wrong that any District could be 16 million short of an average budget when you translate that into positions at 880,000 roughly for step one salary and benefits that's over 200 teachers short that our district is 25 per School short to be average so when if you look at a district that is average and it's making Cuts they have $16 Million worth of cuts available to them that we have already used up there are no easy cuts anymore for us it's very upsetting and we are trying to chart the best path the least horrible path in a horrendous situation the data source and description of indicators is on the slide just show that in a visual so you can see the Gap widening each year this is just looking back over the last three years we're blue the state's orange the Gap getting wider that will continue if you extrapolate that out into next year and beyond that should continue to widen because our 2% local tax levy cap is being compounded on a budget that is smaller so that's less of an increase every year if you're compounding a state average budget that's going to be a higher increase each year so we're going to lose ground each year if things stay as they are there were other SL I shared all these slides in um several etsd updates recently if anyone wants to go take a look I didn't include them all here but I just picked out the one as a kind of an example it's the area where we are absolutely leanest um out of the 76 k8s in the largest enrollment bracket we rank leanest number one leanest in total administrative costs per pupil we also rank number one leanest in administrative salaries in benefits per pupil we rank second highest in the ratio of students to administrative personnel and fourth highest in the ratio of Faculty to administrative Personnel no one wants to be at the top of that graph we're there in many categories how do we get here I'm going to hand it over to Mr yats to talk a little bit about that all right welcome back everybody if it feels like we were just here it's because only six months ago we were finalizing our budget discussions and here we are so Dr Smith talked a lot about our state funding reductions um so how do we get here what is S2 S2 we commonly refer to hey we're an S2 District um in order to understand that we have to go back to 2008 under then Governor Cor resign who enacted the school funding Reform Act that act adjusted how school districts in New Jersey were going to receive state aid eam was one of the districts at the time it was calculated to receive less Aid the state's response to that which was a quick response was they were going to provide what's called adjustment Aid it was meant to be temporary relief but it lasted for over a decade that Aid was provided to districts to reset them uh if they were a district who was calculated to receive less under the new sfra Formula E sham was one of those districts who received the adjustment Aid then in 2018 S2 was enacted which again reformed the school funding Reform Act and how uh the state aid formula was calculated for school districts like ours it was meant to rebalance Aid to school districts basically prevent overfunded districts from receiving more money than they were supposed to as under the new calculation um they had a seven-year phase out from 2018 to 2025 so the current budget Year we're in is when they phased out our adjustment aid but they also adjusted um how we receive Aid with an enrollment based formula so it's not based on one for one enrollment it's based on a weighted fiveyear average of your enrollment and then it's put through a a factor us typically less than one um so it doesn't it doesn't exactly follow enrollment that's really important to understand and then they also applied a local fair share a district wealth calculation they basically looked at certain school districts and said what is that District's ability to generate tax levy so what is your ability to generate revenues locally if you were considered a wealthy District they shifted the burden to those wealthy districts and said you can generate more than what you're doing right now and they reduce state aid and they put the burden on the taxpayer the um two graphs at the bottom just highlight where we were with state aid in 2018 to 20125 you can see in 2018 we were to receive $1 13.9 million in 20125 we received uh just under $6.8 million so total reduction was 7,1 149,000 80 or a total loss of over 51% of our state aid look at our enrollment M on the right side our enrollment only reduced by 50% of 1% during that same time period so we haven't seen a decline in enrollment but we've seen a over 51% reduction in our state funding the state has shifted the burden the state says esam's wealthy under the new calculation e sham residents can afford to pay more the state's going to pay less Shifting the burden even further when we look at the uh graph here our tax levy is represented by the red area and our state aid is represented by the blue area you can see those two arrows are continuing to widen the Gap is widening for us they're asking the residents to assume more of the burden of our total budget while the state pays less so at the top right we're going to look at tax levy as a percentage of our total budget tax levy is going to be the red line and you can see in 2017 tax levy accounted for 79% of our total budget fast forward to 2025 tax levy accounts for 86% of our total budget now when you account for the withdrawals that we used from capital and maintenance Reserve we use those withdrawals to balance our budget this year when you factor those in tax levy accounts for over 88% of our total budget look at state aid as a percentage of total budget on the left 2017 state aid was 18% of our total budget 2025 it's less than 8% Dr Smith had mentioned and I also that we lost 7,149 th80 you can see that number in the bottom right all the way to the bottom right um that's our total reduction from what we received in 2018 to what we receive now but if I go back to 2018 in that first year remember it was a seven-year schedule where they were going to reduce our adjustment Aid in that first year they reduced Us by over $815,000 in year two 201920 they took away an additional $925,000 when you factor in that they never gave me back the $815,000 that year we have to continue to assume those losses so each year that they don't give us that money back we will continue to assume those losses we're now in year eight in 2526 at the bottom we've been told by the county and the state to expect our state aid to be flat or less and so we don't know what that number is going to be but if it is if it's flat we will assume an additional $7 million1 149,000 loss so our total cumulative State funding loss that we've assumed as a district is just under 39 million doar all right so I put this in here as a hypothetical um couple important things to understand the only Revenue number that our district can control is our tax levy we can increase our tax levy by 2% from the prior year and that's our cap so there's a few exceptions to that we won't get into tonight but the only number that we can increase is our tax levy at 2% our salaries and benefits increase typically north of 3% every year that's about the average that we experience as a district so in a hypothetical world if our salaries or if our tax levy was equal to our salaries and benefit which it's not our salaries and benefits account for about $5 million more than our total tax levy but even if they were equal within one year we'd have a structural budgetary deficit of $1.4 Million by year four we'd be at $4.5 million in a structural budgetary deficit because we can only increase our tax levy by 2% other um budgetary pressures that our district faces so we don't just face face budgetary pressures of rising costs for salaries and benefits we experience it across the board this is going to impact everybody in this room by the way we experience Rising utility costs so pjm is an ISO so they are responsible for securing or procuring um all the electricity that is put onto our electric grid they procure that for Pennsylvania Jersey Maryland and parts of other states they deliver it to 21 different utilities when you secure from your utility your utility secured from PJ pjm in July of this past summer announced that capacity the cost of capacity is going to increase from 29 megawatts a day to 270 megawatts a day why well previously we used to collect all of our uh we used to procure most of our electric was supplied by fossil fuels or coal powered plants and nuclear powered plants well those plants were old and they had uh they had uh rapid plant closure there's no immediate replacements for them because it takes a long time to build them so we've had a decrease in the supply of electricity to the grid we've had massive increases to uh Demand on the grid think about when you save things on your Google drive or save things on your iPhone or you save things on your Microsoft One drive those things don't just get saved on the internet that gets stored in data centers on servers those data centers are huge and they have a a massive pull on the electric grid AI has a massive pull on the electric grid so things like artificial intelligence so we've seen a significant increase in demand a significant decrease in Supply and you might say well what about renewable generation renewable generation has po uh poor operating characteristics wind and solar wind can only operate when the wind's blowing and solar can only operate when the sun's out so it's very inconsistent to supply into the electric grid they measure or electricity on capacity factors over a given time period the capacity Factor would be how much ener or electricity is produced in that given time period solar has a capacity factor of 25 to 30% um wind has a capacity factor of 35 to 45% coal and nuclear had a capacity factor of 70 to 90% that means it's going to take three times the megawatt production from solar and wind to replace one megawatt production from coal and nuclear so what does this mean for you it means that your electric rates are going to increase by approximately 20 to 30% on your July 25 Bill the difference between you and our district is our utility rates we pay millions of dollars every month in utility spend excuse me millions of dollars every year in utility spend versus what you're spending but this will impact all of us other budgetary pressures so we don't just see 3% in salaries we see double digit increases in health benefit premiums every year we talked about our salary increases north of 3% each year we have aging infrastructure drive around our district many of you in this room have your red shirts on your teachers you know how old our facilities are and you know the state of our facilities we simply don't have the money available or the funds available in our en fund budget to make the massive improvements or the Capital Improvements that our district needs and where they need to be today so we have aging infrastructure the dollars you can assign to that would be something like a roof leak in the middle of a year maybe a boiler goes down in the middle of a year we have a blower motor fan go down on some piece of util or hbac equipment that I don't fully understand but our maintenance staff does and it costs us thousands of dollars in time and material across the board this doesn't just affect Eve sham it affects every District but across the board in every category of position we've seen a decrease in the candidate pool this has led to an increase in competition amongst districts and now we're having candidates who are coming in and being hired at rates higher than step one which used to be the standard let me go back changing student demographics has led to an increase in students with mandated education operational demand so we are seeing increased costs in this area of our uh operations and then this last one is njsa 6a 231 18.3 A2 so that's the New Jersey uh Administrative Code that allows approved private schools for students with disabilities to increase their tuition rates by up to 10% in the middle of a year when I see an increase in cost I don't get to go to the taxpayers and go hey I need 10% more money but our approved private schools for students with disabilities when they get audited like us we get audited every year and when their audit comes back and says your costs were more than anticipated they passed that cost on to public school districts by Jack or raising their rates by 10% in the in the given year and now we have to pay it either this year or in the subsequent year um not all do it but many this year did it so these are just some of the budgetary pressures that our district is under to summarize all of this our district continually faces significant budgetary pressures from external factors right you have inflation the rising cost of salaries and benefits The increased cost associated with out of District placements Transportation challenges and unfunded mandates from the state of New Jersey when we're in a situation where we have a 2% cap on our tax levy increases and reduced State funding our AB ability to meet those uh CH growing demands becomes increasingly difficult for us thank you thanks Mr E before we move on to uh the steps I just want to say that we are charting the least horrible path through a horrendous situation and the best way to walk that path is trying to walk together with standing and with a recognition of the difficult balancing of needs that goes on across the district leading to very difficult decisions and we'll have plenty of time to talk about these which is why we're sharing them now February March April heading towards final budget approval so the total deficit is $7 million the first step is outsourcing the transportation department we estimate at least $800,000 in savings that would not include we would look to uh lease buses and the transportation yard for additional savings we would Outsource all positions except uh the coordinator and assistant coordinator someone needs to be the lead on between our district and the private companies and maintaining a few drivers with the most seniority and we are looking at that this is a very difficult step all these steps are very difficult there's not an easy step in tonight's presentation uh been at the transportation department many times many times um with with our drivers and AIDS our mechanics the we're only looking at this because it can save us money right now about two-thirds of our routes are already outsourced so we have about 30 drivers that covers about a third of our routes but we would Outsource those remaining routes I will be at the transportation department tomorrow morning to meet with drivers and AIDS and anyone from that department who voluntarily wants to come meet we can talk more about it then and there's an email that went out from Miss brco about that we'll look to reduce the transportation burden step two it's 100,000 in savings estimated we've looked at increasing walking each year you know you that is is not unilateral work we work together with the township on that it's gradual work um this would we will also look to consolidate bus routes bus stops the elimination of all L buses I put that on this Slide the cost Savings of that step is not included in that 100,000 we're still calculating um the savings from that but these Transportation steps include eliminating all the buses the next two steps represent a savings of $1.8 million which is the largest Savings of any step we've taken throughout the seven years of S2 we talked about this last year we staved it off for a year by using some one-time Revenue sources it is having our core content Middle School teachers grade six seven and eight teach a sixth class instead of Team time so essentially it's an efficiency savings six teachers teaching five sections each becomes five teachers teaching six sections each I would add elementary teachers teach the equivalent of six sections as well as some of our Middle School teachers related arts teachers this is a painful step um it does make the next step possible which is an increase in middle school class size Middle School class size we've increased Elementary class size every year for the past five years Middle School class size we have been really unable to increase because of that model of having the team time without that we can increase class size in Middle not because we want to but we're trying to save programs as much as possible the math of it is instead of 10 teachers teaching sections of 24 for 240 students now we have eight sections of 30 students each on average another 10 teaching positions we're looking at schedule options for this that maximize teachers working with the same groups of kids to be able to maintain um kind of consistency among teachers working with kids for a modified teams approach now the impact from those two steps the main impact is on teachers right if you look back at this for a second so if you're if you're a middle school core content teacher by which I mean science social studies Reading Writing math right and you're current you've been teaching five sections of 24 that's 120 kids if you've got six sections of 30 you could be looking at 180 kids okay which is a big a big step it's a lot um we wish we could incrementalization the big deficit of 7 million student day they keep the same daily schedule same length of periods the same periods Reading Writing social science math related arts PE Health Tech lunch what will change for them they'll have PE Health Tech 5 days a week instead of four there won't be that one period per week of independent study they'll walk more for the core content classes they already do leave their hall for different things and they'll be in class with students from both Halls which can have admittedly some positives um that word Halls remains to be seen if that word how much value that word will still have that's I think is a discussion among the schools about the use value of that for other purposes um we still remain the only District in the county that has two identical middle schools we still remain the only District in the county where students only combine totally with all the students from their grade in ninth grade so we still maintain the two buckets of a six through eight Middle School on one side of town and a six to eight Middle School on the other side of town it's not the halls but it is two smaller ponds before the kids get to Cherokee The Next Step Elementary class size increases and this is something we've looked at every year and it's something again we're doing only out of necessity because it doesn't touch programs the increases are highlighted in yellow they go up two students per grade except for kindergarten kindergarten we passed a separate proposal last year for that was built around a class size of 20 so we maintain a class size of 20 for kindergarten those numbers as Max sizes doesn't mean those classes are that size 100 kids in a grade is four sections of 25 it depends on how many kids are in the grade that'll drive the the distribution spread out that efficiency increase extrapolated across the six elementaries an estimated Savings of eight positions $640,000 step six and we've talked about this going back back to fall of 2020 there's a lot of Scar Tissue on this topic we don't want to be here again the reason now is the same as then which is it's we're always trying to preserve programs we have 220 PA Professionals in the district 40 are eligible for health benefits 30 before you use them we anticipate phasing out benefits for about 30 PA professionals at 25,000 it's about $25,000 average for benefits for a staff member so that would be a savings of $750,000 and just as we did four years ago we will look at the seniority list and determine a number of the most senior pairs for whom the benefits would be maintained step seven eliminate all elementary extracurriculars I remember this is all these are painful there's a district near us and I don't want to name districts specifically but there's a district near us that doesn't have Elementary extracurriculars and hasn't for a long long time and I remember thinking I mean we have wonderful Elementary extracurriculars we have wonderful middle school extracurriculars that wonderfulness has meant we have a $350,000 Gap in total for all our extracurriculars between what we spend on them to run them and what we take in in revenue from the activity fee and yes extracurriculars have a connection to the school day they're beyond the school day and they affect the school day but they're not programs and again our guiding True North in budget decisions has been to try to preserve school day programs as long as possible thus step seven eliminate all elementary extracurriculars with additional savings from the elimination of late buses step eight use the rest of the what's called shift dividend we Ed some of it last year as a way to saave off additional Cuts all those one-time uses of Revenue last year and in previous years each of those creates a fiscal cliff of some size small medium large same in this step here but again we have this money we're going to use it use it up and um we still have 40,000 of that as well that thanks to the efforts of the eim Education Foundation last year we had an agreement with them to split the cost of a tier three position that was going to be cut last year so 40,000 of this dividend will continue to be allocated towards half of that position to maintain it for next year grand total of all these steps 4.3 million which gets us more than half towards that deficit but not all the way 2.7 million more in savings needed there's some asterisks on there that speak to some other factors involved in this seeking the additional revenue from leases of the bus in the transportation yard savings from the elimination of all lay buses and our district will seek Revenue by leasing Middle School space there will be middle there will be empty classrooms next year due to the positional reductions in Middle School everything we have is a resource and we're going to look to again take advantage of it to save programs for kids additional steps because you see that 2.7 how are we going to get through that here's some more each of these very painful we talked last year about a music reduction it is back we talked last year about a tier three reduction it is back we have two tier three positions one is saved through the agreement with the EF and their help the other though is listed for a reduction Elementary Spanish two positions reading recovery intervention the equivalent of three positions librarian one position counselor one position related arts one position that certificated staff 860,000 non-certificated a Building Technology position and four teaching assistant positions that brings us to a little less than 1.1 million 15 positions and this slide really shows how hard it is to eek out a million dollars what that means tremendous things it means those two columns the fewer positions and the retire vacant those are very different right now they may become more more similar as the months move along any District would love if those numbers are the same whenever possible we try to eliminate a position using a retirement or a vacancy we don't have that luxury at this juncture but we are we are hoping that those two numbers um grow closer together so that leaves us with a gap of 1.6 million still it's January 30th public information about the budget a district is only required to do one Public Presentation about a budget a lot of districts just do one and it's late April or early May January 30th right now there's work ahead of us how are we going to remedy that Gap well here's a couple things we're going to look at those positional reduction estimates that I were in the slides so those are estimates the person Personnel department is working hard on identifying and again this is this is patient work because it requires looking at seniority lists and certifications to figure out the salaries and benefits that correspond to those eliminated positions and it we we went in the direction of conservative with the savings estimates in the hopes that as we identify that go through that work the savings will increase also again some still to be determined items eliminating the late buses and leasing the Middle School space and leasing buses now some of that for example the leasing of the buses may not be able to be determined until after the final budget approval because they're not buses to lease until the Outsourcing of the transportation department has approved we will still need whether that whether money from leasing comes whenever it comes we will need it because this situation that we're in doesn't have an end in sight and I and we have to be cleare eyed about the reality it's a tunnel with no end at this point the state aid formula for the last seven years has been wrong we've lost over half our Aid meanwhile enrollment has dropped from its peak like if if anybody wanted to argue well what was the peak of it so it was around 2008 since then it's dropped 17% so how does our a drop 51% in our enrollment from its peak preo 177% I asked that question once of the commissioner of Education in person no answer not the current commissioner that's why I think I can say that but no answer there is no answer and there's no answer moving forward there's no current viable information about what state aid will look like for etsd or the other 599 districts in the state and we're all working on a budget for next year right now so you're like building a bridge Into Thin Air because you have no idea what that Aid's going to be and I'm not confident that it will make any more sense than it has in the past the only thing worse than bad news is not knowing this is about knowing breakage that's that's often something we can use to balance a budget not So Much Anymore and this is true whatever District you talk talk to um I read a stat earlier today there used to be three provisional certificates issued for every retirement among the teaching staff in New Jersey now they're down to one there's one provisional certificate issued for every retirement that's losing ground people leave their profession for other reasons in retirement the supply is dwindling right so breakage isn't what it was and then last variable of course is State funding and what that'll do these last couple slides just sort of recap some related some topics that are related to budget you know we always look to reduce through non- Staffing ways we continue but those have been used up but we continue to look grants SRO shares Services agreement which we've been thankful for the last three years with the township that expires at the end of this year we'll be looking to renew that hopeful that that can be successful advocacy with the state um they recently had the uh that's that hearing on um what what the new school funding law should look like and my main message was it needs to be fair for all districts and if it's not then it needs to be redone and no District can end up after year one or year three or year seven asking why their aid is falling 51% when their enrollment has only fallen 177% from its peak and if that does happen there needs to be an answer for that District not silence which is all we've gotten School Bus advertising $4,000 shout out to McKenna realtors that just um approved advertising for them on our buses thank you Mr McKenna facility use increases we'll look at that as well that doesn't generate a lot but every little bit helps we are exploring increasing revenue from Evans that would mean so we've had um higher interest from private providers for preschool and given our so uh preschool is funding from the state it is allocated in a fund 20 so not the same as our general fund uh you're talking about the preschool expansion Aid yeah so I feel like part of the conversation back when we were going through that was you know we get certain amount of money and it costs x amount per pupil and maybe salaries can be deferred and I understand it's the first year for that and there's a lot that has to happen but is there any like is that can salaries be offset is that being played into the budget calculation when it comes to Staffing yes it is yeah so certain salaries of any individuals who might either be uh part of that program or just have a kind of um a a role in the program their salaries have been offset and a portion of the salary all of their salary depending on who they are has been moved into the funding itself uh for this year we anticipate that um because those preschool teachers who are now paa teachers were previously budgeted in the general fund um those salaries will then U that'll free up that money in the general fund however we do owe a portion for every um specialed child us in a pea classroom so we the district owes does owe a portion towards the funding for that but I do anticipate that there'll be Surplus from it that would hopefully uh this year end up as Surplus thank you um Dr Smith can you talk about um AG advocacy efforts uh with the state and also future planning you know with organizing parents and everything to help out with that advocacy going forward this year yeah sure um so most recently so we had the uh the state organized four public hearings on basically looking for Community input any stakeholder we're all stakeholders in this right on what the new State School funding law should look like um I went to the one in Blackwood and spoke there were districts um some districts there not as many as I expected honestly but that's um I speak every year provide testimony at the Senate budget committee hearings um which is sobering by the way if you ever um participate in that some are in person and some are virtual but um what's so bring about it is to see how many entities across the state rely on state aid you know my imagination was too limited to imagine all of the different types of agencies and groups that are in line with us for monies right and actually school districts we there each time but um sometimes we've been the only District actually uh speaking at those um I would welcome working with any parent group to try to increase advocacy I I think in this case of the uh I remember um sending an email once to it was an email thread with all the basically like 160 districts that were S2 districts asking if anyone had an existing um Fair funding group and if so uh you know would they be willing to share um any insights and I got one reply 160 and uh the district was asked uh we'd love to learn and uh but they didn't have one um that District by the way I just read um is eliminating all courtesy busing period um and uh possibly closing a school the uh so advocacy would welcome any group that wants to work on advocacy together um it is challenging and I again just trying to be clear about the reality I was at a meeting last spring in Jackson with superintendents from other S2 districts not really Burlington County so much but there are districts that have been even harder hit than us in Ocean County in particular and um these are distri that had organized buses if you remember right um there were some large districts that organized buses of kids to go to Trenton um and uh we were sitting there essentially that last spring was the spring of year six of S2 and uh nothing nothing had changed nothing had changed you know advocacy is great advocacy could potentially bring change there is no evidence from among the S2 districts that were in that room or that I'm aware of that it made any difference that said it has made a difference for me to go to those because it's something we can do and right now it feels pretty darn powerless right so anyone who is okay with just raising our voices but knowing it may not make a difference let's do it all right reach out to me um I just need to feel like I need to you know have expectations be based on the data of those other districts if that makes sense um any other questions hey I had a couple um for the for what you just said about the advocacy efforts um would you be willing to reach out to some of those other folks again the 160 uh other districts that you had talked to before my understanding was at least Cherry Hill has a pretty robust um collaboration collaborative effort between the administrative the administration and parent groups in their district and if that's something that we could understand kind of the path that they're walking and use some of their lessons learned to help guide us and how we can set up something similar going forward yeah and that's that that's that's a good example so they're a fair funding committee so they have a and this again things may have changed from when I was there but um back a few years ago and again just different District different resources but they had a they have a public relations person who would be the representative from the district who would attend those meetings and it was basically Community run a Community Committee Community organized um Community Voices which and again it existed for about 20 years uh when I was there so had gotten started that means back in like around 2000 maybe even a little before um and uh just to years ago like if you look at um they're they're not an S2 District they lost like Millions last year in Aid um they were at the that public hearing on the school state funding law um I will say that um the most powerful voices and this is why I think a group like that is is is great the most powerful voices are not the voice of a superintendent we're the most expected voice a board member is an expected voice voices of people who aren't in a role where they would naturally be raising their voices those are the voices that catch ears more you know so a parent voice for example a Community member voice um and uh we could certainly try to connect with with that you know connect with people who are involved in that group and and see what we can learn I think I know where are they now I think that's uh that would certainly be worth looking into you know if there are people from our community who were willing to uh be part of that yeah great um and then my only other well the only other question I'm going to ask right now was regarding for the elimination of Team time that was a huge thing last year for um whether or not the middle school team time was going to stay or go and there was a lot of conversation in the community and in this room about the social and emotional needs of the kids and all of the steps that team time took that the teachers were able to take during those meetings and during those parts of their day and their week and able to discuss students and able to understand them to do all of those things is there are there any plans or thoughts going forward for how those can still still be met with the changes that might need to happen to the schedule due to the budget yeah yeah good question because that did come up last year um so I'll say first um we are talking about it I I would put it in the frame of um the idea of you know when a when there's a step that is Savings in this case the the that tandem step of um six class in place of Team time and I want to couple it with the class size increase because that's also important you know the the best social socio emotional support that kids get is from a classroom teacher in class and this is just you know spoken from my experience so other people may think differently but I'm just saying the classroom teacher has more FaceTime more contact time with the kids than anyone else in the school and every time class size goes up that contact time is distributed differently right over over more kids so there there is loss in in all these steps right 1.8 million in loss with that it won't look it won't be the same whatever we develop won't be the same and so for ex I'll give you an example the 25 26 school year calendar that's on the agenda tonight for first reading approval has three scheduled delayed openings so we removed those from the calendar a few years ago we're putting them back in for next year that in no way and that's just one pixel in the larger portrait but in no way does that come close to sixth class in place a team time but the reason it's there is just it's an intentional decision to create opportunity for team time also the way we're trying to build the schedule to create as much consistency as possible among teachers and students to enable when teachers meet about kids that they have as many kids in common as possible which is what was the team time model was based on um the schools the school administration and School staff will have to work out what the rest of that looks like and we'll be involved in that a central Administration it won't it'll have to happen in an environment where teachers are teaching six classes instead of five and have more students than they do now and that's that's the for me like when I look at those steps I and again having taught at times 180 kids in a year versus 110 let's say the difference of just managing like because every teacher is trying to lean in and figure out how to reach a student and it's like that combination it's almost like turning a dial and listening for the clicks to open that student up and have them share their light and how what what can I do you know for it's it's different for each one and that's the the magic and the science of teaching it's what gets us out of bed in the morning that piece is impacted by any step we take including those steps there but when we come back to and this is a question for everyone to consider it's the thought bubble that hovers above all of us it's the it's the if not that what you know for any of these steps whatever we say the question needs to follow is if no to that then yes to what because because that and that's that's the Dilemma so you know I so I can give you the a couple little one concrete thing the schedule delay openings which is minor and then say conversations will continue there's not going to be a comprehensive solution like the team time itself that makes sense no it does and I appreciate your honesty about it thank you yeah so when I see this um one of the number one things that comes to mind um obviously is the fact that we don't even know the full picture yet especially with State funding right and if I was to go off the last five years I wouldn't exactly be hopeful um nonetheless we don't know because S2 obviously has expired so it's a large question mark but to me the remaining factor is now preventing the situation from getting worse um so to that point can you just shed light on what at least some of that testimony that that you attended um or you know some of the different factors of specific aspects to the funding formula that maybe the state was receptive to hearing from our district from districts outside of our community um as far as what specifically they might change to hopefully bring dollars into E Yeah so so good question just because it um points to uh cross-sectional data across districts right so so the districts that were there and I'm not going to name them because we try to stay away from naming individual districts it's hard to sometimes but districts locally I mean there were four hearings they were spaced around the state this was the southern one so was it was Southern districts except for uh two there was a parent who drove all the way down from middle sex County by the way at the meeting which I was really impressed with he was all by himself um we had a parent there Evan Scott um Community member really appreciated his comments um the [Music] uh themes that emerged so and this is in no particular order it's just as I'm remembering them standing here um the urgency to have a multi-year plan right so uh right now we're months away from the the the tentative budgets are due to the county office by March 19th which is like six weeks from now and we don't even know our state aid numbers right so like it's it seems logical to ask for a multi-year plan right now I'm just hoping how about just a one-year plan just tell us what for next year you know um it's almost like I if I a teacher giving an assignment but not providing the information right like the deadline for the research paper is March 19th and we don't even know what what their parameters are um sorry so bux but the uh so multi-year which enables planing the only the caveat I would put on that is because it's a double-edged right so you asked for multi-year S2 was multi-year S2 was seven years I didn't like that multi-year none of us like that multi-year so I would have you know if it's if it's a bad plan let's just make it one year a phrase I like is new recipe small batch well this state funding law is a new recipe it better be a new recipe it certainly can't be the old recipe because that made really bad brownies for us right but new recipe small batch so let's try if we're going to try something new let's try it for a year let's identify how to improve it make sure no districts being left behind and then maybe go for the multiyear that's that's that's personal I think could be useful but multi-year was one another one was special education and transportation costs this was a theme across all districts crushing districts right um heard that a lot barness heard that a lot a transparent and publicly available formula that can be replicated and calculated at the local level that came up that's what I that's what I asked for I basically that's the the core of my question of why does a district lose 51% of its Aid when its enrollment drops so much less right we should be able to figure that out on our own here do that horrible math here but we can't and the state's been sued to release that formula and they have fought it in court which tells us something about that formula's quality um so those are themes if that if that helps your question no and it does but it seems like kind of the root cause of of some of it is kind of what you alluded to as far as special education and and transportation right which I mean from my understanding from this budget is our or they're the two single argest percentage increases in expenses correct for our budget so it's basically reflecting that we need more of the state to reflect those percentages correct yeah I mean it shouldn't be it it shouldn't it it should not be these costs are required costs and um do not depend on the school district like where people move should not determine the budgetary situation of a district if that makes sense and that's and right now um and I don't want I almost the challenge is is is like um we're 4,500 students in our district and we want to serve all of them as best we can that makes sense we we always want to do all we can for for all of them and so I just want to make that really clear when we're talking about costs being up in certain areas um I I I would say the the need for improvement is in the way the state funds special education and funds school districts right so that we can take care of kids in the way we need to yeah thank you Dr Smith yeah any other questions I have a question last year when we were having these discussions you had talked about maintaining the team time house system for the sixth raid I don't see that in this presentation is that something that you would consider putting back in I think it's important for the um you know children at that age 11 years old it's like not to be in a junior high setting yeah um so I'll just say like all things are considerable you know all things are open to consideration it's January 30th um we do need need to start working on tentative budget uh because that again that um deadline of March 19th um a district wants to try to make change gradual when it can and incremental when it can um so like last year's conversation about grade seven and eight if that had happened let's just say then talking about grade six we would we would have some data we would have it you know we would have had a year under our belt of that new schedule to be able to see taking steps instead of leaps if that makes sense you know um all districts prefer that all organizations probably too um so is that something that you're willing to take a look at to see if we can move that back in we can take we can certainly take a look at we can certainly take a look at the and I just the it'll essentially at best it would reduce the savings by a third for both steps right class size and um the team time the six class in place a team time so if we're talking 1.8 million reduced by a third that would be 600,000 right so we have to find CU coming back to that thought bubble question that's above our heads at all times that we need to keep it there as we walk through this because we don't even know how to get to the 7 million yet there's still the 1.6 million gap right so we still got that 1.6 million hanging out there that we might be able to resolve by the the plan to remedy which was in that slide and the different steps there but we don't know yet and then we would be adding the 600,000 on to that which again we we want to walk 360 around all these items right together but then where would that 600,000 come from and then that's an open question and and we need to get figured out as well um the uh you're absolutely right the reason that we had we were going to preserve it for sixth last year and not for seventh and eth is because it helps with that transition you know and that rationale was true then and it's still true now so yeah okay and another thing I would like to add and you may not be able to speak about this but you have things in here other things we're looking at to come to mind SRO money mhm we have a the agreement is going to be expiring so there's a chance to somehow renegotiate and also the sale of the private I'm sorry the property we own you may not be able to say anything about that but can you at least just say that you have a plan to open communication with the township oh well 100% right it's it's um and and we may and again I don't want we may have even started that communication you know what I mean I don't want you to say anything and spoil anything but I this is very I mean the SRO piece is time bound we need to get that figured out the properties I know you know that that's been an ongoing topic since uh really like 2021 but um but the SRO has a Time component we want to get that worked out um you know because we appreciate that very much that and then there's the property which we've been working on for years negotiating that propert and you know things might be looking different at the township since the New Year I'm not sure but maybe there's some you know yeah well people there I mean we there's so many different ways that you know it's the same town right same families we all try to support same community so there's so many different touch points of teamwork with the township and um like just give you a couple examples yesterday we had two lead graduations you know beer and Jag right fantastic events got another one tomorrow um we that's a Township program we so you know through the sh police we so appreciate that it's fantastic the list is long you know and and but properties SRO agreement Sr agreement being the more timely of the two um could be and we we'll continue working on that yeah any anything but yeah there's a time um limit to this so we need to be aware of that and then the leasing of space in middle school that you mentioned is there a space in I don't know if you you said it in the slides what schools and um to whom yeah uh what are you thinking like teddy bear Academy what's going on with that yeah well teddy bear um we're planning on opening up preschool classrooms in teddy bear in September so that's part of year two of the preschool expansion and it's it's actually we uh Marlton preschool Center all right Marl MPC Marlton preschool Center so that'll be classrooms for preschool as we continue moving forward with that um but there will be space in the middle schools because of the positional reductions and we have to try to turn any commodity into resources for kids so you know that space sitting idle isn't doing something for kids but if it can be leased then it's doing something for kids we have we lease space at Evans maybe there's an arrangement we can make to Le space um in a middle school in a way that's like you know its own space and in a in a in a way that is agreeable to all of us if that makes sense so good those are all the questions I have thank you yeah thank you all right thank you all thanks Dr Smith seeing no more question from the board this meeting will now be open to the public referencing agenda items only however if your questions or comments pertain to litigation student or Personnel items or negotiations we would ask that you see the superintendent after the meeting since we do not discuss these matters in public please limit your comments to three minutes per person and state your name and address at the beginning of your testimony would anyone like to make a public comment about the agenda [Music] morning cougar uh Foxwood Lane last year was a struggle to get through watching all the challenges and changes that our district faced I was hopeful that we would be able to have real change in the 2425 school year as so many people showed up and spoke up about the transparency and we need to have some type of town hall Gathering we don't get a Q&A session in these meetings so it's very frustrating to ask concerned questions and get no answers it's like all of our worries just fall on deaf ears no one person or board can do this alone especially with the financial deficit we're in but we're here again it's like a story on repeat the school calendar year started in September and now we're here the very end of January and there wasn't one change in those requests that have been done the only constant in that was the direction from Dr Smith in our in our district you want our buyin and our understanding of the positions our district is in but it doesn't matter how much we ask it's not reciprocated we want to work with you we want the best for our kids we want a superintendent that is there with us in the trenches and not one where we feel like we're constantly working against for the betterment of our kids the Board needs to hold you accountable and we need to hold the board accountable as we voted them in so let me ask all of you a few questions for a few for you to think about because I'll never receive the answers why wasn't there any prior discussions with the community you met with a few groups last year so it doesn't so it's not like you don't know who they are how can you cut not cut one administrator but cut 20 teachers how many increasing how are you increasing class sizes when room capacity doesn't hold that many and why discuss the removing of the team structure again when you know from so many from last year why it works and what why it's so greatly needed for our kids and teachers it's considered the main artery within the school structure so why would you mess with the heart of the district my name is Ain sapio I live on Fair Hill Court this is an echo of what Miss B asked earlier tonight but it's important enough to ask again in May and June I and other parents spoke at board meetings and sent emails asking the superintendent to pause on the pursuit of the preschool expansion program because of concerns of a financial drain causing a reduction in services to the middle school kids we were assured that the preschool expansion Grant would bring in excessive money to our district that would help support the general budget this extra income was not explained in tonight's presentation and we're wondering if details of both expenditures and income from the preschool expansion program can be made public additionally and I didn't think about this until it was just said earlier in the presentation it was mentioned that Vue might come from leasing the teddy bear Academy Hall but then it was said that the teddy bear Academy Hall is going to be used for the preschool expansion program so what other space in the middle school is going to be leased out and would that then mean that the current students that are in the building and enrollment has not reduced as you mentioned at a significant rate how is that going to collapse the student space in both hallways and in the locker Banks where they're already very tightly packed in so if we lease out a hall here where are they going to go so I think some of that is very concerning to Middle School parents Jaclyn RC 5 kirkbridge Court in Marlton good evening members of the board thank you for the opportunity to speak tonight I come to you not only as a concerned parent but also as someone that's very deeply invested in the academic success of all children I want to address address an urgent issue that has far-reaching implications for the future of our students the lack of explicit research-based phonics instruction and a clear appropriate scope and sequence in our reading curriculum Reading Readiness in the early grades as a critical foundation for long-term academic success yet many of our students are struggling to acquire these fundamental skills without systematic explicit instruction in bonics we are leaving far too many children behind when students encounter difficulties they face very limited intervention options to name a few lli or reading recovery while both of these programs may offer some benefits they do not explicitly teach phonics they do not use a scope in sequence nor do they adequately address decoding phonemic awareness or the step-by-step progression of skills that are essential for fluent reading while these inter interventions fail to close the gaps and they often do we're left with only one option a CST evil at that point how many of these students are being classified for special ed when they may simply need effective research-based instruction the lack of appropriate research-driven interventions is creating a cycle where students are not only failing to thrive but they're being mislabeled which comes with its own challenges and stigma I urge the board to consider the following how many children could be spared from unnecessary evaluations and classifications if they received the right instruction from the start how many students are we unintentionally failing by not equipping them with the tools that they need to succeed the science of reading is clear our children deserve better the parents of Eve sham deserve better to our fellow board members we need your help with this we we need you to advocate for our children on the lack of phonics instruction with our literacy program thank you for your time and consideration hi my name is Jessica Driscoll I live on Country Square Lan in wlson um are you aware of the silent e or the magic e rule when ma'am what agenda item are you referencing in your comment the literacy program is that an agenda item all right thank you uh it shows up when a vowel is followed by a consonant which is Then followed by an e the E gives all its power to the preceding vow making it use its long sound or say its name examples are home or bake or cube I learned this rule two years ago from my children for the record I'm 37 I was a student of Cherry Hill public schools for 18 years and rather than being taught phonics we were taught in experimental program from the 80s and 90s called whole language to this day I have to put in quite a bit of effort to spell or pronounce words that I don't know by heart because I was never taught the fundamental rules and exceptions of the English language I want to be clear that my kids did not learn this or any phonics rules from our Eve sham curriculum our family has paid thousands of dollars and invested countless hours on tutors and impal learning only after we identified and diagnosed the deficiency my daughter went through the reading recovery program which frankly made me feel like a failure as parent it took several years for me to realize that while there were probably more I could have done to help her earlier the root cause is the outdated and scientifically disproven reading curriculum implemented at our elementary schools fostering love of reading is not enough telling our kids to look at pictures to understand a story is not enough we need comprehensive language instruction that includes extensive phonics instruction to our KS up for a lifetime of success by the way Cherry Hill updated their literacy program last year and we should do the same thank you hi my name is Alysa Hayes I'm from Brierwood I'm the parent of a first grader I moved to Marlton um when he was nine months old for the excellent schools the same Excellence has been reflected in his spelling tests where he has received excellent grades 17 out of 17 on his last one but I am not excited or proud of this Excellence because I am aware of what we all know about giving a man to fish versus teaching a man to fish my son was given 17 fish and yes he caught them all he has been reviewing a tiny unconnected list of words repeatedly since kindergarten and now he's up to approximately 50 50 words when his first grade year is more than halfway over he can spell the word I'm but he can't spell the word can't as then I can't fathom why you would teach the word I'm without teaching words like apostrophe or contraction these are just random words that the kids are taught to memorize without explanation he read a sentence from an assigned book last week called the dogs of Hurricane Katrina he read the dogs were happy to be rescued and by E sham standard that rely on queuing he was correct it matched the picture it fit the story the first and even the second letter matched so it had to be correct except it wasn't correct the word was reunited the dogs were happy to be reunited it's a long word but it follows predictable rules and patterns that we see in many other words but my son has not been given any tools to try to decode a word such as reunited let alone spell it only the expectation that I would correct him and the word reunited would magically be stored in his brain forever it wasn't even stored in his brain by the end of the book when I checked I am here at my first board meeting to ask why you have continued to willfully dismiss comprehensive research that includes brain Imaging studies as part of a fad even when numerous States including New Jersey are moving toward adopting laws against the very literacy programs Eve sham is using in Massachusetts a group of parents is suing the creators of these whole language programs and the creators of the programs themselves have acknowledged flaws in the curriculums they sold to schools and made Millions off of why are we moving so slowly and such taking such small steps towards progress that we are allowing hundreds of students each year to be denied a proper reading curriculum why do we continue to refuse to expand professional development beyond the eam echo chamber of these Antiquated practices how do we expect eam students to learn how to read and spell in a time when they can so easily use EI to write and when young people are choosing to get their information from 10-second reels yes we are facing Cuts including the deeply flawed tier 2 reading recovery program mentioned earlier which only amplifies the need for improved tier one we will save money by reducing the need for CST to support students who just haven't been given a fair education when kids can read with ease they can learn they are confident and proud students and they behave better our community will Thrive if we take meaningful steps towards our updating our literacy curriculum thank you my name is Lisa fzone I'm on enl place in Marlton um I was wondering can you tell us how you exactly are going to phase out the power benefits um the health benefits coming up so we'll we'll we'll add that question into our we're going to talk about budget at each meeting so certainly for the February meeting we'll have updates on things so we'll make sure we we include that right so no plan right now just by seniority at this point there's more but I at this point this is what we shared tonight is what we want to share and we'll share more in February and we'll include your question thank you hello Rosemary Bernardi 10 Health XC cour East um I just want to thank you I know um you said you you're not obligated to give the Pres budget presentation until later in the year so thank you guys for actually doing this ahead of time I think um after last year's challenge I think um because we have so much work to do uh it's great that you alerted the community I'm not happy with what you said but um at least it's out there I I just have a general question I guess I must have missed something why are we having to come up with $7 million so and I we'll answer but I I public comment it's it's a not public Q&A but but it's okay just I just regarding the budget presentation yeah I just but I just wanted to remind it's it is public so each year we typically see a gap between expenditures and revenue that totals around 3 million for us each year we have about a $3 million surplus last year in order to Stave off Cuts we kind of like deflated our projections in order to try to not make more Cuts last year so those projections plus the rising costs came in pretty much Bullseye and resulted in no Surplus where we normally have about a $3 million surplus and in addition to that we used onetime Revenue sources last year that added up to the total of $7 million in Mr stre it's if I let me I mean please feel free to add if that that's good okay so it's a combination of surplus plus the usual um inflation for the budget in general is that what you're saying inflation also that it's the uh the yearly gap between the cost of operating and the 2% tax lby yeah it's just larger than I've ever seen um in the past in discussions and I've been around a long time so $7 million is a lot um I guess as a taxpayer I'm coming to the table here and I'm like thinking about what what came out last year in 2024 the tax uh the taxpayers came up with the $1.9 million for kindergarten so that was in 2024 June of 2024 you got went out with a 3.9% increase in the budget I don't know how much exactly that equated to to the taxpayers but that was a lot of money that was added to your budget so you have 1.9 a 3.9% that was added to tax levy last year then in uh January you guys have now $3.2 million for preschool in addition the EF has um agreed to it does the yearly fundraising and they're in the 40th year fundraising but you know they made the commitment for the $40,000 raise for to save one of the positions last year so that's a lot of money that came within the last year so that's concerning that you know we're at a$7 million loss when we have 1.9 plus the 3.9% plus the $3.2 million that's a lot of money so that's concerning for me Mr Bernardo you're at three minutes if you could wrap up please I have so much um so anyway uh one thing about the Outsourcing I think the Outsourcing and transportation office I just want everyone to know many years ago we as I was on the board we asked to work with the transportation office because that was one of the things that you guys did um you know the transportation office worked great they actually came up with their own cost savings and they actually saved their positions I'm concerned about the Outsourcing because there's not a lot of vendors so that is concerning that you're not going to have vendors to actually bid for this so I'm concerned about transportation and um there's a lot of things so thank you for your time Tracy Brown Vice pres second vice president for ETA sorry my voice is very scratchy as you've heard me coughing the whole time I usually get up here each time and I feel like an anger inside and right now I just feel sadness because that was the most depressing thing I've sat through in all of my years here um I'm just really sad and I know everybody my members that are here are expecting me to say some eloquent words and I really can't wrap my brain around the number of losses because normally I can stand up here and I could say let's fight not to close Evans or let's fight not to close purple hall or let's what what else have we fall for let's fight to not privatize the transportation department like benefits for Paris I mean every time there's been like a thing and now there's $7 million worth of things so I mean I'm just looking at the slides and obviously the number one thing I worry about as a union representative is protecting my people my people in their position and it's a lot of people that are going to be leaving this district and that's what makes this District a special place but besides the people it's the trickle down effect of all of the children that are really losing out I'm thinking about the my eyesight all of the um kids who need the counselors so desperately right now losing just even one counselor reading recovery Spanish tier three program the kids with lessons I mean we had Parents show up we we've never had so much P so many parents show up on our side last year for all of these issues and here they are again and the Outsourcing of a transportation department some of those drivers have been here with us for many many years um some of their children have come through it's just it's very sad to see our people go and not know what's going to come in to replace that Elementary School God bless Elementary School teachers I mean I really mean that because every day when I hear the things that they go through I know how tough it it is and I know that one more kid in their class or two more kids is crazy I mean I know some of those sizes are up to 28 I have 28 29 in a science classroom and it's it's a lot of kids it's a lot of kids so we talk about averages and we end up at the middle school because that is where I am a little more knowledgeable on the cuts you know we talk about some classes are an average of 24 that is because there are smaller resource rooms in things science and social teachers do not have resource rooms we have everyone we are already yes I do have a couple small classes this year probably one of my smallest ones ever is about a 24 but I do have a 29 28 and it's a lot of kids and then with six classes they're going to be up at probably class sizes of 30 to 35 let's be real 30 to 35 if I'm already at 28 and then we're going to have 180 children just think about that and I know you you you like to say that the elementary school like they're already teaching this many minutes or whatever 180 children that's a lot of kids I know my time is up and I don't want to focus all on Middle School it's just the one that I know most about but the team time is essential and I'm sad for everybody every Department the powers we've been fighting for those benefits for years and some of them are so close to retiring like we're tearing this District apart and then the morale it just it just stinks for the kids and the parents are paying so much in taxes so we do want to work with you but we asked like I was not at the meeting but two weeks ago at liaison like what's your preliminary budget meeting like what's your timeline and I'm being told you were like ah we don't really know yet and then this magically appeared on the agenda like 12 hours ago which is why we don't have a great presence so that's disappointing because we're we appreciate you telling us early because the rumors stink but like I don't know why it just showed up like on an agenda 12 hours in advance that was disappointing just for clar it was posted on Monday I believe but I I I do I I appreciate everything you you you're saying we feel that way too this is not these are horrible we're trying to find it's it there's no no there's no path that isn't horrible we're trying to find the least horrible path and that will be up to interpretation depending on people's role and where they are in the community and we understand that we we totally understand that um so thank you hi uh my name is Mana siski I'm an eighth grade teacher at maralon Middle School um like Tracy trying to just wrap my head around everything um it's honestly just deafening in a way to watch it all up here in front of you um um I am sitting in this room with the person that welcomed me into their room for student teaching the first person to extend their hand to me at morals and middle um somebody who shared their room with me for almost a decade it is insane to see this but I'm going to speak to the special education piece of this as it relates to team time and independent study um you talked about right the price to send kids out of District you want to talk about cost savings and keeping kids in District and things like that we need time with them right independent study is time it's when I meet with my kids it's when I help them study for tests make sure they're caught up on homework organize their binders right it's when I collaborate with my counterart the other special education teacher on my team all of that gets done during independent study it's when I get individualized time to meet with my kids outside of an inclusion classroom and a little bit of time outside of a general education setting where they might feel comfortable in situations where they otherwise might not team time again time right I get to talk to teachers who sometimes see and hear things who I don't who share information with me let me know things this year it's where I learned why a student wasn't turning in work to me and understood more about them and now they're turning in work to me and their grades have gone up it's why I learn Why students are behaving in ways that they're behaving that I might not see these things help our students it increases their productivity in the classroom these things are time and again you might not see it but it relates to your ever important cost saving that's not what I think it's about I stood here last year and I spoke to this same piece of information and those of you who were on the board talked about that social emotional piece that was brought up this evening again by some of you so again time that's what we need time with our students and it happens a lot of it during team time and independent study thank you really Henson um mother to two students at beer I had to rewrite this a few times to hold my anger I am concerned when we requested last year to put together a stakeholder committee including parents and teachers that would work together throughout the year to help with things like this to gather ideas with getting information out to families with advocate with campaigning and we were blown off I fully understand when the money is not there it's not there however you are the one who is paid to figure out what you need and how to make it happen passing the responsibility and telling us now that all ideas are welcome when the effort has not been made to meet with the people who begged to help last year is incredibly disturbing these cuts are Beyond devastating as each of them are guaranteed to result in a significant decline in the education of our kids our teachers should have been given this presentation before tonight it is unconscionable for them to find out this plan tonight with the public I am also disappointed in our board for not pushing Dr Smith to be more transparent and including the stakeholders we begged you as well last year to hold him accountable to our requests I myself emailed many times last year all I got were three canned responses and only one that even proved my email was read our students and the people who voted you in deserve better would anyone else like to make a public comment around items from the agenda seeing none we'll move into the approval of the minutes we need a motion to approve item 6.1 through point three do we have a motion motion by Mr Brown seconded by Mr Thompson any questions or comments from the board seeing none Mr Yates roll call please roll call on the approval of minutes Mr Brown yes Miss Bo MZ uh abstain from 6.1 and yes to 6.2 and 6.3 your abstention is noted Mr demarcy yes Miss Fox yes Mrs is n yes to 6.1 and abstain on 6.2 your abstention is noted Mr Thompson yes on 61 stem from 62 yes to 63 your exstension is noted Mr peelman abstained to 61 yes to 62 and 63 your abstention noted Mr Bach yes Mr conon yes and motion carries thank you Mr Yates we'll now move into superintendent report and administrative items we need a motion to approve items 7.1 through 7.8 do we have a motion motion by Miss Fox seconded by Mr Thompson and the floor over to Dr Smith before we vote yeah thank you Mr canthon I'll keep my comment short due to the budget presentation do want to shout out our schools for participating in great kindness week this week which is a national campaign the uh the passion the dedication creativity in helping our kids learn and show kindness is moving and um just want to thank again the schools for all the things that they're doing um those um elements that help make kindness part of etsd every day this is uh School Board recognition month in New Jersey and I want to recognize our school board for their tireless work it is a lot of hours especially for district going through the budget cuts that we are um so I want to thank you the board for making the commitment to be here to help us Path U plan the best path forward for our kids and then lastly tomorrow night is the eam Education Foundation annual Gala fundraiser double down for eam education at the mansion in bhe starting at 7:00 p.m. all proceeds benefiting em students anyone interested there are still tickets available at eam education foundation.org hope to see you there thank you Mr K thank you Dr Smith any questions for comments from the board seeing none Mr Yates roll call please on administrative items Mr Brown yes Mr buter MTZ yes Mr de Morrison yes Fox yes Mrs null yes Mr Thompson yes Mr peelman yes Mr Bach yes Mr conon yes the motion carries thank you Mr Yates moving to item 8 curriculum and instruction we need a motion to approve items 8.1 through 8.4 do we have a motion motion by Mr peelman seconded by Mr dear any questions or comments from the board seeing none Mr Yates roll call please on curriculum and instruction Mr Brown yes Mr M yes Mr Demars yes M fox yes Mrs N yes Mr Thompson yes Mr peelman yes Mr boach yes Mr con yes the motion carries thank you Mr Yates moving to item nine finance and operations we need a motion to approve items 9.1 through 9.14 do we have a motion motion by Mr Thompson seconded by Mr Brown any questions or comments from the board this N I have a question on I don't know what number it is but it's related to the Marlton middle toilet um yeah 9.11 renovation that's 911 so there's two right 911 and then 912 is the actual ual plumber there's probably other cost related to um like the design of it or the overall engineering I don't know what the total cost of this toilet renovation I'm assuming it's teddy bear Academy and is that right yes ma'am okay teddy bear Academy toilet renovation what the total cost is you might not be able to tell me now but also on this one it says the board will not be seeking State funding for this project I'm not quite sure why you have that in there where is the money coming from the money's coming from our capital reserve so it's money that's available in our capital reserve this year from uh projects that came in under budget okay so we have that money available to then renovate the toilet rooms and the TBA so that we can then have uh preschool expansion there next year okay so this was not approved last year for this year it was not so this budget it was not it was not approved as part of the budget submission process it's approved it's being approved tonight as a withdrawal C I was just trying to keep it straight so it was not something that was in the budget last year no last year we didn't have preschool expansion we didn't anticipate this but I thought any Capital cost for preschool was not coming out of our budget I thought that the capital cost for any Renovations was going to be in from the preschool money um so did I dream that up and what I don't know what the total cost is and then again I'll reiterate I was under the impression that any Capital costs would be um from the preschool money was that not what we talked about anyone there's no Capital funding in the in the preschool expansion Aid okay we were not allowed to get any money for any Capital Improvements that's what we had discussed there's lines for uh required maintenance in the preschool expansion aid but there's no lines for Capital Improvements there's Capital Equipment you can purchase in the preschool expansion okay yeah okay so there was no line item for that for the capital project so we're doing that in teddy bear Academy okay I don't know what the total cost is for this uh if you could provide that to me separately sure just so I know and what is the um time frame for this when is this work going to be completed this will be completed uh probably sometime in the mid spring yes ma'am okay uh yeah I think that's all I have thank you except for I do want to say very big thank you to on a positive note McKenna Realtors their graphic for our buses is so nice I don't know if any of the other board members took a look at it it looks great and I just want to give a thank you to the McKenna family for doing that thank you can I ask a question I'm so I'm I'm new here so I want to play that card for as long as I can um so just so I'm clear retrofitting any of our current infrastructure for preschool is coming out of our current budget is that fair to say not out of preschool money that we're getting separately can you ask your question again so if we're retrofitting Evans let's just say or teddy bear Academy for the purposes of preschool that money is coming out of their budget as it stands now not out of money that's coming from the preschool expansion Grant so this particular project is coming out of capital reserve capital reserve is in our general fund but it is a reserve account set aside for Capital Improvements on the district this is considered a minor renovation to our long range facilities plan so it has to come out of our Capital reserves we're funding it from savings we saw in this current Year's projects that were slated so we have the money available right and we're expanding preschool into the teddy bear Academy or what will be called the Marlton preschool Center preschool Center um and in order to do that we have to um change entrance ways into the bathrooms and add a bathroom uh in a small closet a it okay so but the same could theoretically happen if we're retrofitting Evans in a year or two where would that money come from um it's a good question I don't I don't think I have the answer to that right now but yeah any other questions or comments from the board um y this box um piggybacking on that if there are let's say a preschool bathroom has an issue or where is that money coming from because like like that would come out of required maintenance within the preschool fund itself but if we have to make any more adjustments to comply with the preschool Grant those are going to come out of our regular budget in terms of it depends on what they are um so like without knowing the specific projects it's really hard to answer that question I would say uh Capital Improvements would come from our capital reserve if we have the money available which we did this year for this um if it was something like uh you know maybe we had to to have some minor plumbing and fixtures and equipment installed that could come from the funding itself thank you Mr pman I just wanted to say I I believe that um one of the speakers earlier asked for information specifically about how the preschool expansion grant funding is going to to be reflected in the budget and how that's being used I think I would like to see that also um especially in regards to things like this for how that's going to be offset this is $132,000 that's being pulled from capital reserve for the bathrooms at least that's just for the one part of it and I think you said that there's several other parts that need to happen with it so there be several other bills that come with this no this is this is for the entire project the 132 is for the whole project yeah okay so regardless $132,000 for the project um that's a lot of money given what we're talking about that's teachers positions that's a lot of things I need to understand how that what the what money we are saving or gaining through the preschool program in order to offset the loss of the $132,000 yeah so I I certainly wouldn't call it a loss right it's $32,000 that isure is yeah it's available within the current Year's budget in capital reserve that money can only be used for Capital Improvements it's that's not money that we can take to use to offset salaries or expenses anywhere else in the budget the only thing it can be used for is Capital Improvements on the district this project quite literally qualifies as a capital Improvement on the district so it is a reasonable and an appropriate expense for the money right the money's already budgeted for this year we had Savings in some of the projects that this board approved last year for the current year that's what that money is being used for so if it it's definitely not a loss it's money that's going to be used to educate three and four year old children Eve sham children in what is going to be called the Marlton preschool Center sure sure I don't want to go down that rabbit hole right now I just want to say that I understand there may be IES of this that I don't yet understand and acknowledge that but it is this money is available this year because of money that we saved last year and therefore we're able to last year so last year at this time you approved this year's budget and we approved last year at this time the 132k for this or this no that's tonight that's tonight's approval we're in the current year last year at this time we approved the current Year's budget okay s savings from the current year in capital reserve money that's already allocated in our budget so I can't we can't just take money out of capital reserve midy year without certain approvals this money is already appropriated and then we're going to then use it towards this project correct my I guess my question is if we did not use it towards this project and our capital reserve uh plan for the year ended up being less so we had Savings in capital reserve going into next year would we be able to not not allocate as much money in our budget for capital reserve for next year and use that money elsewhere in the general budget meaning could this 132,000 be applied to other Capital expenditures yes but next year if we didn't apply approve this tonight yes it could it would go back into capital reserve and if we have Capital Improvements that we're looking to uh do next year this money would be part of that capital reserve balance yes okay thank you yeah any other questions for the board seeing none Mr y's roll call please on finance and operations Mr Brown yes M buter Ms so no to 9.11 and yes to the rest of it I need to understand more about how this works Mr demarcy yes M fox yes Mrs null yes Mr Thompson yes Mr peelman no to 911 and 912 yes to the rest Mr Bach yes Mr conon yes the motion carries thank you Mr Yates moving to Personnel item 10 we need a motion to approve items 10.1 through 10.10 do we have a motion motion by Miss Fox seconded by Mr Brown any questions or comments from the board as it pertains to Personnel seeing none Mr Yates roll call please on Personnel Mr Brown yes M moitz yes Mr dearon abstain to 10.9 yes to the rest your abstention is not to miss Fox yes Mrs null yes Mr Thompson yes Mr peelman yes Mr Vach yes Mr conon yes motion carries thank you Mr Yates moving to policy item 11 we have no policy moving to item 12 committee reports are there any committee chairs who would like to share a report seeing none we will move to Old business of which we have none moving to item 14 new new business item 14.1 we're looking for a motion to approve the settlement agreement that was discussed in executive session do we have a motion motion by Mr Brown seconded by Mr Thompson any questions or comments from the board seeing none Mr Yates roll call please roll call new business item Mr Brown yes Mr MZ yes Mr dearcy yes M fox yes Mrs null yes Mr Thompson yes Mr peelman yes Mr Bach yes Mr KH yes motion carries cool thank you Mr Yates moving to item 15 open public comment this meeting will now be open to the public referencing any items of Interest however if your questions or comments pertain to litigation student or Personnel items or negotiations we would ask that you see the superintendent after the meeting since we do not discuss these matters in public please limit your comments to three minutes per person and state your name and address at the beginning of your comments hi rosem Berardi 10 Helifax Court East um I just want uh two things uh preschool uh that motion regarding the bathrooms that's concerning because um the bill of goods that was sold you know we did Kindergarten we'll save programs then we can get preschool and preschool should be free or actually not free but the grant money should pay for everything and we should get a little extra because we be able to allocate uh building expenses salaries Etc but yet we're spending money this year for this new expansion for year two which really should come out of the grant money in my opinion but that means that you're taking the capital monies that could be used for something else for our Ka District I I I I worry I actually have been concerned a lot regarding that we're losing the focus on the K8 you know we now have Kindergarten now we have preschool but what about our Ka kids I mean our like the the wi R the regular kids uh the regular District um I'm just concerned that kids kids and our programs the Middle School the middle school is just a beacon everyone I I travel around the state and I talk to other school board members other people in the state about their school district people talk about our Middle School House concept I mean it's just people are so like jealous that we still have it and we're able to protect it for so long and I think all the parents and the teachers and the even the students last year when they articulated the reasons why it works why it works for our youngsters why it works for our teachers um it just you know there's so many issues now with the kids and um the environment I just really think that that should be and I guess I I feel it's like sacn like I just I don't have kids in the district and I'm here talking about the middle school program because I feel it's just really a great program that we should really protect so anyway that's my middle school program um and preschool uh the one thing I want to talk about you talked about advocacy I actually was in the state house today I saw a in there um you know there there were there was a senate education Committee hearing uh there was a bill up today uh Senator goal talked about you know changes to the education funding uh there's another B uh Andre Catz has Center um assembly woman Catz has a 5186 it's also addressing some of the tweaks that we need for the uh funding situation um I just wanted to thank you know all the parents and teachers are here tonight um and all the parents and teachers who wrote letters uh last year we actually were successful you know there's some parents here Ean fiscal allies we told parents to write letters they wrote letters we were successful in getting changes in the transportation it wasn't what we really wanted which was to have um uh I'm sorry if you could wrap up your comments please bothering me but anyway we were successful in two things so there's additional things that we're going to ask for uh isan fiscal allow follow us on Facebook we have uh we want to work we on the dates regarding your budget submission you have to submit it in by March 19th we would like to extend that so you guys have more time the second questions um we were able to last year we were able to get uh the additional tax levy raised um that we could do that we have transportation costs and deadlines so there'll be more information coming but um thank you all for actually listening and coming tonight hello again Ain sapio Fair Hill Court um I just want to emphasize um the deep sadness and disappointment that many of us feel that we were let us stray um we definitely were upset last year about the kindergarten and what we expected in return um but I remember the conversation about capital reserve last year when it was approved for the budget and the specific question came up is this money going to be used for preschool and that question was generally evaded here at the meeting because this is not a Q&A at this point but in small group discussions it was said no those monies will not be used for preschool preschool will come from the the grant money because we even talked about the fact that classrooms have to be fitted a certain way certain desks certain size um toys materials all of those things are part of the preschool expansion it was explained that all that was going to come from the grant um now I know this makes me sound like a person who does not like preschool children of course I love them of course I think that that they deserve um experiences but we as a public school district have a compensatory education law to to educate a certain age group and those kids are now going to be losing because monies are going toward preschool and in addition to I understand how the capital reserve works but we have been getting revenue from Evans that we won't be able to get because it's going to be used where the revenue from teddy bear Academy when that was closed could have been used to lease out so if there is an opportunity to roll back on that decision um I would ask that that be considered would anyone else like to speak on any items of Interest seeing none we are looking for a motion to adjourn motion by Mr peelman seconded by Mr Brown all those in favor thank you for