e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e house perfect all perfect [Music] this is to advise the general public that in compliance with the open meeting act the little like par Bo of Education meeting was advertised in a Park Press Atlantic City Press posted office of Bo of Education located at Road par New Jersey posted at the office of Cl Harbor have roll call V Mr Phil cello pres M Lawrence miss her here M Martin here M alno here Mr Barry here Dr Steiner here you have for okay [Music] stand United States stand na [Music] [Music] recommend a motion to improve the agenda have a second are there any questions seeing as there are none all in favor I any I'm pretty loud my mic not okay um we're going [Music] to okay so was that all in favor yes yes yes yes motion pass yes was um moving on to board presentations um we're going to have a t question hearing presented by Mr Green our VA along with um Mrs and Mrs Martin good evening everyone and welcome to the 2425 budget presentation the administration would like to thank the uh board committee who participated in uh the various and many uh budget committee meetings that we had uh they were very confusing they were very difficult U very emotional at times uh but uh they were very supportive and we also like to thank the full board for their support throughout this process but in particular the four board members you see uh we'd like to thank them for their time that they spent on the budget committee and um and all of their help and all of their patience for understanding how a buet works so thank you okay so just have a little review of the budget process even though the budget doesn't start until July 1st the actual budget process starts in October uh early in October usually by octob 1st I send out for Budget memo to all the administrators explain to them that it is now budget season and that they have to create the budgets uh their own budgets principles have to create budgets for their departments special ed facilities Department technology everybody puts all of their budget information into our Genesis software the budget software okay throughout that process uh people have a lot of questions Sometimes some people don't have any questions at all thank you uh but it all gets compiled into one software one area and that that budget is due from everybody in December at that point we cut off the budget and it now becomes the um the uh baby of the superintendent and the business administrator so the superintendent the business administrator review the budget in detail and find out some of the particulars about it this year it was um well it was something we somewhat knew was going to was going to be a problem um there was a short a budget shortfall however um we were hoping for good state aid and good state aid numbers so we started to meet with the budget committee and present some of the numbers to the budget committee and at the end of February the budget uh the state aid was for the budget and this year that amount was cut by 1 over $1.5 million which is a little bit of a shock to us because we hadn't prepared for that at all I did not expect that to happen I thought that maybe we' flat but we weren't flat we were cut by 1.5 over $1.5 million okay so the superintendent had to really uh bear down and um and review the budget closely with myself and some of the upper Administration and we needed to present a budget to the board the initial adoption on March 19th uh which is a very difficult night for for all of us um because we knew at that point that the $1.5 million was not going to get restored for any reason after the budget is initially adopted by the board we send it to the county office which is basically an extension to the State Department of Education they review the budget they had no issues with the the budget it was approved almost immediately with almost well no Financial changes um just a Waring and uh they also told us that the um state aid is probably going to remain the same we're not going to get any funding back so that's where we are we bring that here tonight to have the final hearing the final or public hearing the final adoption of the budget did you say your mic's not working so I can come over there with and together from over there testing testing okay my side is up next and I will turn that's the tax levy okay so this is the number we're approving on the agenda tonight the total tax levy which will be 15 15,7 37,000 um that includes the increase with the bank cap which goes up to 6% so we went up above the 2% 4% more and we increased the bank cap total of 6% and The Debt Service which is always there um is included as well next slide are the capital projects as you can see they're maintenance items so there's things that we couldn't avoid and that's $1 14,713 educational highlights because we're part I am part of the curriculum committee um and we got good reports from the director of curriculum um the IRA math is part of this and and could it's been implemented just a short time but we've seen some increase in scores as a result of the IR math I know a lot of the districts are are adopting this and the vehicle which is Esser funded I guess the jury still out on this but it it helped fulfill the World Language standards that we needed to uh meet and research shows that it's it's increasing reading lexiles for children the foundations which is a ponics based program is also comes highly recommended and I think we've been using that for several years the Wonders is a new Ela program which is also funded by the Grant and will be implementing that this year the EXL has been implemented already and that's a tool used to measure uh track student progress especially those students in that are having educational challenges in the irns program those are educational highlights these are some major costs that have gone up in in addition to our $1.5 million loss in state fund we've had to increase the first contribution which was mandatory uh the public employees retirement plan that was 54,000 plus and then the health benefits increased went up $3,069 two years State funding so last year we kept the the uh cap to 2% and we did uh in care of $428,000 loss last year in state funding plus and then this year was the 1.5 62692 for a grand total of almost $2 million that we don't have to use anymore this is a toughy I had a study this slide but I did calculate all the numbers and it comes up to 100% of our spending the Appropriations analysis and I'll give you the the top numbers which are listed here the salaries comprise the most of our Appropriations next are the health benefits number two and spending the next largest piece of the pie you see number three is the contracted Transportation $1,998 39 and number four on the list is the public employees retirement system for over one and I might say that all of this adds up to 97% of our spending total um the only thing that has flexible spending is the small little piece of the pie that you see was $680,000 is $668 that is um a little bit of flexible spending that we have which is 3% of the budget the rest is pretty much all still for that's me okay now this this slide here um goes over all of those things that are discretionary although we're not using that word anymore so those things where we have flexibility to make make Cuts okay um again it's 3% that's it 3% the rest of everything in the budget is contractual so that just kind of kind of shows you some different items right classroom supplies um tele nursing supplies supp Etc this is an interesting slide so this is a table of the revenue impact and it shows you each line item um compared last year to this year um obviously the the big impact is right there the twoe comparison of Revenue down over $2 million you can see that there in the red but that's each each um line item has grouped different revenues um and you can see that budgeted fund balance we had 11.9% last year and it's uh dropped significantly because we had that Passover from the prior year if that makes sense so this um this is just a nice visual of how much really how important this St is so you can see this pie chart shows you 21% start 27% of that $26 million budget is State a so that's how important the state aid is that's why we need we need help from the state every year that's why this impact is so extreme okay so this slide oh you changed it's okay so this this slide um I like a lot that goes over the the bank cap that was really hard for me to understand I you know I work in finance and Healthcare but it's very different in the public sector when you're raising taxes that's really what the board's decision here is so this outlines for you the um assessed average value of the average home in Little Lake Harvard it shows you using the bank cap and then not using the bank cap and what the impact is going to be aggregate for the entire year per home and then how much of an increase it'll be is that last coln so as you can see without banked cap we would increase about $14 okay per household with using the bank cap it's going to be $65 per household um you know throughout the year 12 67 compared to 126 now so typically you raise taxes 2% we were lucky enough in midle Lake Harbor to have a nice amount of banked cap so we took it all the way to the next and I'm being very transparent for the taxpayers who are listening we used every bit of it so we could s so we could save the jobs and that is the reason why we did that so this budget that will be approved tonight is using every amount of money every amount we can go to the absolute highest amount in taxes for the little like Harbor residents so we can save positions for the students of little like Harbor okay this slide is a table of our staff um breaks down the staff positions so certified staff support staff Administration just a nice way to kind of see how many are in each group um I just want to make a note of something here so uh last year 2022 as well as 2023 there were some Cuts in administration um uh I wasn't on the board at the time but I'm sure you remember there were positions that were not replaced um such as an assistant uh superintendent as well as the supervisor of special education and then there were other positions that were re purposed so keep that in mind um additionally I will say I know that I've heard myself there are some conflicting feelings on shared services um I know this board in the past prior to my time made some difficult decisions there um but unfortunately I think um shared services is like a marriage right it has to we have to have mutual respect and a common goal and unfortunately I think in some cases um it didn't have the best interest at heart for the most amount of students so just something to keep in mind there and then this slide I like because it really just gives a nice summary I mean this is a a really hard terrible thing and not not something that is good for the district but this does give a summary um as to what the shortfall is around $30 million and all the things that contribute to this shortfall um so the lawon state is listed there at the top as you can see over two years $2 million increase in purs and for anyone who does not know what pers is it's public employees retirement contribution this is mandatory um the surgeon health benefit costs of course our transportation costs went up by 6% and then lastly I'll say the Esser Esser uh positions so this was something that uh the federal government gave out during Co okay it stands for elementary secondary emergency relief fund they were supposed to be um onetime funds not things that should be reoccurring expenses like salaries unfortunately in the past there were a great deal of teachers that were hired with Esser funds we had to move teachers a large amount out of Esser funds and that impacted this budget significantly again Esser funds are for onetime expenses improvements to the energy program improvements to the agback system improvements for supplies not salaries so that is something that needed to be addressed and those folks were moved out of those funds and then the last thing I'll say is um there were a lot of non-compliant issues that were inherited by this Administration that did need to be addressed um so that also led to a short in the budget and then our last slide um we need we need help and this is how you can help so please reach out I will say that um Chris did a great job he helped facilitate a meeting with our legislators uh Senator Amato assemblyman Meer a s wom in Rome saying that with Patty and Robert they understand our crisis but volumes speak volumes so the more people they hear from the better um you can go to this link here that we've listed and reach out directly to them you can send them an email we need help from the community and the PTO is phenomenal in this town um they do so much to fund raise money but we're going to need them more than ever and we need support from parents so I hope that there's people listening on YouTube and I hope the community is listening uh the last thing I'll say is is we still don't know about the bills that are currently um being looked at we don't have answers there we hope to hear in in May if there's stabilization Aid that we're hoping to get back that will help with some of these Cuts so that's all I have I know that listening to the uh Governor's budget first time they're fully funding the system so that's where that came from anyone govern and then the other thing to think about salaries is that those are going to increase each year also because of raes contracts negotiated things like that so those are going to naturally um increase and so just to give those two perspectives on those just to clarify one thing that's on the slides these represent the current budget as it stands and what's included in it um I'm sure some of you saw the first contribution at over 500,000 and you saw the health benefit at 63,000 when we had spoken about a over $500,000 increase in health benefits there was that's what contributed to our initial short fall um over 500,000 by making the necessary cuts that we've made we've reduced our contribution to budget so that now the health benefit cost that's incurred by The District in this budget is only up 63 I mean obviously the amount is much more than that but the increase in this budget now is only 63,000 because of the reductions that we've made I just wanted to clarify that because I was sure a few would have they said it was 500 something so I just wanted to let you know why moving on to public comment the board now welcomes the public to comment on any educational issue or school Community interest please keep your comments respectful and civil I'll encourage and support your right to speak during public comment it does not include vular or mandatory language also please understand that the board of of Education cannot comment on personal matters we ask that you keep your comments to a maximum of three minutes is there anyone who would like to see Liz 15a I just have a quick question it hasn't come up in typically in budget presentation to find out what are the projected class sizes right now um and we have not finished our staffing um we wanted the budget to be approved but right now I would anticipate that in um kindergarten they will remain um at approximately 20 to 21 um in the Elementary grades um I don't believe anything is over 25 and um in grades 3 through six I believe they um are between 25 and 26 with the exception of sixth grade which we're still working on that was at 28 so again our hope is that we can um you know we know that particularly at FR our teachers work in teams and and in order to facilitate not going to fully um self-contained classrooms um we're trying to keep that teamed it may mean somebody sharing um we are doing our very best and hoping that if we get stabilization Aid um the first thing we'll do is work to get the class sizes back and provide um you know we want to make sure we we have enough specials available fad as you know has to be 150 minutes per week um we now give our students 120 we make up the other 30 with health topics that are covered in either science or through pipo or um English language arts can even cover help just find the Articles you know um so we've creatively approached that um but I also have to ensure that I have five record periods a week on a day for our teachers um so we're doing our best to make sure we have that available thank you I I know you guys have tremendously I just wanted to get that out there thank anyone else my name is I har I was wondering how this bu is going to impact special education specifically selfcontained ta to es or increases in sizes or Cuts special education is dictated by code um this year we have ensured that we are following the code to the letter so there will be self-contained classes they cannot exceed I see Miss lyen F because I don't want to get give the wrong number um but everything is dictated by code and we are compliant with code and that compliance issues is a major thing um Kelly can you speak to CL s numbers um in a s assist classroom the max will be 6 um in can to 12 can to 12 um we are trying not to hit the limits yeah but we're working with the numbers we're not looking to remate any of those tasses because they are limited by the special code themselves to protect the teachers and am I correct a self-contained class by code must have a our professional assigned to the class again it depends on the class so for preschool class for example students number one through eight require one classroom par on the ninth student is a second classroom par with the exception of if there's a Ono one power that student doesn't count in the numers um and it varies per sub contain classroom um in an artistic room there's uh after the third student there's an additional power on student number four so 46 would beire the additional power for the classroom as to a oneone and again the oneone is not counting based on what you're seeing this year should not see any major change because we are still required to stay within special ucation so by law that's correct by law thank you that's all I have you're welcome and I do think that that's something there has been a lot of confusion about and um there's no interpretation of that law that law is straight right out of the book anybody wants to see it we have a a code book in about five different rooms um that you're more than welcome to at my name Mar my name is Martin [Music] I am and iut we made top conation because 1.5 a lot of money but I think there question that's thatd the% this year I think that have over not that in previous years in order to you know of also um as Mar mentioned I know Services can be like marriage but hopefully have many over dishes cabinet open in kitchen but um I do think that the fisal responsibility of those sh Services have children I looking up some numbers today as I was trying to understand exactly how done um and on the Department of Education website for Jersey I saw that from the 2021 2022 school year to 2023 percent of budgetary cost for people for administration totally incre from 6.1% to 8.2 where the total classroom cost went from 70.4% down2 um the numbers for this year weren't up yet so numbers a little story ands to write it and put educal [Applause] instruction yeah um I think you have to think about the school number the ratio percentage you really have to think about a full picture of what the data me like how does enrollment factor into that because if you have a full classroom that's going to change it also to the fact we talked about how we were not compliance and I think that affected a great deal of our cross for people with regards to special ents so but there's a lot of different things that's just the one figure but what is involved in making that figure is a whole different story as to why it's lower or higher and I don't think that just looking blindly tell the story yeah and the data that you're looking at is 2 years old oh almost 3 years old because it's 2122 and then 22 23 so unfortunately um one of the issues that we had this year is um we had several compliance issues come back to us from erors in New Jersey smart and from the state and they were from the 2122 school year so we had to go back Mr Green wasn't here then many members of the board weren't here then I wasn't here then um it took a lot of research and uncovering to find out and it was incorrect submissions things like that so we've done a lot of work this year um it will be two more years before you see all the corrected data and and um unfortunately you're two years behind and that doesn't help the situation especially when you're looking for good information you're very welcome anyone else move on to finance recommend to approve second are any [Music] questions Mr phell yes M Martin Mr Barry yes Mr LESA Mr Herber Miss Lawrence Dr Snider yes motion carries um we going to commend a motion to approve personal item a I have a motion motion second are there any question Mr phell yes M Mar yes Mr Barry yes mrsno m yes M Lawrence Dr SN yes motion carries okay moving on to um I said this last time and I will say it again the teachers in this district and the staff are the heart of education and what is good about our district uh teachers here today have taught my kids or teaching my kids and just a tremendous difference in their lives and this is definitely not a position any of us want to be in we just happen to be the board members when the music stopped and uh we just want to say thank you if you're continuing to work here or if this is your last year here uh teachers and staff um you guys are just the best we really do appreciate you um you know and I also want to say thank you for sending your ideas uh we had asked for any ideas big or small uh know most of the board members if not all of read them went line by line I did looking at some of the ideas and had a conversation with our superintendent to make sure that each suggestion or idea was uh reviewed and taken seriously and Patty you said that a lot of the good ones were really already implemented or there's a number of things that were on the list that have been done they were among the first things you did I am I don't know if you want to know some of them more but um I've got three I wrote a wrot can't hear you oh you can't hear them sorry um technology expenditures that not needed to be eliminated that was been done eliminating field trips and the cost of the busing needed for them that's been done that's not to say that field trips can happen that they'll have to be fundraised for um making sure all programs in the subscriptions school no longer uses are cancelled that all o has been done um so that's you know just a um that's just a sample so there are many of the suggestions that were good um somebody suggested a 4 day work week I unfortunately compliance wise um it'd be nice yeah except that the state demands that we have 180 days and the Lea um says you can only work from September until June so it would be tough to be compliant still doesn't f 180 days it's about the state so like I said we looked at every uh idea that was written on a napkin and uh really tried to see if we do it there is one small hope I I guess we talked about it is the stabilization Aid that still is yet to be seen it's not the end all be all but it will less hopefully the amount of cuts that we have to make and you know if you can give support to Senator assembly Min rum and assembly Meer um Senator Senator was in his uh finance committee grilling the education of Comm Commissioner of Education saying what is this formula about and how bad it's hurt M County and his town so they are fighting a good fight for us and if you could support them that would definitely help us and then just on the bank cap uh you know as a government entity we never like to raise taxes uh but in this case it's necessary we have no choice and I see it as an investment and our greatest treasure in this community which is our children so by keeping the teachers and doing what we need to do to save as many jobs as possible really invested in our kids because you guys make the difference every single day thank you okay what Chris said um I work alongside teachers every day and I tell you aside from parenting you do the hardest job the world especially nowadays discipline have I appreciate teach so much and I think I can speak to last year too with the budget that we really had um it was a symptom of the eser we had a surplus of such that we didn't see see the need to know the so this year we definitely see the need and we're giving ourselves tapes but it's worth it for the kids in this District um and I am hopeful that we'll get some money's returned the state is playing a game with us right now and we don't know how that's going to end up there's two bills up in the legislature one that assembly R has proposed whereby they the state cannot take more than 1% of the previous year's cuts from you that would be great and the other one says that they're going to give us back 2third of our money uh with stipulations though there there's contingencies added to that so we don't know if we can meet all those contingencies I'm not sure about that but I am hopeful we will get some money back um and then just to reiterate we have very little control over the expenditures as you can see some are just fixed costs that we have no control over and as far as the cuts go um I would say if you can advocate for somebody parent or teachers for somebody you know that's an awesome uh staff member that should not be let go if any if there's any possibility of that Advocate with your superiors with our superintendent and let her know that um and we've heard some parents as well we communicated that to our Administration thank you I just wanted to say thank you tot up this has app [Music] I mean at the end of it we appreciate every single one of you and this is just not process and we appreciate your kindness and your understanding towards it um and just hope that we are able to next month I just wanted to uh I just wanted to to stand and say this that I appreciate all of you and uh I'm not smart enough I just wanted yeah this was a hard decision for all of us but for you the people that are are living through this and your colleagues that you have to I I just uh you know just it's tough and uh just to see all of you here tonight supporting one another under these circumstances I'm I'm I'm taken by it uh such good people and we do appreciate you doesn't seem like it though I guess do St this thank you um I just want to reiterate what everyone has said and I just feel the frustration of the possibility of stabilization a to put you through this an of not knowing um for September what's going to happen um and they did the same thing to us last year so it's very very frustrating to me to needlessly put that on our district that responsibility to try to decide what cuts to make and then in the end if they possibly do restore that Aid it's just just extremely frustrating um and with regards to the bank cap in the past you just can't raise it just to if there was no justification for it we couldn't do that and there was no way that we could have known that the pension expension would have been what they were um and I mean paty literally went Line to Line with that budget with Robert to make Cuts before she even looked at one single teacher she wouldn't even discuss cutting a teacher just to give you an idea would not even discuss it before she was certain she cut every other possible place first and I can assure you of that so with that I I thank you for taking um the time both of you um and with regards to teachers teaching today is so much more it's not just teaching a kid to read or write I mean and honestly I'll give Mrs streng I mean she help my daughter learn a tired shoes I mean besides other things it's I mean I had a student this week alone that came to me literally Bly in tears under such emotional stress these some of these kids come with the weight of the world on their shoulders and I hope that all of you are trained in that now as as part of your col train your professional development but it's not something that I have as much training in and it's that's so much more than you've ever signed up for and so I know that teacher appreciation think is coming up and we greatly respect everything that you do and every teacher here um someone that might have been hired this year to someone that's been here for 20 some years you all have value um and I just want you to know that and say um I have to think of everyone in this and I know that we're raised into bank capap and having a mother she passed away last year um but she was on a fixed income of just Social Security and um there is such a thing as senior freeze and if there's somehow that we could offer a workshop to any senior that would like to apply I would be more than happy to volunteer not going to lie the first year I made a couple mistakes but by the end I was well versed in it and I think already happy to help anyone and it really does offset the these increases um which are important because the children of today are our future and you're going to be withing this for us and to end on a positive note I do know that the play is on Friday medag gascar and so um I'm sure that it's going to be wonderful and again I think those teachers that involved in that program tomorrow is national principal day so um thank you to our building principles who um sometimes bear The Way of the World um yes all right um going I have motion to ENT exective motion have second um going to Executive but will not not taking AC so if you would um otherwise our next word meeting will be mayid 14 7M public session public session thank you very much for coming tonight we really do [Music] appreciate e e