in compliance with chapter 231 Public Law 1975 entitled open public meetings act adequate notice of this meeting has been provided as specified in the ACT proper notice of this open public meeting was provided in the notice of January 4th 2024 said notice was posted at the entrance of the Nutley Board of Education offices mailed to the Nutley Township Clerk sent happen to Nutley sent to the nutly sun on January 4th 2024 and posted on the district website can everybody please stand for the flag salute roll call Mr bamo here Mr baglia here Mrs danek Martin here Dr deia here Mr fragels Mr kazinski Mrs Quirk here Mr Scotty here and Mr Ferraro here a motion for approval of the minutes all in favor opposed Mr superintendent any correspondence uh no corresponds my fellow board members and I want to express our gratitude to the community for your patience during this challenging time since our last meeting there has been much anxiety and apprehension regarding the corrective action plan and how it may impact our district particularly our special education children and staff I want to emphasize that the plan is a living document subject to modification as we review all areas of our budgetary system from top to bottom The Current financial situation is extremely challenging on many levels and we are working to find solutions that provide for a sustainable budget that secures programs for all our district children as a parent of a severely autistic daughter I understand the fears and pressures faced by special education parents I share those fears for my own child and for the future of my other children but I also want to reassure that every board member and the entire Administration shares that same commitment to our children each decision we make will prioritize the needs of our students first and foremost I urge the community to critically assess the information circulating on social media while social media can be invaluable too for communication it can also spread misinformation and fuel unnecessary Panic please verify any claims you encounter before you share them widely if you have a question or concern please reach out to the board or the administration for answers as public figures we understand criticism but we also have families that are affected by hurtful comments please remember that everyone is accountable for their words and actions now despite our financial challenges I want to emphasize that our schools are open our teachers are teaching and our students are learning playing sports and participating in all their usual activities our top priority is ensuring that this continues uninterrupted we are working with the New Jersey Department of Education and other stakeholders to develop budget that is sustainable for the long term this will require cooperation and open dialogue from everyone the board Administration teachers staff and the community and I want to conclude by re reiterating that our commitment to transparency we continue to provide updates as we have them and I know tonight our chair of finance will share more specifics again thank you for your patience Mr superintendent uh thank you Mr President I have an update for the happenings that have been going on in district and the future events uh to come uh we have the pleasure of attending Spring Garden Lincoln school PTO meetings the past two weeks uh today we met with the construction manager for the Lincoln school project uh and next week will confirm the scope of the work in Timeline with a projected Set uh work to begin on June 23rd and then by August 15 we'll provide a timeline and scope of work to Lincoln schools Community shortly as promised at the PTO meeting our kindergarten orientations are happening I had the pleasure of of stopping in for five minutes at the anaca uh kindergarten orientation seeing all the parents thank all the principls kindergarten teachers for working through the orientation with our new families we also have sixth grade orientation happening the middle school held their sixth grade student orientation last week last Monday sixth graders from the five elementary schools went to the middle school and visited their their future Place their future School our traps Marketplace took place this was hosted by our um uh student um I'm sorry this was hosted in our Nutley High School auditorium students from around the district had the opportunity to develop their entrepreneur entrepreneurship skills by developing marketing and selling products they designed we would like to recognize all the students that participated their parents probably helped that a lot um as well as the teachers um we had I believe seven teachers who worked very hard with our students ranging from fourth to e8th grade of course Chris oia I'd like to thank her and jine Len Sol for organizing and Chris especially for running um that event personally I purchased a keychain for my daughter was her birthday as well as some Gourmet dog treats that seemed to be the trend there uh for my niece I'd like to thank the NF for co-sponsoring that along with the other people I mentioned uh did attend the CPAC uh parent committee the special education parents advisory committee I'd like to thank the parents for inviting myself and the board members uh last week during the meeting the parents shared many concerns uh including the transition plan for the ER classes at Washington school I do have an update in that area we have secured professional learning opportunities for our teachers uh with faculty from the Maywood Campus of South Beren jointure as well as retaining um continue to retain the par Professionals in that program as we transition uh to our our environments uh we had the nef meet and greet um that the same night which I could not attend because I was at the CPAC meeting but the nutly Educational Foundation had a meet and greet for new members a plug for Educational Foundation this group supports our district teachers and students by funding co-curricular programs and classroom materials they secure funding through donations and events uh they grant money to our educational system they're always looking for membership and please consider attending their Sip and saber event on June 11th next next month we'll present information on the district school performance reports many of the different rankings and District school comparisons come from these reports very happy to share that US News and World Report ranks notle high school at 160 out of 426 that's up 11 positions from the previous year good job to the entire educational Community many of whom are present tonight uh future events we're starting New Jersey student learning assessment testing will be starting next week in many of our buildings please look for information parents please look for information from your building about procedures for those days charging Chromebooks being on time also we'll be notifying coat scores will be sent home from grade three over the next couple weeks nley High School will celebrate the Honor Society induction tomorrow evening here High School Coral concert on May 14th the art show on May 15 the World Language Honor Society induction ceremony on May 16th and its annual Wellness Day on May 20th as well as the instrumental concert on May 22nd nle high school has also released its final exam schedule the week of June 10th John Walker Middle School Host will host its Middle School concert May 29th the Elementary Spring concerts and field days have started and are continuing in all of the buildings plans are underway for the Junior Olympics on May 22nd and Lead picnic on June 6th finally the district's in is in preparation of our extended school year program and strategies program during the month of July information will be shared with parents shortly um thank you Mr President thank you Mr B Mr Baga uh thank you Mr President um members of the finance committee have met continuously since our last public meeting meeting with the representatives the administrative office to push forward several initiatives as we work towards setting a final budget for the fiscal year 2024 2025 due May 15 areas of focus include ongoing budget review with the objective to identify inefficiencies and budgetary expenditures rebuilding of the business office identifying overdue obligations and limiting the impact the district's cash flow issues have on daily operations the re organization of the business office the district has engaged n zachia the accounting firm as well as uh whose expertise in state statutes regarding budgetary formation and knowledge regarding the best practices and policies of the business office for districts similar to Nutley proven invaluable we've also re-engaged with gud and Company with the objective that their firm will provide ongoing support for processing and Reconciliation of key business office functions the board's goal is for the business office to close our books monthly within the fiscal year and hand over our books for an external audit in a timely manner when the fiscal year is concluded we believe a long-term relationship with gude will help the district accomplish these critical tasks economically and without interruption these two organizations working in conjunction with our existing business office staff and our current auditor will give the district an opportunity to effectively and efficiently manage these necessary daily weekly monthly and annual budgetary and Reporting responsibilities in a costeffective manner on April 25th campan and myself met with Joanne Wilson our treasurer of school monies Joanne has been with the district since 2013 in this capacity her responsibility is to reconcile and certify the information provided on the monthly treasury report is in accurate accounting of our bank statements to put it simply Miss Wilson's only responsibility is to verify the beginning balances receipts dispersements and ending balances one month in a rear and that they are accurately reflected on the report no more no less it is neither Miss Wilson's responsibility nor is she in possession of material information to provide a qualitative opinion on the fisical health of the district this week we will post an FAQ that will provide further detail on the role of a Treasurer and we hope this will provide the public an accurate understanding as to those responsibilities the Board of Trustees are also aware that the district is deficient in posting our treasur report which is typically done monthly we've asked Miss Wilson to review the report she has provided going back to September 23rd and we intend to publish all of these reports ahead of our May board meeting on the 20th the Board of Trustees are aware of the impact nut Le financial crisis is having on many of our community members and our service providers as previously stated we are in AAR on many outstanding obligations dating well back into 2023 the board has asked the administration to prepare a current list of overdue bills held checks and out standing invoices whose checks have yet to be generated we will make this list available to the public so all of our partners and the recipients are notified of nutley's intention to meet their obligations and any emissions can be rectified quickly we hope this list will be available within the next week and our backdated obligations are met within the calendar month of May 2024 on behalf of the board I'd like to thank the community for your ongoing support and patience as we work through these issues in a timely and expedient manner it would be a gross oversight if we fail to thank the members of our faculty across all disciplines for their continued efforts to ensure the district is operating daily without disruption although we are moving towards finalizing a budget for the upcoming school year which will be submitted to the state on or before May 15 we will immediately begin preparation of the following Year's budget for the year's 2526 our goal remains to establish a long-term sustainable budget which meets the needs of our children in a fiscally responsible manner thank you thank you Mr bakia we now come to the portion of our meeting where we allow members of the public to address the board in this section we allow comments on reports resolutions and all School related matters our board regulations number 0167 allow 20 minutes for these communications each person shall be limited to three minutes and we ask that you try to stay within this requirement speakers may speak more than once only after all others wishing to speak on a topic have been heard all statements will be directed to me as the chairperson and no one may address board members individually please be reminded if your statement is too lengthy abusive obscene irrelevant or redundant your participation may be terminated comments concerning District employees and our students will not be responded to please remember to state your name and address each and every time you address the board for questions where the board may not have an immediate answer the board will take information and respond to at an appropriate time does anyone have any [Music] comments okay my name is Richard sabell I live at 391 Harrison Street I've been a bus driver in the town of Nutley for the last six and a half to seven years and I hope with the cander of this board we can settle some of the questions that are being asked around town some are rumors some AR first amount question is what is the exact amount of the budget deficit now if you want to answer at the end of my statement or per question that's up to you no we could answer that now we've we've answered that in previous meetings we've also put out a Q&A that addressed it uh the short short deficit right now is somewhere around $7 million okay was the missing funds due to misappropriation and accounting era mismanagement or criminal action I can say at this point in time that we have not found any information in our investigation that criminal action was taken okay um is the town insured for this amount of money if it is a criminal action we have insurance but you know that's that's something that's going to have to be looked at further now is there any suspects I understand you can't mention names or anything like thats but all all of your and first of all thank you for your questions I would State one material fact that is important as we talk about a look into what occurred and what the facts and circumstances are to what occurred when this process is completed one of the key steps one of the key next steps right now we're focused on the budget because we have a deadline that we have to put a budget forth to the state by state statute by May 15 but once that is complete we will bring in a third-party non-affiliated accounting firm to do a forensic audit once that information is available we'll be able to answer a lot of the questions that I know you and respectfully thank you for asking it on behalf of the community all have to make sure that what we think happened is what actually did happen okay my next question is did was the Commissioners aware of this shortfall before they merged with the Board of Education was the Commissioners aware of the shortfall yeah before you merged with the Board of Education no we we we addressed the issue with with regard to our meeting uh previously in March um we discussed it um with the Commissioners um at that time as well okay and i' just like to make one point of clarity the commissioners uh the Board of Commissioners in Nutley and the Board of Education are not merged boards they're not merged we are not merged boards we are two separate boards with two separate responsibilities but we work together in collaboration to to promote things forward within the district and within the community another rumor right sorry um isn't in true though that each special needs child is allocated funds from the state and uh each year it must be kept in a separate account and held by the board and can be only used for the education and Welfare of the child was this account compromised and why yeah so so the funds we receive from the state for special education are used for special education students was it compromised no was not compromised we thank I'm sorry there's also been rumors circulating that the transportation department will be outsourced to reduce the cost because of the shortfall most special needs parents have told me horor stories about the independent companies who run the buses many of these drivers do not have CDLs many do not have child AIDS many do not speak or understand English speeding accidents children forgotten and not picked up children left unattended and not properly seated are common complaints to get the independent bus companies now I deal with these buses every day because I go to the Phoenix Center and I see a load of different uh private buses and I see what goes on the nutly transportations department is a well-run and efficient part of the school system they do their best every day thank you they do their best every day to see that our kids are well cared for and they're on time for school no parent is refused an accommodation if they are late or need a time change we comply I say our kids because they belong to our friends and neighbors and we treat them as if they were our own [Applause] if you think our kids are more secure by out Outsourcing the transportation department you are sadly mistaken we we are the first line of defense for these kids no one except teachers spend more time with the children and parents than we do I believe the parents who are attending this meeting are very concerned about their children's [Music] safety and light of the rumors concerning this Outsourcing of the transportation board they're very concerned about it another rumor is in circulation is that the town plans to raise our real estate tax by 2 and a half% to help cover the lost money is this true so every year there's there's an increase in the budget right so that's kind of what we're at we're at the point now of determining um what what funds are needed for for next year's budget so we have not gotten to that point yet where we've determined exactly what the percentage is but but per the state we are we are capped at 2% okay now the 2020 to 21 Bud budget uh 21 to 22 wasn't this budget balanced and wasn't there a small uh overage that we had extra [Music] money I I I don't have that information you know with me now so well I've looked it up on the internet and they said there was a a small um you know Surplus not a big Surplus but a small Pur now the proposed budget for this year isn't it a little bit less than your last year's budget if I could just very quickly provide a comment for you all of our budgets as per state statute are balanced so when they're submitted to the state revenues and expenditures are equal the issues as and I I I I recommend going back to the FAQ which clearly lays out how a deficit was created for us in this District ties to overestimating and underestimating expenses and revenues for reasons that we're just not going to get into at this time Our intention is to put forth a budget that is less than what we actually expended last year but will exceed what our proposed budget was from last year so there will be an increase now last statement um isn't it true that a municipal workers bill was passed and that chapter 66 says about Outsourcing that all people in the board or on the uh in my people have to be notified 180 days before any bids are sought from any outside source for our Outsourcing so we have our attorney here with us sot yeah I mean we're subject to Title 18 a we're not under the municipal ordinances but we have deadlines to provide notice to whether it's teachers you know May 15 for you know we have to notify teachers of of non-renewals and things like that so we're subject to statutes on when we have to notify people yes now was any bids accepted or looked for or anything from outside sources have they been asked yet because nobody has notified us no that's that's what we're in you know we're exploring all the all options at this point um but but there hasn't been any decisions made okay I thank you for your time thank [Applause] you so before I'm sorry before before you uh you ask your question or make your comment uh I just make a motion to suspend the uh the three minute rule for for tonight second okay all in [Applause] favor good evening Board of Ed members Lisa holler 59 Emily Avenue parent of graduates from classes 2001 2007 and Britney holler class of 2015 special ed my children are long gone from this institution but I still have a vested interest in this town I have been a homeowner for 40 years paying exorbitant taxes but I am now a grandmother of two young boys that also Now call this town home so now my daughter is also paying exorbitant taxes here but more importantly now my grandsons attend nutly schools this is one of the things that we all love about this town the multi-generational families staying here and the family history that we all create when the word of this embarrassing debacle in our system came to light I was sufficed to say shocked sadden and mad as hell we as a town put our faith in you the Board of Ed to ensure the stability needed to educate care and protect our children you all volunteered for this position no one asked you to run but you asked for our support and look where our loyalty has led us you're sitting on that stage you're sitting on that stage and you are assuring us that our children will not be affected by the misappropriation of funds I would like to know who you consider our children because once again it's the special needs Department being recognized as the extra more specifically more specifically our power professionals and our transportation department this is not the first time that this issue has been visited it was considered when my Britney was also in school and I thank God every day that the poers were not let go back then because they're the most intrical part of a special needs classroom our children [Applause] our children form special bonds with these extras as you call them these children and we as their parents live for routine familiarity and the feeling of safety and now you want to change the dynamic of their classrooms daily weekly or monthly by hiring and bringing in out of districts you want to cut the pars whether it be by layoff or whether it be by cutting their hours to 30 just so we don't have to pay their benefits anymore these things are just not acceptable it's not our fault it's not our children's fault that you have misappropriated the funds I mean you you just admitted that there was no criminal act you just said no criminal act which means we have to put it on you now that those funds are missing we were hoping we were actually hoping there were criminal funds you know criminal T action taken but now we have to put it on you it's not acceptable our kids cannot relate to a different person in the classroom all the time they cannot enter Transportation without knowing that Miss Natalie or Mr Frank will not be the faces they see when they enter their bus every day [Applause] it's hard enough as a parent to let go of the safety control that becomes magically installed into us when we are blessed to be given the honor of raising a special child but having installed power professionals that become part of our family makes a bunch of that anxiety go away every single day I would never have made it through all those years without Mr S Mrs pooie and Mrs D'Angelo they cared for my Britney as if she was one of their own children most of you will never understand how important it is that they know and understand your child they know how each child Works they can instantly sense whether it's going to be a good day or a bad day they laugh with them when they're being silly they discipline them when necessary they cry with them when they're sad and they love them [Applause] unconditionally having permanent drivers and AIDS on our buses is crucial to the safety of our kids they already know if Little Jimmy's a runner or if little Cathy can't quite get up the steps too well or if little Britney has such severe an anxiety that she needs to be comforted through the entire ride I'd like to know why the most vulnerable of our students is always the first to be punished I would like a guarantee here tonight I'd like a guarantee from each and every one of you that our special needs education in this town will not be affected and that includes services to the children along with the positions of all teachers power professionals and transportation we need their full-time par we need a guarantee we cannot we can't wait till September for you to decide well no they're they're not going to be in the bus it's going to be somebody else we need to know now can you guarantee us that no we can't guarantee you that why not okay I mean why not why can't you guarantee that why can't that be guaranteed because we have a responsibility to you have a responsibility to the children the responsibility is to the kids and to the special needs kids this cannot happen again not in nutly this is nutly we're talking about so I also just you know and I think you know that I have a special needs child most certainly you most certainly do right okay so there's other there's four other board members here that also have children with either a disability or a sibling with a disability we understand I know you understand we have a responsibility to look at all all of the things that we can can to create a sustainable budget that does not mean that that's where we're going to go but we have a responsibility to do that but the fact that you're saying but this the fact that you're putting butt in that statement tells us here right now that there's a really good chance that those Paras are going to be taken out of that class I get it I get the budget has to be met we all get it we pay the budget our money so we get that but this cannot happen again not to our special needs kids I know you know that I know when your daughter gets on a bus when my daughter gets on a bus they have to see the same faces they can't have jabip and Jabo coming in here and looking up at my daughter would never get on the bus she would never get on the bus if it were not the same people every day that that familiarity is the most important thing to our kids they have to be comfortable like they're coming home to Mom they're going into their classroom mom's there Mrs poochie's there mom's there this is what we need and we need you all to guarantee us as soon as possible that these Paras and these Transportation they take care of our kids every day that give us that feeling of safety that I could let my daughter out of my house and I know nothing's going to happen to her and at 3:30 she did come back in that door and she's going to be laughing and happy we need that please please please make that the first priority when you're sitting at your meetings first priority thank you thank you thank you I [Applause] appreciate Donna Ferrero 34 Roosevelt Street I don't have to say anything because it's already in my notes what all these two people have already gotten up but I just want to add a little something to it I was talking to a few staff members around our surrounding areas and they have had or have right now uh privatized Paris uh with their special education students uh it's not a good scenario I've been told that they have had several that come in smell like pot one individual told me the woman who had CA come in that she had a gang tattoo on her forehead and most of the complaints that were privatized individuals did not speak English the companies also sent in different persons to cover the assignment so you as the educator never know who is in the building they do not get to stay in one classroom or assigned to one child to have some stability my con concern also is and it's always been this concern is when these companies hire these individuals if they are short staffed they will send in someone to cover the assignment however whether or not their fingerprints have been approved yet you cannot have this in this situation uh I also I had the you know privatizing the par uh par professionals I don't want to see that as a special educator you can't have that we need they are our right hand and some of you that are Educators on the board understand where I'm coming from but if you're not an educator and you don't understand that you have to have stability in the classroom for our most vulnerable children my next question besides the bus drivers in the Paris are you planning to privatize the custodians we we are looking at top down all areas to find efficiencies um that's that's that's where we're at at this point it's early um we we have a budget that we have to submit uh to the state by the 15th um a lot of these things that are being discussed tonight are not part of that budget um so our responsibility is to look at all areas from top to bottom to find out where we can get efficiencies and everything that we do okay because also they know our children they know our buildings and the children know them uh many parents and teachers have fought to get our sec our resource officers here in the buildings um they are not costing us any benefits and I'm hoping that you're not even thinking about getting rid of our security because in this day and age we need secure buildings so my one question is that I have brought up for many years and the last superintendent had told me uh with the administration that it's not union dues that we pay for all administrators it is an association fee how many administrators do we have that we're paying their administration fee because even if it's 25 at a $1,000 a year that's $25,000 we could use toward supplies they're making enough of money to be paying their own union dues or association fees [Applause] as as I stated just before we we are looking at everything from top to bottom to find efficiencies okay okay it's not gonna it's not GNA it's not going to just focus on one area it's going to be from top to bottom um one of one of the things that I just want to point out and and look we appreciate of course all of all of the work that a lot of our our staff does from from all areas we understand that um but when you look at budgets and you look at costs that are rising at three to four times the amount of the tax levy that we are permitted to increase it to so so we are permitted under statute to increase the tax levy by 2% but when you look at areas across not just not just nutly but if you if you read you know all of the papers you'll see how many other districts have challenges that are currently they're working through uh because of rising costs of in a lot of different areas that are rising at at rates of 8 to 10 per. you could see that where the challenge becomes right so that that's where it's it's difficult and as a board we're committed to looking from top to bottom to find efficiencies um that's our responsibility we understand that you know that those there may be hard decisions that have to be made um we're not at that point yet okay but I just I'm sorry I just want that's the difficult part that I think needs to be out there that if we are allowed to ra the tax levy by only 2% and costs are going up by 8 to 10% you could see that the math just doesn't work yeah okay and and every area across the the entire district is important special education super important I am a special education father I understand how important that is I understand how important our powers are how important our transportation drivers are okay but likewise our Sports programs our music programs all of the other programs are just as important right and and so that's the challenge no I'm sorry and and and and I understand okay I I do but I I didn't mean I didn't mean that they're not as important I understand and I and I appre thank you okay but that's the challenge that that this board faces is that those costs that are increasing make it difficult for us we have to find deficiencies and so that's why the commitment is that we are looking from top bottom across all budgetary lines okay I know you have a lot of um I'm going to say department heads are you planning to put them back in the classroom maybe even if they teach four or five instead of just teaching one class is that a possibility as I said from top to bottom everything is being looked at okay I just wanted to let you know I do respect all of you and I wouldn't want to be in your position right now but I hope you are listening to the parents for all these vulnerable children that um they're we call them our children ab and they're always our children and I hope that I hope that you are just listening to their concerns we are and we appreciate your your your concerns we appreciate everybody's concerns all of the parents um you know I I was at the CPAC meeting Thursday night yes I know and as a special my daughter is severely autistic I know okay you you know my daughter yes all right 16 years old does not understand language does not is not able to communicate is not potty trained and so many other challenges that she faces um but I'm not alone on this board there are other board members who either work in the special education field have children with IEPs or disabilities have siblings we understand and we would never do anything to put those children at harm okay I hope I I hope to you do that for all the all the parents that are here thank you thank you [Applause] hi good evening uh my name is Janice Fraser 256 wre Avenue so I want to give a different perspective um general education everybody has spoke eloquently about the special education students I want to speak about students who are impacted in other ways I have a senior in high school he is um thriving he's had a fantastic experience in nle high school school and my greatest hope right now is that my younger child who will be a freshman next year will have the same experience um at the last Boe meeting a parent asked about FAQ number eight I believe it's Mark Jacobson and paraphrasing he asked um it asked what the minimal impacts to the 2425 school year would be and Mr bny responded and I quoted this like copy this directly from the um video from the last meeting Staffing is something we are looking at at this time we are looking at ways to have minimal impact on students in some cases if there's a low class size there might be a high class size mostly at the secondary level so I take from that that there will be teachers let go and there are teachers that have received certain letters that believe they're called rice letters so that is a distinct possibility so I assume with that reduced number of teachers that electives would probably be first to be reduced or eliminated is that true I'm sorry could you just repeat that again I I are electives going to be reduced or eliminated due to the reduction in staff at the secondary level yeah right now we are we're at the very B beginning stages looking at staff the impact of the budget cycle on Staffing once we have an understanding for what exactly that looks at we will look at the resources we have and look at uh what runs what doesn't run based on the resources we have okay that's quite vague um I'm sorry we're at the very I I I understand that but for example what I'm seeing is my son the two things he wants to do in high school one of them he wants to take AP Computer Science more than anything that's the one thing he's looking forward to that's an elective if you're use Math teachers they have to teach those basic courses right algebra geometry all the required courses so then compite you're not going to have enough teachers to teach multiple section of comai there goes an elective for my son right so what's going to happen then when you have this trickle down effect from the younger kids coming into the high school when my son's an older kid it's going to have a lasting effect if you have children in older Elementary School this is going to affect you too so keep that in mind I want to read two belief statements from the 161 page 2024 2025 programing study for Nutley high school we believe that Nutley high at Nutley high school that students should be challenged and inspired by the curriculum and extracurricular activities and students should continue to develop intellectual curiosity and problem solving skills in our Global Society how do you reconcile those beliefs with the reducing stack in school how are we going to stimulate intellectual curiosity if you're reducing these electives these electives are where students choose what they want to study in this is what they find out what their passions are it maybe something they knew nothing about coming into the high school and they come out wanting to study that in college or go to further schooling for that that's going to be taken away if you take away these electives so you're in the beginning stages of this but I would like a response when you do complete your assessment in that 161 page program of study how much is that going to be reduced is it going to be down to 150 Pages 140 Pages how many classes are going to be cut um and some of these electives are required for graduation practical Arts Performing Arts Etc they have graduation requirements how is that going to work when you have fewer electives to choose are students going to be forced into study hall because they're not able to get their electives my son is a freshman he's going to have last priority because you have to take care of the seniors Juniors sophomores then the Freshman which is understandable but he should not be missing out he shouldn't had have a different experience than his older brother they're only four years apart education should not change that drastically in four years I also want to know how large can class sizes be at the middle school and high school if these class sizes might be eliminated what is the max that we might be see seeing for students at John H Walker Middle School and Nutley High School sorry um yeah so the max we haven't talked through class size Max our class sizes are I would say relatively right now currently 22 to 26 in that range at the middle school I'd say they're a little bit lower based on our teaming approach um if there was you know um staff that were removed class size may go up as a factor to run these electives things that you're talking about uh I I don't think um you know this going best practice going Beyond you definitely wouldn't want to go over 30 things like that um but you know that's kind of where we are we haven't looked at the impact or the data regarding removing staff because we haven't removed staff yet we're still having those conversations and we'll see how that impact things like class size and offering electives okay so I know you all are in a very difficult situation trying to fix his financial issues as the last speaker said I would not want to be in your position I'm not a financial person I couldn't even begin to unravel what's happening but I think that we need some transparency um and how this process happens we understand that Personnel issues you cannot discuss I know your lawyer here would tell me the exact same thing I'm not going to go into the specific however I want to know who makes the decisions regarding these reductions is it done internally by nutly folks or is it done with the advice of an outside Source or is it someone from the state how do we ensure that people are being fairly reduced and that there's not nepotism involved or some somebody's friend somebody's sister Etc cuz we all know somebody that's in a position due to relationship it's not you know yes there's the R Mill but we live in a small town everybody's related to somebody know somebody we know what's happening how do we make sure that that doesn't happen because that probably is part of the problem of why we were here with you know bids going to people so how do we maybe turn that around inly and make sure that that part is fair transparent Equitable and that somebody isn't just going to get by because they're related to somebody so as far as relationships in that sense right we have to file disclosure statements every year so if we have a family member that is uh it works for the district we have to disclose that right but how does that work with the process of reductions and it's not just family members it's friends it's cousins second cousins there they're huge families in town which are like multigenerational multi- spread out so if there were any reductions in force riffs it's all set by law and statute where in terms of tenure bumping rights seniority so it has to be set by law it's something we would sit down with the with the Union uh to go over and to review and to make sure we're on the same page in terms of who would have a seniority right who would have a bumping right but it's all set by law so it doesn't matter who's related to who uh we're going to follow the law okay so if you're saying we that means it's nly determining who's part of the riffs not the state correct yes okay board would it not be more impartial if you had a third party or the state involved with the riffs well the state has to look at the correct action plan and has to you know in the county uh superintendent who is the state has to look at the budget and review all these type of things as well so the state's involved in terms of oversight of it but that would be in terms of how it would be implemented is set by Statute and by the by the board okay so it's going to be people from Nutley that sit here and say okay employee ABC d and e we're going to knock out b& e that that's the level we're looking at right like there's not going to be an impartial person looking at these are the five employees that qualifications when you when you when you get to that POS that that that area of of who bumps who the Board of Education that's that's not our purview right who purview is it well that's the administration right okay so Mr B Miss Lo cons solo content so so with the budget we're given we a needs based approach identify Staffing in key areas and and we make recommendations to the board who approves those recommendations or Not by vote okay okay so my last point I think it's disingenuous to say that this financial situation is not affecting extracurricular programs right now my son is on track and field our po volters do not have a regulation mat so they're not supposed to practice deuro they go to meets not having practiced or they have to go to private facilities and pay to get training um that's a problem there's no funding to purchase one especially now um baseball training for subv varsity teams it's not being covered by the district the booster club was asked to cover this cost crew meat fees normally covered by the district are now being covered by the parent booster club could we have some transparency about how the budget cuts are affecting extracurricular activities I'm going to say it it's no secret that certain Sports receive more attention and funding and I hope certain Sports and activities would not be disproportionately affected and I would really like transparency as to how that money is allocated and how these um reductions are affecting these programs U I know my son runs track and field those uniforms they are so old his son who was a SE or his friend who's a senior runs with a ripped uniform some of the kids on track and field are running with cross country shorts because there aren't enough track and field is probably one of the biggest Sports it's the most inclusive sport because they will take everybody if you are don't make a certain team you are welcome on track and field and so many of those kids get so much out of that experience and there is so little support for that um it's really disheartening so to my point about these um effects on their extracurricular activities what I many parents want is transparency we don't want to be told one thing publicly that there's going be minimal impact and then when we talk amongst our friends we find directly there are impacts to our students right now um I won't go into it but I had an experience this year where I asked about an impact to my child's school um to to a certain classroom told one thing told one told one thing it's GNA be fixed be fixed be change and then uh no we're not going to do that we change our mind that kind of beta switch does not does not end under support or trust if you want people to trust you if you want people to believe that we're given the right information um to believe that you know everything you're doing is above board you have to give more information and as much information as you're able to I know you have limits I fully understand there are legalities to it but I think your communication could be improved thank you for your time thank you hello I'm Jessica Mabel I'm here tonight representing the Education Association of Nutley thank you the address is 337 paic AV um I'd like to thank the parents and the community members who are speaking up on behalf of our members and our students um this is my 17th year as an educator in Nutley and although I don't have an address here for the last 17 years I've been proudly calling this place my home today I'm up here on behalf of the 576 members who show up every day for the students of Nutley and we do so because we believe in them and their future on behalf of those members I'd like to say that we are disappointed that your leadership has put our students our staff this community in this situation we are skeptical that the legitimacy of the same lead leadership is making informed decisions about possible cuts to The District in order to close the budget deficit on March 19th we received the same message the community did that there were some Financial concerns but quote District does not anticipate a change in the programs or the education of the students of Nutley end quote on March 22nd the message was quote it is important to prioritize our students learning and care we are committed to the education of our students end quote at the last meeting you answered the question will this deficit significantly affect the academic and extracurricular programs of our students you guys answered quote no but there will there will be minimal changes impacting the student programming of the 2024 2025 academic year end quote so tonight I'm here expecting you to keep your word because [Applause] Cuts because Cuts don't just mean a reduction in staff it also means bigger class size less one-on-one or an individualized instruction loss of electives cuts to supports programs like Flex and security issues I ask that you make any decisions moving forward with our students best interest in mind without trying to undo mistakes that were created as quickly as possible at new teacher orientation this summer I told our new staff members that Nutley was an amazing place to work and I was proud to be part of this community many of these staff members have left previous districts and careers to join Nutley based on that reputation these staff members have come to us with seasoned experience and enriched our students educational experiences both inside and outside of the classroom if these staff members were to be let go as a result of years of financial mismanagement this which is no fault of their own it would be a huge loss for our students the staff and the community [Applause] it is very sad and disappointing what's happened we do appreciate your commitment to investigating and remediating these matters however we are fully aware that at the end of the day the students staff the community of nutly public schools are the ones who will be impacted most throughout this ordeal we've heard about Rising health care costs and Social Security and out of District special education students but at the end of the day some of the blame of what happened does fall on the shoulders of each and every one of you up there at this table it is your job to have a system of checks and balances in place it is in fact your job to notice red flags question those red flags and not wait for them to get to this magnitude understand that the next couple of weeks you need to make extremely hard decisions we believe that we have the same goal which is to continue to do everything we can for the educational and emotional well-being of our students the looks forward to working together with you to come up with necessary solutions to move forward and heal thank [Applause] you thank you my name is Brendan inanda I live at 39 over L terce what is the cost so far what is the meter running at for the financial crisis you've retained Council uh additional accountants what is the cost so far you're asking what our current running cost is for this particular situation correct I mean we started we're in a $7 million deficit yes I mean I'd like to i' like to make it very clear to the public regardless of what the assumption is on how we got here which we have a good handle on how we got here our issue right now is we've overexpanded our district so I'd like you to I I'd like you to and apologies he will have all the time he needs uh the the the current running cost right now is to be determined because we need some support to make sure we don't make these mistakes again okay yeah I I don't I don't question the hiring of all the additional expertise I'm just questioning what the cost is is the state attorney general involved in this matter the it's the the New Jersey Department of Education um is involved that I know that's part of your your previous disclosures but are other state agencies involved well we we we have to go through the Department of Education well I understand that as well but is the state attorney general involved no okay thank you uh has have the three ratings agencies Moody's S&P Fitch contacted the board or the municipal government with in regards to this matter in terms of uh inter control failure or governance failures and uh if so uh can you describe what that communication is been like the the Nutley board of education has not been contacted I can't speak for the municipal board okay thank [Music] you I just have one one final point to make and uh to address uh the president's uh remarks at the beginning about rumor and innuendo uh I've been in the news business for 35 years uh starting with the ruin and gray right here in this building when there's not accurate disclosure or fullsome disclosure in Enda rumor half truths fill the vacuum when you read those things it should be considered a reflection of what you're telling the community and you have to bat them down as you did at the beginning of the meeting it was the first matter of business for the board this this evening you really should reconsider uh a more proactive fome clear uh plan of disclosure to uh sort of decrease uh the anxiety that is so prevalent here this evening uh because when I read what the board has put out so far after reading thousands of corporate documents and government documents over over the years I still don't know what's going on I still don't know what [Applause] happened so thank [Music] you thank you does anyone else have any questions or comments hi my name is antoneta Nina 20 Hudson Street so I wasn't plan on speaking I honestly don't follow a lot of what's going on even though I do have four children my oldest is a senior he's about to get out but I do have two children who are special needs one is Joseph Nina and I can't see everyone here who knows it I can get very emotional I I know you're I know you're the mom um but we just we need to be careful because obviously it's a child and it's some it's an area we really can't discuss so it's fine because most people here I pretty much grew up in Nutley I'm pretty sure everybody knows who I am I just want to put a point that it if it was not for link I'm GNA specifically talk about Lincoln School if it was not for Lincoln School my son would not be where he is today they have been the core the parent and the teacher have been the core of my son's Improvement I'm going to name some Paras I'm sorry I have to miss Denise if you are here please stand up or is she here I have the worst eyesight if it was not for her I don't know where my son would be today we have a new principal at linoln school I believe about a couple years Mrs banitos where are you if it was not for her my son would not want to go to school every day okay now and if you meet my son Joseph he is a doll loved by Lincoln School he's actually going into sixth grade and he does not even want to leave Lincoln because to him that's his home now we're gonna go to my third son Valentino Nina Valentino goes to the CP in Belleville he is I believe the only child in Nutley that goes out of District to this specific school so going back to what Richard said about the bus Valentino unfortunately cannot take the bus in um CP because when I asked about busing for him they told me Nutley had no bus that can go there so guess who takes them every day I do why because I firsthand see Outsourcing companies the way they treat the children I take them every day drop them off pick them up so I plead and ask you to please do not take take the bus drivers away because it still gives me an opportunity one day in the future right now I'm a stay-at home mom but I don't know if one day I have to work or what my situation is what about if I need to use the bus system but most importantly the poers the teachers please do not touch them if you you specifically I don't know you specifically you just said that you have a child with special needs then you should know do not touch them because at the end of the day that 7 billion that you said was missing that's not my problem and that certainly isn't Joseph or Valentino's problem none of us so if something happens all are you to be blamed for and I don't feel bad because then when you get I just don't feel bad for you guys because you guys wanted to be in that seat you chose to be in that seat correct yes we did now you got to come back with what's going to happen okay yes so please do not touch the Paras do not touch the teachers do not touch to B drivers you guys need to figure out what you're going to do at this point that's all I have to say thank you uh Nicholas Frey 66 North Spring Garden na I didn't anticipate it being a pep rally but good for you go good uh this might be out of line do you care if I talk to the audience for a second direct directed okay then I will focus on uh you Mr Ferrero because I'm going to nerd out for second somebody with my hands in finance I understand how we got here um in the corrective action plan that was put out at the last meeting one very telling paragraph Was uh on hold on sorry uh it was under paragraph three um where the deficiency for 2324 deficiency and cash flow shortfall the review verified the audit uh specific cash flow reports identifying withheld checks outstanding invoices expected revenues and projected expenses for the remainder of the year which agreed with the auditor's projections and what that means is what we were given was not correct everything that we were being provided by our business department was not accurate things were being withheld from the board and from our Administration that is how we got here now looking back at 22 to 23 if you look at the revenue versus expense there was a $7 million deficiency there that is from what was being held by that department so as much as we want to come out with our pitchforks because of the situation that we were in this was because of one department now within that department yes the people on the board were the ones that approved it our previous administrator was the one that put that person in his position but but we have to understand why we are here we are here because of the lacks and checks and balances everything within this corrective action plan should have already been taking place so my question is why were these items not taking place why were was the board not doing their checks and balances with what was being provided why were we not being provided the correct information based on the treasury reports why do we put trust in one person or one Department without any oversight [Applause] I'll I'll take the first Sabbath responding um and I appreciate your your cander and content the you know the reality is as you eluded the issue is is is fairly complex as to how we got here but what is in the corrective action report I agree wholeheartedly are the standard checks and balances that we would expect to see and when we did not see them and they were not there I can't speak to you know with what occurred 20 years ago or 10 years ago I can just tell you what I've seen and what this board has agreed we we need to see which is how this corrective action was put together when you look at situations in other districts there are times when there's Mal deance there are times when there's bad board management there's times when there's bad municipal government Management in this case I think we have some situations that are directly tied to decisions made on budget expectations that we had more Capital than aail we grew areas of this District too quickly and we provide some servic that we cannot afford to provide there are ways that we can reduce those costs I credit uh Mrs Fraser came up and made a very good point our objective is not to remove programming we should be adding programming to the district but we're going to have to find ways to do that by putting the checks and balances in place that are in the corrective action plan and more importantly finding ways to ensure that we have as much student interaction on the daily basis as possible by high quality professionals Paris teachers administrators all included do other districts follow a similar path with what is detailed in this correction action plan meaning are the checks and balances in place in uh Clifton that aren't in place here or do all districts across the board kind of follow similar structures finan sorry Financial structures I'm not I'm not sure exactly what other districts do um with regard to the budget um all you know and preliminary budgets uh those are all all sent to the the count the respective counties uh Bas for review and approval in the state um so with regard to that yes they all do follow that uh how often [Music] do do does the board get to oversee checks and payments that are going out or is that just coming to you with the faith that what is in that information is correct well that we we rely on the fact that our professionals are providing us information that is accurate so so is all right so the reason I'm asking this question on in the March 25th meeting there was one check that was declined by all nine board members that check was 27667 for 539 9 sorry $33.99 for the person who is no longer at this table so my question is do is there any oversight prior to those meetings about what is on that check register and the money going out the door is your is your question specific to that one no my question is why is that check all right I'll ask it differently why is that check the only check that I have ever seen be declined why is there no other checks and balances in place prior to this meeting of why that is the only check that is not accepted there was consultation with our attorney so so with regard to that so so when it gets to the board meeting sorry when it gets to the board meeting everything has been scrubbed by the business department and everyone at this table is agreeing to it you asked good questions um and but in terms of every single check excuse me the the board doesn't get involved in every single check of of the operations of the district and ethically they can't because the board under the code of ethics is prohibited from the day-to-day operations of the district they're here to set policy not to run the district and to see that it runs well I I get that however within now this corrective action plan a lot of what is in this corrective action plan starts with the phrase lack of communication or lack of transparency so if what you're saying is correct then we can no longer correct that lack of because you are not legally obligated to correct it no I think what what came out of that is that there should be more communication but they don't know what they don't know if they're not giv the information now that they know that there was not good communication uh of uh checks and balances and things like that including with the with the school treasur the school treasurer's function as was pointed out already they can only go by the information they're given and if they're not given the information then you know but now that this has come to light they can put processes in place to in order to prevent it from happening again um that's the best I can answer it I I get it but I don't think it's good enough and here's why Sorry Charlie I saw that um and here's why so a town town is a corporation it's a business right we have the CEOs here and the CFOs here so if the CFO is not doing their job that means the people underneath them are not doing their job job so if there's that backlog of communication dating back to the fall of 23 you know there's a problem but the CEO doesn't know there's a problem so once we get to that point Come March and just just I'm I'm sorry I don't me interrupt you but Mr kazinski had a medical procedure today so he's just you know stretching a little bit once we get to that point in March and an email comes out and then there's no communication thereafter there's a problem and as multiple people here have said it's a lack of transparency so when I came up here on the board meeting on the 25th and asked do you think the people in this room have faith in this board and the answer is they should we just need to believe that we should and right now it's still the lack transparency of we should because the information that's still being provided is vague so as Janice said and as multiple other people said tell us as you know be clear with us because that's what's missing so when an audit comes out in February and you can see the discrepancy and you're know that there's a backlog of information and you bring in Auditors and you bring in all these people make it clear that there's a problem so that when an email vague email comes out and the Rumor Mills start and unfortunately rumor Mills continue here no offense to anybody but some things have to go based on rumor it's a problem and it gets people fired up and it gets people to not see the forest through the trees that you need to finish a budget first before you can make decisions on Forensic accountants because that's what needs to happen and when that forensic account happens you can figure out where the problem is because there's a problem there was a problem two years ago there was a problem three years ago and it built up to this so the problem is the lack of communication so when you figure out where that problem existed and how much money that is be clear with us and let us know and once you have that man pinned to the wall get him because there there are two other districts that this has happened to and nobody has gotten him so make him accountable and make sure that he doesn't work again because that is the problem thank you thank you [Applause] Brendan in andola 39 Overlook teris I neglected to ask one other question uh if I recall correctly from your prior Communications the state uh can appoint uh a person to uh be a monitor in the district by virtue of the $7 million emergency loan has that occurred is the state installing a monitor in Nutley uh not at this time no do you anticipate one uh at some point we do anticipate we have not gotten to that point we haven't receive that uh information from the state okay and what timeline uh we don't have a timeline that's not our timeline that's something that it's uh it's it's dependent on the state uh we anticipate it to be within the next week or so um but again we don't control we've submitted uh the documents that we needed to submit to the state and now we're just waiting to hear back from them okay one final question perhaps for councel uh can you describe in instances like this what does the state monitor do when they have a seat at the table on the operation of your school district how potent is their input do you have to listen to what they say is it a unilateral type of relationship uh and when uh as has been mentioned many times from the stage this evening when this whole process of remediation and budgeting and damage control uh what role does the state monitor play in all of that thank you the state monitor actually has very broad legal Powers uh from the state they can control hiring firing uh budgetary things they have a a wide latitude uh in what their Authority is uh because when they're you know in essence loaning money to the district to plug this hole uh they have broad Authority and having experience of being in a state control District in Jersey City Public Schools where I was um you know it they have a lot of authority o over and oversight with it um and I just want to apologize if you see me eating something it's not being disrespectful I'm a type one diabetic and my sugar is like starting to tank a little bit [Music] so good evening uh Tim Nel 12 place um so a little bit about myself we raised three children here in Nutley uh one of them graduated last year might remember her she used to sit on stage with you to get the DU Co updates uh I have two kids currently inrolled in school our youngest daughter special needs um before I start I just want to Echo all the sentiment about the Transportation uh please don't touch on Transportation I had a lot of questions here to drill into you about the transportation but I think most of it's been said I know it's it's getting late so very with those but just please they are an extended part of our family they are critical to our education I'll try to focus a bit on things that weren't yet asked uh things that I as I've been reading and observing meetings of late uh a lot of it is about the corrective action plan uh in the process for which uh it was made and submitted so the last meeting I observed it looked like you know pardon the expression but there was a lot of high-fiving going on about how quickly you took action on creating this corrective action plan since the issue was originally discovered and communicated I'm not sure if that's necessarily a good thing um it could be a little reckless if you ask me to come up with knee-jerk decisions under a time crunch on how we could reconcile a $7 million and Counting deficit so while you were going through this process who was consulted may I ask with some of the statements that you made about education not being impacted or special needs not being impacted I mean I know some of you said you have personal experiences but were you speaking for all of us when when those decisions were made the uh correct vaccum plan came as a result of myelf meeting with the assistant Deputy Commissioner and then requiring us to complete the corrective action plan prior to obtaining relief from the state uh in all transparency um I was looking for the state monitor to input and have impact on the corrective action plan as it has been done in other districts to my knowledge um that corrective action plan is transparent I'm not sorry not transparent it is fluid where as we receive more information or as we as state monitor comes in it will be impacted and updated um as we move forward um so to answer part of your question the corrective action plan by Nature was a requirement of us applying for Relief funding um it was impacted to answer a second part of your question um by uh two legal councils uh the New Jersey Department of Ed uh county office as well as our board by Statute the Board of Education must create a state action plan um to address the needs uh it was our hope to do that with the help of the state it was requirement to get help from the state and it will continue to be modified as we move forward all right thank you for that now from what I've heard said tonight it it sounds like the first step is you submit the correct action plan there's a series of recommendations for for cuts right I notice a lot of them were special needs a lot of them were I just I just want to be clear it's not it's not necessarily Cuts it's that we have to review and investigate those areas that not necessarily mean that there's going to be cuts that are going to Cur because of that okay but you're areas you're take a magnifying glass out on we just have a responsibility those are areas we have to look into um just just to keep going um the corrective action plan is not like any I'm usually a part of it's a fiscal corrective action plan so we relied heavy on heavily on our Auditors to identify key trends in the fiscal budget okay hence leading to the action steps needed um usually I'm very familiar with curric or Personnel related action plans this is something totally different based on the data represented in Trend analysis in our budget okay and this was required and I've heard other things mentioned tonight about we we're under a deadline to submit a revised budget by the 15th I'm assuming the 15th of of May okay by Statute we must uh do a preliminary budget by March 20th and then submit a uh finalized budget by May 15 and this revised budget are you assuming that there's going to be Cuts in certain areas or where do the figures in this advis budget has come from as it relates to the corrective action plan yeah so um one of the things we we have to do is look at actual revenues coming in um so what we've seen in our analysis is that um one of the issues we had in the corrective action plan is our revenues have been operating inflated uh so we have to rely upon the reliable revenues actually coming into the district and build a budget off that uh the problem is is that if you take this year's program and extrapolate to next year with the added costs of things going up um that number is far from our actual revenues coming in based on state aid tax levy that type of thing uh so the cuts would come in really uh the the um right sizing of the budget to actual revenues as we've been acting in somewhat of an inflated uh fashion for a while okay and I feel like a bit we're kind of dancing around the issue that there's Cuts reflected you're telling me they're not necessarily Cuts they revised schedule revenues but you're no no we are going to have to find um the gap between where our programs currently are and the revenues we have coming in to build a balanced budget um so that's an actual that's a number lower than the current number yes the the $7 million we we reference from this year's deficit is actually a loan in state aid uh we get um uh that's that's forwarded and we'll begin repaying that to my understanding right now uh next year in our state aid package so repayment of loan will not be in this budget this budget will simply be um from our program that is expanded to the actual revenues coming in at this time okay and then with the proposed adjustments [Music] um when you factor in the monies that could be saved with the special education proposals the busing the peras roughly of the $7 million deficit how much is that that you could potentially recoup just to restate your question uh you're asking how much of the proposed $7 million deficit is going to be corrected by the groups impacting the groups that you just mentioned yeah well I'm looking for a percentage so of the $7 million that we have to recoup how much of that is being recouped by the special ed cuts that you're think I I would I would clear our goal is not to recoup $7 million in 24 months right okay there are there are areas of the budget where we can move personnel there are certain expenditures that are um in the in in Nutley School District outsized first our peer groups right everybody's talked about it I mean I'm not one to hide of any of these factors right nowhere do we say that we were going to materially cut special services but what we are talking about is finding ways to reduce our total impact on our health care cost because we have extraordinarily High participation in our Healthcare program and there are ways that we can do that we're not talking about and I again this is also some you know some of the commentary that have come in from not just this audience but people in the social media space our objective is not to Outsource all of our current hourly employees we have tremendous Personnel in this District our objective is to keep as much of that Personnel here as we can but we have a deficit and that deficit has to be corrected and either we correct it by removing participation in things like healthcare or by reducing the total participation in special services with that lower band of students that maybe could be supported with other means is supposed to specifically be in the program itself or areas where we can find savings and expenditures that just didn't yield benefit the South Bergen joint venture program provided some benefit but not for the cost we're paying $1.4 million annually for it and we had low participation and not a great response from my understanding from the Personnel that were supporting it in our district so our objective is to review everything top down do we have too many personnel in a particular band whether it's administrator or in a parah or in the teaching group and we're going to rightsize it and still try to provide as much of the services we currently today and eventually set ourselves up so that we can be adding programs not removing them yeah yeah I so thank you I've heard you say all that already and again and I appreciate you're in a very tough spot so thank you for answering sorry if my questions seem redundant but when do these proposals actually turn into action and what are the gates the decision-making Gates that happen in between because I wasn't asked for these initial proposals for my input uh I'm speaking about it now but I want to know how I can make sure my voice and the voice of everybody here can be heard when somebody's deciding what should go and what should stay so you know those type of decisions right we we as a board rely on our on our administ ation our superintendent to make recommendations um we do have a a budget presentation that we're going to we're going to schedule it's probably I think it's scheduled right now for May 7th um we we at this point have not made any decisions um we're reviewing all of the different you know options from Top you know from the top to bottom looking to see if we can find those efficiencies um but but we will have meeting another meeting where obviously you know the public is here they're going to see the presentation they're going to be able to comment on it yeah okay so again I just want to express my concern on again just with the the pace of these things ongoing Ian you've heard a lot of statements tonight about parents concerned uh you know a lot of is we're very emotional with our extended family uh a lot of it is really physical safety of our children and you know I don't need to tell you you can't put a price on that right and with knee-jerk reactions like this you could potentially be opening up the door to God forbid some horrible situation which would dwarf this deficit in comparison to the expense he could be creating for all of us let alone the consequences for one of our family members so please please be careful please be transparent thank you thank you anyone else wishing to come up make a comment antonetta Nina 20 Hudson Street um this is specifically for that I have also a child that goes out of district will my child and all children who go out of District be affected by this yeah I I can say that we've budgeted appropriately for all district all children going out of district for next year meaning my child would not be affected by this okay thank you I just have one more question if you make your decisions please state your name again sorry that's just part of the process Harrison Street nutly thank you I just have one more question if you make your decision and you decide on your Cuts do we have the right to appeal it to somebody higher than this board I can't give you legal advice I I advise the board um in terms of what you know your rights are but it's really as long as things are done properly legally in terms of if there are riffs or things like that um there's not much of a challenge but you know you're free to you're free to consult an attorney well not only that sir but isn't it true that the Belleville Board of Education the Linhurst Board of Education had their Boards of of Education taken over by the state because of discrepancies they weren't taken over by by the state they they did have state monitors um right but they weren't taken over by the wer they overseeing what the boards do in those individual cities well that's the purpose of the monitor okay do we have a monitor uh as we just answered before we do not have a monitor at this point okay but we can request one that the people of the town have the it's not that we can request one it's the state will determine if one's going to be uh put put here in Nutley that's going to be a decision by the state our understanding is that anytime there's any type of of an issue financially where the state has to fund money they will put a monitor in place but we are not at that point where we've received anything from the state confirming that yet we anticipate that but we're not at that point thank you very much hi my name is Jack sder I don't live in Nutley but I've been a bus driver for about five years here and I came to Nutley because of the great reputation you all have and in a previous District I was in there was embezzlement and nobody was affected because they had insurance and insurance covered it so I don't know if this is a cause of some sort of embezzlement but if it is maybe it'll be covered by insurance and I'm just hoping maybe that will be the case and uh the other thing I want to say you you said you'll be checking everything from top to bottom well since this all came about at the top please make sure you checked at the top thank you thank you [Applause] Jim nney 90 Rond F in well in town um I just was looking for a point of clarification uh Mr sorry Mr Ferrer you stated earlier that when decisions will be made about cuts and and employees and whatnot that the board was going to work closely with the E to make sure those decisions were made and you know partner with them to make that occur right a few minutes ago Council you stated that when the state monitor comes in they have the power to hire and fire unilaterally there is no they have the oversight you know they can they can do whatever they want when it comes to that is that the case so essentially should we not rely on the fact that the board's going to partner with Yan or how's that how's that going to work can you clarify it in terms of the legal aspect of it is is that what your question was in terms of what's the role of the state Monitor and they they work collaboratively with the boards it so was your question about the board's input in that kind of in the relationship well you made a statement earlier right with with regards to the state monitor having the ability to make high yeah broad based they very broad power but they they don't just come in and exercise it like that they work collaborative collaboratively with the boards I've been in other districts that have had State monitors um and even though they have those Brun Powers it's not like you know unless there's something really egregious you know they work collaboratively with their boards okay um can I can I gave you an answer to that I I think one of the reasons why um the board has written a corrective action plan uh to that nature um anticipating the state monitor coming in is that we're trying to do things as appropriate so State monitor doesn't come in and override our decisions override us working with the a in certain ways we are trying to um do things we are anticipating would happen if a state monitor was to come in no that's fair and just quickly as a parent of a of two kids in the special ed program a friend to all the teachers and pars that are out there uh Council respectively to not call this egregious I think is a big understatement to not call what happened here egregious was a big [Music] understatement I'm sorry just just want to clarify um I I think what our attorney meant before when he said egregious is if the board were to make a decision that was egregious that the state monitor would have the ability to override the board uh but the but the state monitor will you know there their their function is to work with the board for the best interest of the district so you know sometimes that's not the case there are there are certain there are certain times when you know the boards may want to may want to do things in a certain way and then if the monitor doesn't agree then obviously the monitor can override the board but that's not the goal of of of uh of what the monitor is here to would be here to do it's to it's to work with the District to put forward a sustainable budget to make sure that we're providing for our students State my name again Donna Ferraro 34 Roosevelt Street does the district have an error and Emissions policy that would have covered the for uh Shore full it's an insurance policy yeah I think that's something that you know our attorneys are are looking into as well so you we didn't have one at this particular time to cover this or did we have one we have an insurance policy for errors and emissions and we're working with Council to determine whether or not it's applicable okay very good thank you okay how much money do we get from the state for special needs children in the district and is that money cup separate yeah uh that question has come up uh we get um our X8 is about uh is $2.6 million X8 is filed this time of year and comes in over the summer in state aid I believe it's $ three and a half million dollar in state aid specifically for special ed we get I believe five different types of state aid transitional Aid um all different types of security Aid in that package I believe the special component is$ three and a half million is it is it kept separate it the the special education uh expenditures are budgeted separately from from r yeah from regular Jed yes so so there's different expenditures for Gen Ed special ed tuitions for example things of that nature okay thank you just just to just to clarify too right the state a that we get for for our special ed area does not cover the entire cost of what the special ed uh budget is specifically how much money is it per child do you know we can't speak to P um delimiters like that unfortunately public I'm sorry okay um Elizabeth Villa 25 Cathedral Avenue um I have two questions the first is you stated about um some of the reason for the shortfall would be that um the estimates of expenditures and incomes didn't end up being what they were projected to be so I have a question about um Revenue types of Revenue that that the school board expects and receives um so that is what taxes Grants State Aid any other types of Revenue that are available to us yeah there's there's state state grants sometimes there's federal grants um but most of that comes from the tax levy okay so that was maybe underestimated then in previous budget uh no it's it wasn't the tax levy that was underestimated it was it was certain areas uh with miscellaneous Revenue uh that's you know fines and forfeitures that kind of stuff that was it's it's it's in a presentation that we we presented at the last meeting yeah I looked over some of that um I was wondering about I think there was a piece about rental income or revenue and I was wondering if there are real estate properties owned by the Board of Ed by the district or I don't even know by the town um but specifically owned by the Board of Ed that are not school buildings or athletic fields so the we just want to make it clear right the the Board of Education and the town two separate entities um the T the Board of Education there are various little um odd irregular shaped uh pieces of property that sometimes you know are are are irregular they're in in an area where they're not easily accessible and so yes that we do have certain areas in town certain parcel okay because I was wondering um I mean even if they are regular pieces of property I'm sure they have some value and maybe we could look at additional revenue or income in addition to Cuts absolutely and we are looking into that as well okay thank you and another thing I just wanted to mention I I feel like it probably goes without saying but it should definitely be said that when we're speaking up for um our special education staff um bus drivers bus AIDS Paras teachers we are 100% also meaning to speak for the therapists the OTS the pts the speech therapists and other support staff thank you thank you good evening uh Board of Education and administration uh I don't have any questions for the board tonight but rather simply a statement or a plead as a nutly taxpayer nutly parent Nutley high school graduate and former nutly teacher and administrator I've witnessed the challenges that we Face here firsthand our current Financial deficit while concerning was not unforeseen it's the culmination of Trends and decisions that were made Over time however I am not here to place blame but rather to plead for clarity decisive action and careful review of the impacts your decisions will have on the outstanding educators of Nutley and our innocent children I plead that you all carefully consider our options and make decisions that prioritize the well-being of our students and the long-term sustainability of our district this may require difficult choices and strategic future plans but it's essential that we act responsibly and with foresight so that our students continue to receive the quality education they deserve thank you thank you [Applause] good evening David K 706 Bloomfield Avenue I read a lot I've read all the good stuff over the last couple years I know most of you personally and this is no disrespect but I'm just going to cut right to it um procedures were not followed they're in the bylaws of the Board of Ed not followed as far as the dayto day with it's convenient that the nine of you who are elected by the public that are non-pension non-paid individuals fight so hard for some of you to be on there for in excess of decades who have specifically stated in the past that there's only a one to two% of the actual roughly what was over the last three years about 80 million before Esser and other things that got from the state and the extension of the prek um you can't can't have it both ways where you say that you're not responsible for anything but if you look at the org chart and the bylaws the nine of you who have been elected as Board of Ed members except for the gentleman who has been recently appointed um you can have it both ways okay just calling it out like it is and respectfully there's a lot of people who really don't want to see any of you making those decisions moving forward I'm not going to talk about a million things that I can but I can tell you right now you know how much money is coming in every year fairly close to what it's been the year before you have some very very good visibility to what the future is going to look like it's not very different the fact that money was moved from Capital reserves meetings were held minutes either are going to be found that were there and everyone in those committee meetings voted on it with or without a finance degree you were aware of it and if you weren't well then you weren't following the bylaws in either way nobody believes that the eight individuals who have been elected besides the one appointed person respectfully should be on this board moving forward and I'm going to suggest based upon the bylaws that you hold the special elections you stagger the terms and that's how you fix the board and you get new people in who actually want to do good for the school [Applause] [Laughter] district any other questions yes Barbara deid Hopper [Music] Avenue um has the board uh found out why the uh information was withheld by the business manager or the business office I'm sorry could you you said that the board was not informed by the business office or the business manager that you information was withheld from you and that you didn't know what was going on have you found out why they withheld that information I mean I I don't want to I don't want to use the fact that it's tied to a Personnel matter and we're not in Liberty to to go further but part of the part of the process that resulted in us uncovering the issues are tied to lack of clarity and information that we asked for so it's it's not a whole answer to your question I understand what you're asking but some of what you what we'd like to share with you unfortunately we can't at this time uh is anybody has anyone been suspended with or without pay I think that's a Personnel matter um Scott yeah there's been yeah well there has been an administrative leave there has been an administrative leave with which was on the board agenda yes in the FAQ was on the public agenda uh that there was an administrative uh leave at this time and it's things are still under investigation with pay uh by law we have to until we finish our investigation but under the tenure laws you have to pay somebody even if they're on leave until you have enough information to convict I I would suggest that you try to hold assets of that person maybe to help give back some of the money that was taken thank you any further [Music] questions good evening Brian Canova 147 Beach Street no political speech for me um just wanted to say I think a lot of this um what we've been feeling the past uh few weeks and months come just from a lack of knowledge of how things play out on a financial level so um trusty ble you said earlier like the role of the treasurer is limited the role of the finance committee uh committee is limited in scope um as far as what you were showing wouldn't be um it wouldn't uh what you were presented with wouldn't show like a balance sheet that we were in a re is that correct I I think to answer your question correctly I'll restate what I the comments I made before about the treasures report and that the treasures report is simply a a Reconciliation of activity that occurred in a bank account uh information that's in the treasures report produces no more knowledge into the physical health of the district other than looking at your bank statement at a particular point in time so and and that is the that is the extent of the information financial information that um that the treasurer would receive or that the finance committee would receive that is not the in and thank you for clarifying help me out here the the treasures report is just one tool that that that we are given as part of a uh sort of General review of the finances of the district think my point is and this has come up in in previous discussions the treasures report is actually fairly Limited in its value it's it's produced based on State Statute and the information that's in there is not an highly indicative state of the financial health of the district which is why using the treasury report to identify Trends positive or negative is not um it's not what would be considered best practice and so you everyone knew this beforehand as far as it's it's a snapshot I think you said at the last meeting so why use that as a um as a gauge for the financial health of the school we we don't it's produced as part of State Statute all right so in in a lot of these cases would I be correct in assuming that you are tied to State statutes as far as the information that you are allowed to see uh financial information that you're allowed to see like you can't go you can't open up the books and look line by line uh truste bagle and anyone on the finance committee can't do that I just want to make it clear just so we all know that I mean you're saying that but I just want can anyone on the finance committee open up the books and look line by line for example hypo itical let's say um and maybe this will help us understand how the process happens let's just say we need a new weit room hey I'm class of 95 State jamps I played football I know uh the bag family so let's just say $40,000 approved finance committee approves at $40,000 H complete hypothetical so we're approving for $40,000 maybe closer to 200 Grand is what we're actually paying what happens in the process there does the finance committee you were saying earlier um Council that it's policy that is you can't get involved in the nitty-gritty so is it is it what we're expecting to pay is that what's approved but as far as what's going out is there is there a disconnect there if there was if there was a particular project and there was a cost Associated to that project we would approve the cost for that project deta what I was trying to say is on a daily basis they can't be they can't be going through there but if there's an issue uh or something in particular the board members are entitled to look at whatever they want to look at but how do we do it every day okay so can we do it every other week or like how do we know if we're not do if we're not if we're at the mercy of a ba if we're at the mercy of one person who was a little bit of a stunad you know to use the term that I think not Le's believe me I've got I have another name but I cannot use it uh but um it seems to me that short of I mean short of incurring the extra expense of going outside to the geltrude accounting firm Are there any no cost supports that you're looking at to ensure transparency and a balanced budget are we going to be going to gude every month are we going is is this like the cost of doing business now I mean so I would I would say and and and um I believe one of the previous individuals pointed out or asked the question as what the running cost is you when we're making decisions by the reason that we're bringing in two outside auditing firms they're going to perform two separate functions but once those functions are in place our expectation is it will be less expensive to use an outside service which will also give us the added benefit of non-affiliated internal employees providing us information but it's still a it's still an extra cost it's not an extra cost it isn't so we're not being our expectation when we talk about efficiencies if we are going to Outsource certain responsibilities we're not going to keep individuals in that seat to do that responsibility we may Place those individuals in other places in the district but our expectation is we are going to set a budget for our business office and that will include Personnel internally and externally so a system of checks and balances in place so externally no charge this is what I go well there'll be a charge it'll just be part of our assume budget all right so at the end of the day there are people in house who we can't totally trust because if we do we're going to be back here very very careful with the term trust right we we just you know these are individuals some of them which currently workday right so but what I would say is our objective is to provide the level of transparency that you would not typically see in um in a municipality and in in in governmental entity we're going to do it with with controls that you would expect to see in more of a corporate environment so the no cost would be as you said would be moving people around in different positions as far as oversight that wouldn't be an additional cost to us but we would there would be an accounting oversight which is all part of the process and we have some natural attrition of personnel have left a district and we may not replace those individuals and Outsource their responsibility to a third party provider as an example okay all right well thank you for your time thank you well good evening Patrick Sweeney uh 53 Emily Avenue uh I don't know I read the uh the corrective action plan and I don't know why this jumped out to me but in section four uh I highlighted it said the superintendent will create a formal process for business office staff to escalate concerns when they feel direct attention is needed that leads me to believe when I read that that there was a concerned employee at the business office that had some kind of uh inkling or knew what was going on and uh couldn't bring it to someone's attention for whatever reason C could you advise whether that that that was the case number one and where are you with implementing this uh formal process for employees to bring these uh things to your attention a comment the first matter is uh ongoing Personnel issue I can't come on I'm sorry I do apologize for that uh the second matter is uh communication informally started immediately U with the business office um with for me um in extending lines of communication directly to me and a formal process will be brought to the board um and enshrined in policy uh to make sure that happens on an ongoing basis C can you explain how the potential formal process differs from the informal process that's currently in place I I don't think there's much difference in what I spoke to the business office about in the the formal process but I would like to document it and make sure the board's aware of as well as our staff members of the operating procedure moving forward okay thank [Music] you anyone else have any questions or comments okay seeing none I have a motion to close the public comment portion anyone second okay all in favor okay Mr kazinsky can you you move academic resolutions discussion Roo Mr balsamo Mr baglia Mrs danek Martin okay Dr Delia Mr fraginals M Mr kazinski Mrs Quirk Mr Scotty yes and Mr far yes Mr um deia can you move academic please no I'm sorry Administration uh yeah Mr gazinski move Administration please [Music] discussion Mr B Mr balamo yes Mr baglia yes Mrs danek Martin Dr deia Mr fraginal Mr kazinski yes Mrs Quirk yes Mr Scotty yes Mr ferara yes Mr pag Finance discussion Mr balamo Mr baglia Mrs danek Martin yes Dr Jia Mr fraginals Mr kazinski yes Mrs Quirk yes Mr Scotty yes Mr Ferraro yes any old business to come before the board personel oh I'm sorry person the bottom page eight okay Mr basam would you move Personnel please yes Mr President I'd like to move Personnel uh item one a through G discussion roll call Mr balamo yes Mr baglia Mrs Dan Martin yes Dr Delia Mr frinel Mr kazinski yes Mrs Quirk yes Mr Scotty yes Mr far yes any old business to come before the board yes if you don't mind um I think there was some discussion in the past about um having a some some Landscaping work done at Spring Garden um the parents at Spring Garden have raised the money to buy a tree in memory of one of the teachers from Spring Garden along with um they're raising money to put some blocks in uh when I spoke to Mr B about it had to make sure it went through a Schoolboard meeting so our board members are aware that they look they're looking to do some Landscaping at Spring Garden at no cost except for the advice of Mr CA on where we're going to plant the tree okay is there anything uh no just just for information Just for information so this is something that we would take up in committee location of where they're looking to do the work I guess I guess we could I I didn't yes if that's what you want to do yes okay any new business to come before the board okay whereas the Board of Education will be discussing matters exempt from public discussion Pur pursuant to njsa 10 colum 4-12 now therefore be resolved that the Board of Education recess to close executive session at this time to discuss Personnel anticipated litigation and service contracts be it further resolved that the results of the discussions will be made public by inclusion on the agenda of a subsequent meeting of the Board of Education or when the reasons for discussing such matters in closed sessions no longer exist no action will be taken from the board upon return from the executive can I get a motion to adjourn to Executive make the motion thank you thank you everyone