e e e e e e e e e e e e pursuant to the New Jersey open public meetings Act njsa 10 4-10 adequate notice of this meeting has been provided by advertising such notice in the home News Tribune the Asbury Park Press the board office the schools and on cable vision Channel 11 18 and Verizon files 24 and by filing such notice with the Township Clerk this meeting is Will scheduled for May 7 2024 the Board of Education will take uh will present the budget to the public and accept comments on the 22425 school budget David the Oldbridge Township Board of Education acknowledges that the law of the state establishes that members of the public including members of the board have the right to record public board meetings in using audio or video recording devices provided the act of recording does not interfere with the business of this public board meeting therefore the board makes it known that any such recording is to be considered the private recording of the individual and in no manner represents the official record of this board the board therefore takes no responsibility for such private recording and completely disavows any future use thank you Mr W rco danant tuno here Jano here Jodi here Francisco here lent Marquetta mazone here Slade here solowski here we have a quorum would everybody please stand for the pledge thank you Mr W okay I want to welcome all in attendance and watching remotely to the public hearing presenting the 2024 2025 proposed by budget for the Oldbridge Township Board of Education the outline for tonight's hearing will be as follows an opening statement from our superintendent of schools David cadino an introduction to our Board of Education members and current administrative team a recap of Student Activities and District accomplishments in the 2324 school year from assistant superintendents Dr hoker and Dr Tui then Mr citadino will review budget priorities for the 2425 school year I will report on District Appropriations revenues and tax impact to our community Mr sadena will then provide a summary on the proposed 24-25 budget as currently presented the administration and board members will be afforded the opportunity to offer any additional comments or closing remarks and at the conclusion of the final administrative comment we will then open the the meeting for public comment now I move it to superintendent of schools Mr cadino for his opening statement thank you for joining us and thank you for those present here this evening the Oldbridge School District faces in the 2024 2025 school year what is slated to be the final year of S2 legislation school aid Cuts we are one of many districts facing these unfair and horrendous Cuts in state aid based upon an obscure and broken District funding formula the Administration has been working tirelessly Around the Clock actively advocating with the state to consider these funding shortcuts and to see their error in their ways as we monitor monitor legislative activity for the last few months attempting to find the impact oh I'm sorry attempting to limit the impact of this substantial deficit I know that members of my team um have have met with legislators we want to thank Senator Henry came to meet with us um I'm on a phone of daily based with me members of my Association who have ties within the legislative Community hearing updates about um legislative proposals that just keep getting delayed and we're waiting for this activity that we're promised will happen um but it's essential that it does because reducing a $12 million budget reducing a deficit from $12 million in a budget will not come easy and with it without significant loss to the district but here are the facts Oldbridge is facing its final year as an S2 District the S2 District state aid cut cuts are based upon a formula that is protected from public View and is based upon the following indicators one student enrollment however our enrollment has been relatively flat since the 1990s in 1992 we had just over 8,000 students in the district we still only we still have just over 8,000 students in the district 2017 we had 7,000 students in change in the district we're now above that to 8,000 so as a district we've relatively stayed between 8,000 to 9,500 students uh for the past 20 years so it's not a lack of enrollment we are in the same area that we have been since the 1990s home sale values not assess values but home sale value house sale values um doing our own research we found that some of the assessments are don't line up with the home sale values that are here in town um a house that is the the average house is assist assessed for $156,000 here in Oldbridge that equates to a $350,000 uh to $450,000 home um a house that is has a fair market value of2 200,000 we're seeing assess for 990,000 I spoke to someone with a house that is assessed just under a million and um fair market value is just under a million but its assessment is 300 50,000 taxes are based upon that number not upon the um fair market value but on the assessment value so the state of Trenton not us not the Board of Education not your board members see that as an issue um and wants the district us to rectify that the other thing they state is that um the residential income has gone up over the past so many years since we've been in S2 District and because everyone files income taxes the state knows how much you make Big Brother's always watching and they say is the income gone up and people have moved into the community making and some of the some of the newer developments making more income than previous residents that the district school district Board of Education should somehow be able to tax a greater amount to equate to those additional home values and to the date equate to that higher income of its residents but the problem is this is the next part um that the district is limited to 2% in taxes we can't go above it doesn't matter you know how much more money residents make doesn't matter the The increased fair market value of homes the district can only great get revenue of 2% so while that's been going on based upon those home values and of the residents and the resident income Trenton believes the district is under spending that's the word they use doesn't doesn't mean we're under spending because we're not spending enough money it means by underspending they're saying we are not gaining from the local tax payers enough money and we are below adequacy by $20 million they feel as though locally we should be contributing $20 million more to the school district than we are but like I said we're limited to 2% as as we have lost $22 million since the uh since state aid has been taken from us as an S District or just about 48% of our state aid has been lost we can only take above go to 2% a year so if you're losing 48% over that time and you can only gain 2% per year you're never going to catch up to where the state feels you should meet meet for adequacy and this is something legislation is hopefully looking at they've had seven years to do it so what does this all mean Tren has created a problem they can't afford to ignore legislators and the doe authorities have told districts to be patient as they address the problem they knew was coming year after year S2 districts make cuts and traten then later on issues Equalization Aid to fix the funding formula shortcomings these actions are heartless to our Educators to our families and to our children elected officials cannot claim to care for children and allow one child to suffer this un this cruel game every year year after year they take the money and then after we look at the programs and we look at staff and make Cuts they give it back through Equalization Aid districts like Oldbridge had to submit a preliminary budget for County review that was balanced but not particularly educationally sound some districts admitted that they would not be teaching middle school next year no questions some districts wiped out Junior and senior class courses no questions the county reviewed these documents but issued no red flags because changes are coming today we continue to wait as legislation is pending for next week before the District budget is voted upon on May 14th the budget tonight is not final we believe that legislation that has been passed by assembly and is yet to be voted on by the Senate is coming in the day that follow as these board members here are asked to act in a manner that saves our school district from drastic and senseless state aid cuts and that infringe upon our ability to deliver a thorough and efficient education as required by the constition of the state of New Jersey and I heartfelt believe that every one of our board members cares about kids and they will do what even though they may not agree what's going on in Trenton they will put our kids first and our students schools first when given the opportunity in closing the budget proposed tonight is balanced as required by law however it is still a work in progress as Trenton addresses its own issues living up to the requirement that's in the state constitution as information changes we will keep you informed please can continue to advocate for our schools by contacting Trenton elected officials by May 14th we hope there's an extension to this ridiculous process and measures are put in place that allow us to address this funding formula that sets up districts for failure thank you thank you Mr s okay thank you Mr C so tonight we have our 2425 budget presentation to the public in attendance tonight are board members Margie Dro Jay Slade Sal Jano Jen duno president Matthew solow Christina Mone and Elena Francisco not joining us tonight are Leonardo Mar Marquetta and Lisa lent from the administration team to my right is Mr David sadino and to my left is Dr Kathy hoker and Dr James tuy both assistant superintendent of the schools I myself David wiell School business administrator and board secretary the next on our agenda is Dr hoker and Dr tuille will join together to bring a report on Student Activities distri goals and accomplishments from the 23 24 school year I'm just going I'm just going to walk you through the some of the photos we see in the beginning we have our oldridge students and one of the things we really can um recognize in our students we give our students tremendous opportunities for self-expression um their social and emotional growth as well as their academic growth um they're rewarded for their hard work and they're encouraged to D dig deeper and to push the extents of their knowledge and their ability to grow our alridge high school students have an expansion of what we produce and develop within our elementary schools and our middle schools fostered by great Educators across the board um you in all of our schools our students are encouraged to expand Beyond Oldbridge into the world they visit foreign countries they perform their civic responsibilties and they test their knowledge in this in this in stem at the heart of all that and creating a thorough and efficient education is an opportunity for everyone to find their strength and their their gifts and we all believe that every children every child is gifted it just depends on where their gift lies and it's a job as a comprehensive School District that we're all been made proud of we want to fight to keep um that we allow opportunities for students to grow in those areas so in the Arts we see that our students are indoor percussion performing on countless platforms Across the Nation and our band has even been to Hawaii to reform we've seen our Our Girls bowling team become champions in Champions and this year our new women's wrestling team um excelled as well as Champions we have we started a new Esports team um that has really grown for a lot of students that didn't find their niche in maybe the physical sports but are now excelling in Esports finding um camaraderie and support with peers also like them thank you oh and the Heart of all of this is our team Oldbridge our our like I said before our staff from preschool up to high school from transportation to maintenance and every every student support area in there including our Board of Education uh truly believes in the spirit of our mission to provide every student the opportunity to grow and find their place and this team I I can't be proud of to work with any other team um this year we started with Ohana theme and you see in the top right um fearlessly getting in the spe it thank you good evening I'm happy to be someone who's able to share with you District accomplishments for 2023-24 we conducted climate surveys with parents staff and students we offered a series of six Family Academy nights we are updating our district website to improve communication and calendar access which will be ready in July we've maintained recognition as National schools in a district of character we have nationally and state recognized ptas we completed the learning labs and orts Arenas at Oldbridge High School s and Samberg and Esports teams were established for all three seasons at each of these schools we completed upgrades to the Oldbridge High School auditorium we moved the maintenance headquarters to the EMS building and completed the mcdot window replacements we continued District participation in the Central Jersey program for recruitment of diverse Educators CJ CJ pride and participated in multiple job fairs to reach diverse candidates we broadcast employment opportunities through college career counselors and University education contacts and Partnerships we've provided professional development opportunities through the Oldbridge professional Learning Academy summer Learning Academy throughout the summer and had on over 900 seats filled we increased old Oba offerings throughout the year based on needs assessment and have over 50 available workshops we retain retrained all of our school Improvement panel teams adding supports for new hires we updated training for all mentors and incre increased the mentor pool we standardized protocols for specialized trainings for required staff we provide we are providing training for specialized classroom staff for our upcoming school year including crossgrade level articulation IEP review classroom resources and setup behavioral supports and resources restorative discipline positive behavioral supports trauma informed practices training were provided for all administrators and all Elementary staff we have five instructional coaches that presented over 50 workshops impacting 800 plus staff members PD provided during F PD was provided during faculty meetings in service department and grade level meetings and plc's our instructional coaches have met with a total of 557 staff through formal and informal coaching sessions throughout the district providing an impact on 5,930 students the NJ njcie technical assistance grants for middle school and high school implementation for improving inclusion instruction was implemented comprehensive School mental health implementation for Oldbridge High School in Samberg through a grant partnership with Ruckers and the New Jersey Department of Education mental health coordinators K through 12 working with high-risk students to access Community Resources and schoolwide programs mandatory suicide prevention training was provided to administrators and staff and will be completed April June and September of 2024 we partnered with the New Jersey traumatic loss Coalition njpsa and effective School solutions to provide mental health and seal Professional Resources for staff students and parents Hib training for all administrators and anti-bullying Specialists Oba administrative offerings included AI clever canva restorative practices and be positive behavioral supports and we provided comprehensive guidance staff training for grades K through 8 in CBT DBT and social skills a multi-tiered system of supports supplemental education programs are offered grades K through 12 for struggling Learners the New Jersey high impact tutoring program was offered at all 11 elementary schools we implemented professional development opportunities creative curriculum for all district preschool programs there was a continuation of standardized data collection and graphing procedures in secondary ABA and MD programs developed new curriculum guides for ELA math social studies science and select CTE courses implemented multi multiple long-term curriculum resources including wonders Ela for kindergarten through grade five study sync Ela for grades 6 through 8 McGraw Hill social study Civics for grades 6 through 11 McGraw Hill mcgrawhill High School mathematics and I will turn it over to Dr to finish up the accomplishment thank you Dr hooker continuing with the academic accomplishments for the 23 24 school year the Seal of B literacy was awarded to 43 12th grade students recognizing bil literacy in Chinese French Spanish German Italian as well as Albanian tagalong Korean Vietnamese Arabic Russian and Portuguese oldrid High School World Language Honor Society inducted over 50 students this year encompassing all five World Language French Mandarin German Spanish and Italian Oldbridge Middle School junior World Language Honor Society inducted over 150 students in all five World languages the Oldbridge World ambassador program exchange study abroad programs for French and German exchange students studying in nemes and dusenberg and also the chin China study abroad program the Oldbridge High School French and German AP course courses offered additional College Board community service credit hours where students conducted Beach cleanup community beautification projects student teaching student peer classes towards earning earning AP credits the elll emergent and select courses offered throughout the district uh integrated courses for middle school and high school students to ease transition into the mainstream English classes additionally talking points and pocket translators were provided for E transations for for families and staff districtwide onto music and instrumental U band theber High School indoor percussion was promoted to the world class division for the WGI world champions at Dayton Ohio where only 26 high school teams in the nation compete at this level Oldbridge High School Marching kns had a special selection National performance in December of 2023 at the World War II parade and uh at at Pearl Harbor in Hawaii New Jersey select regions band Oldbridge students were selected to perform in the New Jersey state bands and Orchestra where Dylan voice and Steven Fran Oldbridge Township Cultural Arts committee and Oldbridge Township Public Schools art Department had a winter weekend showcase and collaboration between the mayor's office and schools to Showcase and honor student artwork from K through 12 the district implemented Quaver interactive music platform through our kindergarten through grade five classes uh for full technology integration amongst our elementary schools there was uh select Elementary jazz music band and rock band at our some of our elementary schools and there was a music production Advanced course that was established for this upcoming school year a music production too uh it is offered in the progression of the Oldbridge High School course offering book and will be offered in September of 2024 on to Athletics in the fall Athletics boy soccer advances a state semi-final game girls soccer made the semi-finals of the GMC tournament cheerlead had a white division game day Champions girls cross country took fifth in GMC Championship girls tennis took six in the GMC championships girls volleyball were red division champs and Conference champions and field hockey were white division Champions 32 student athletes made all Division and All Conference team for fall season in the winter cheerleading won the Central Jersey group four champion and co-ed Varsity state championship wrestling girls wrestling wins the GMC tournament for the first time in school History Boys winner track was a 4x400 qualifi the meia Champions and finished 15th in the state Winter's girl girls winner track placed fifth in the GMC reala championships uh girls bowling were division Champions and Central Jersey group four Champions 35 athletes made all division or All Conference teams in the winter SEL season and Coach Teresa fet was named coach of the year in the division or conference and on to Spring currently girls lacrosses first place in the Red Division and looking to be the number one seed in the counting tournament boys Vol volleyball is currently undefeated and are looking to win hopefully their fifth New Jersey State Championship uh baseball is currently first place in the Red Division and looking to be number one seed in the county tournament and softball is currently in first place in the central group division 4 uh for Oldbridge turn it over to Mr W thank you I think these ACC accomplishments through it all show our district comes together perseveres and achieves next we Mr citadino will be discussing budget priorities for the 2425 school year the first priority is something that when I speak to the board members and community members is something we all agree upon that our students have to be in a safe learning environment and a healthy educational environment and that is our greatest priority to to ensure the safety of our students and staff and our educational facilities as a district we aim to meet the educational social and emotional and physical districts needs of all students with this budget we attempt to sustain as many successful programs as possible while continuing to deal with S2 Cuts inflation and rapidly increasing expenditures we look to the strengthened we look to to strengthen the introduced learning platforms for students while seeking and find additional platform partners that enhance the educational experience of all of our students we will maintain a clinical and therapeutic support system for our students who are at risk we continue to offer various levels of mental health supports for our students we will preserve a co-curricular clubs and organizations providing Equitable opportunities for students to participate and engage outside the classroom we will affirm our belief in professional development opportunities by offering continued support for our new and returning staff members thank you and now to the numbers so our first slide is our allocation of 2425 appropriation on this slide I have summarized the budget into seven categories overall the district is budgeting a - 1.2% decrease in spending this is a result of our estimated revenues simply being less than last year because revenues Drive expenditures in order to balance a budget our revenues and expenditures must equal within this chart you will see a tentative decrease to program costs and administrative costs the employee benefits line represents 22.5% of the budget containing many semi- fixed costs for items such as health prescription dental and vision insurance Workers Compensation insur Insurance pension costs payroll taxes and other employee benefits the projected increase is approximately 7.23% the largest component within those costs is healthc care premiums we are enrolled in the state Educators health plan which are projection premium increases of anywhere from 12% up to 18% for the first half of 202 5 calendar year statutory changes to employee benefit contributions have continued to create a substantial burden of the increased costs to the district our increases to items within insurance coverage such as workers compensation have increased drastically as a result of return to work experiences postco now impacting the figure the maintenance and operations line which is 10.98% of the budget contains cost for required maintenance sow removal custodial Services security and energy cost we are working hard to try to keep these costs as flat as possible even though increasing mandates to necessary repairs and maintenance required come up throughout the year the transportation line is about 9.31% of the budget containing cost for salaries to operate our Fleet of District owned buses contracted services or outside vendors that provide daily busing for students you will see a percentage change of 18.2% which is to combat the increase of contractor routes shortage of drivers from contractors increasing fuel costs maintenance and administration of the entire operation this current year the 2324 school year we have seen again a significant increase resulting in the need to transfer funds into the account throughout the year this increase should cover up those continued shortfalls the administrative cost line is 5.42% of the budget containing the cost of Staffing of the main offices of all schools such as school princip princi and secretaries Superintendent's Office business office and district-wide Technology components this initial number proposed is based on our balanced tenative budget submission the tuition cost line is about 2.74% of the budget containing cost for tuition of added District private placements and tuition for students that attend vocational schools the capital outlay line is about 1.47% of the budget containing cost for facility upgrades and the SDA assessment for a past referendum as vice president Jen duno publicly shared a few meetings ago what is important to remember here is that the funds fac facility upgrades come from a separate bank account aside from a general fund and could only be used to fund facility projects here we have an overall pie CH chart just representing those percentages discussed next Slide the first line here is our program cost it represents about or actually go back one more CJ or two more rather there we go our program costs it represents about 47.9 4% of our district costs are $ 76.3 million there is a 8.94% decrease of overall costs principally due to the necessity of having to pull back some programs or reduce sections amongst three levels of schooling elementary middle and high school this breakdown of total cost is represent presented by a pie chart on the next slide and now we'll go to the next slide to really break down those program costs so program costs specifically include a plethora of items which is detailed here program cost details as an S2 district for the last six years the Oldbridge Community felt an impact of the loss in state aid early on those impacts were ultimately mitigated by covid-19 pandemic and subsequent Federal grant funding relief packages in addition to remote learning provided less spending in our Surplus to build however this year for 2425 our reserves have been diminished our Surplus from prior expenditures have increased and covid grant funding is no longer available to us as a result with inflation and increased expenditure levels the district is in a position with no choice but to decrease spending through cuts the chart represented here you'll see realized decreases in various areas of spending these program costs include items such as Staffing supplies textbooks software licenses outsourc Educational Services and supports when looking at percentage change it is important to review the context of the figures and compare the line relative to the total percentage of the program after recent review of the submitted tenative budget as it currently stands the administration discussed that in order to continue to make or implementation of our educational programs as successful as possible we felt it necessary to make revisions and changes within the the district's administrative cost specifically as it pertains to school administration the school administration line which was presented as a decrease by several positions will be revised to continue to have administrators present at current levels to ensure safety security and support are prioritized in our secondary schools because of these revisions to secondary level administrators we look to make additional changes which would impact the operations of school district schools across all grade levels including changes to other administrative costs person and other regular program costs including Health nursing and student services on our Capital La slide this slide is a summary of the capital expenditures included in the 2425 proposed budget repairs to the retaining wall in the back of Oldbridge High School in conjunction with directive by the njde paving masonry upgrades and playground upgrades are all included in this number this the district will continue to look for and apply for as many facilities grants we could defined which are not represented by any figures within this presentation currently the other items are State mandated items for Appropriations let me just get to that slide we have our unusual and notable items the 2425 budget includes significant projected increases in student transportation costs as we have experienced over the previous and current school year again we're really trying to bring our current spending um in line so that transfers don't have to be made from other areas to to fund balance the budget projected increases of Health employee health premium costs in conjunction with our health benefit Brokers is included projected increases in general liability and property package insurances stemming from prior year exposures and experiences projected increases in outed District tuition for students with a designated classification and the shift of program funding for Grants the general fund in order to continue a level of mental health supports for students all these are representative in our 242 budget now we'll get to our revenues the first item you'll see is a state aid reduction of 2,528 261 this is an increase from last year where we only lost 2,800 or 8,076 the next line is our budgeted fund balance our budgeted fund balance is 5, 361,000 last year and for comparison in 23 24 this number was 10,684 548 these reserves represented there are a result of Prior year unbudgeted Revenue received unspent Appropriations that exceeded an allowable 2% reserve of the district's annual expenditures as you can see from the budgeted excess Surplus figured the district was behind the eightball by more than $4 million before we even started running numbers stemming from 2122 excess Surplus essentially what that means in 2122 because of the covid pandemic we had less spending um and we were able to use those funds back into the budget last year now our return from school at our after our 2223 audit we really spent because of the increased expenditures to really the max that we could so we only brought in as that figure there 146,147 that was our budgeted Surplus excess Surplus from the 2223 audit so that number in in last year's budget was over $4 million so again right away there there's a $4 million difference uh of funds that we had to come up with next we have our withdrawal from capital reserve of one 1,984 545 that is um again from our capital reserve a separate account that we can only use for uh facility projects and SDA assessment the next item is our maintenance Reserve so that item includes a $4,875 uh which drawal from maintenance Reserve this effectively depletes our maintenance Reserve however if we didn't use it we'd be cutting an additional sum of money for instance if that was only $2 million that we were bringing into their budget we'd have to find another another $2 million to cut elsewhere so we are using all our maintenance reserves there they'll be depleted however it's again and a way to try to prevent further cutting general fund Revenue the first it excuse me the first item on the general fund Revenue page is called budgeted fund balance when a district approves a budget the budget is a tool to manage District finances and it contains numerous estimates of Revenue and expenditures if revenues received exceed the revenues budgeted that excess Revenue goes into fund balance if actual expenses paid are less than expenses appropriated that un spent appropriation goes into fund balance the district May maintain 2% of the previous year's expenditures in the fund balance called unrestricted fund balance anything over that amount has to be transferred by board resolution in June of each year either to capital reserve maintenance Reserve emergency Reserve or it is a return to the taxpayer in the form of taxpayer relief or budgeted fund balance which is a revenue item in the subsequent year budget so essentially we're going through our 2324 budget this year anything we don't spend this year is Surplus however it doesn't help us for 2425 you have to essentially wait one year after your audit to go into the 2526 budget the reserve the reserve withdrawal line represents withdrawals from the restricted Reserve accounts to fund this year's projects again capital and maintenance and emergency reserve the local tax levy line is the assessment to local taxpayers and this proposed budget contains a 2.97% increase of which 2% mandated by State statue to not go above and an additional 97% above the 2% as a result of Health Care Premium cost increasing however according to the flid state aid formula the local taxpayer should be paying 140 m380 738 as a local tax levy which is $22.7 million higher than our proposed Levy the state aid line has decreased by 9.41% or 2,528 261 the state has and will continue to drastically reduce our state aid for foreseeable future unless a significant change is made to the funding formula for 2425 the state aid is approximately $24.3 million which by comparison is the amount of the aid the district received in the early 1990s for school funding reform legislation known as S2 on paper is stated to be in its final year this year but by definition and because of the current Formula we really do not know what that means as long as the formula calculates that we are receiving too much state aid and the local tax levy is too low we should expect unpredictable state aid reductions to continue the other state aid line is extraordinary Aid received for special needs students this Aid is not guaranteed however State guidance recommends any S2 districts that are losing state aid such as us use this Revenue line to cover a portion of the reduction in other state aid if necessary it is necessary in the 2425 School dist school year budget to keep this um this figure in as a revenue and keep it flat if you overestimate that number and the numbers actually don't meet now you're you're really overestimated and you have to find that Revenue which is not a guarantee and the other Revenue line that's on here is any other Revenue that cannot be categorized in any of the above categories examples such as lease income interest income any fees from facility rentals cell phone tower Revenue tuition revenue and refunds from prior years one of the items in here is the lease for Cheesequake school to the sville Board of Education our next slide is our tax impact the the 2425 tax rate calculation this slide represents information necessary to calculate the tax rate and impact of the average homeowner there are three points to discuss here the ratables in the township have increased by 49,5 58,4 45 from last year however this number is less this year because utilities are no longer included in the rable base as they were in years past the local tax levy will increase by 2.97% to17 m644 41 accounting for the 2% tax levy increase and any available adjustments such as the result of Health Care cost increases to support the proposed budget ultimately this will cost the average homeowner with an assessed value at1 56,58 to increase $113 67 per year or equal to $947 per month that's our tax impact for the 2425 School District or school year Mr sadino will now provide a final summary on the 2425 school year budget thank you the proposed budget for the 2425 school year aims to continue to support as many educational programs as possible despite the significant reductions of State state aid compiled over six years under S2 legislation overwhelming increases to expenditures and inflation through these challenges the proposed budget aims to continue supporting healthy living environments across all schools made possible by our staff the proposed budget for the 20242 school year extends the useful life of current Technologies used for student learning and achievement the proposed budget of 24-25 provides funding to Ure all curriculum and resources are aligned with the state standards the proposed budget of the 2425 school year provides academic social and emotional support mechanisms for all students regardless of their talents and abilities throughout their various obtainable uh through through various obtainable resources thank you all that is our presentation on the 2425 school year budget we'll open uh the floor here for closing comments from any administrator of the board and upon that conclusion we'll then open the meeting up for public comment um as well so thank you okay uh hearing of residents on any school issue item or the budget oh I'm sorry okay board member comments if any comments oh I'm sure we all have comments um the budget sucks we all know that um but not because of our Administration we know everyone said the state formula sucks you know we've asked for it and you know whether we blame previous Town councils previous Board of EDS myself included for not fighting Trenton sooner I don't know what the answer is but the Town Council and the state are disagreeing on what we should pay is taxes do any of us want to pay more in taxes no but we don't want to see our school system go down the drain Oldbridge is awesome that's why we're all here right we Oldbridge has the community that will fight any small town fi so while the state disagrees with what we're charging for our taxes the kids are held hostage and that's what we're trying to keep the best we can with this with the budget and with keeping the the schools the best possible we can so Mr Rell welcome to Oldbridge your first month in this is your budget I I I feel sorry for you I I thank the administration for the the hard work that you guys have have done on this but talk to your neighbors the vote for increasing state aid is until next week whether you own whether you have a child in the school or not now is your time to contact them because we all know the value of the school reflects your home value right so this isn't just parents only this is the whole Community talk to your neighbors now is your time to call Trenton email Trenton write your letters so I really ask all of alridge to do that thank you thank you Mr D anono anybody else I know a lot of people have already written letters um we've gotten some responses back but if even if you have please write and call again this is desperate time so please write call make your voices heard and Jen is right they're holding our kids hostage so um we don't want to see programs cut staff cut classes cut so um we really need to come together as a district to help save this thank you anyone else yes uh David is it possible could you I know we did it under the finance committee could you break down for the public the worst case scenario what the tax increase would look like because I think there's a misconception that people think that their taxes are going to go up overall 10% and there's a misconception as to what the Board of Ed takes on their portion Sure hold on one second I can give ballparks what you're looking at so we looked at like the the worst case scenario and middle scenarios so um we looked at if if your a million dooll home that we found assessed at $350,000 was basically the ballpark assessment for a million dollar home you were already going up um 200 and change because that was the mandatory 2% we have to go up 2% as an S2 District um the additional would be $300 so on a person living in a million doll home with an assessed value of $360,000 your value would go up for a ye uh for the for the year would be five $500 200 of that is already mandatory so it's an additional $300 um you have it now so you can keep going thank you dude okay so again as as Dave kind of talked and we saw on that the slide our tax impact slide was um an average assessed home for 2024 is $156,500 at a 2% tax levy increase that equates to $113 67 annually for a taxpayer that's $947 or $947 per month the legislation that's out there um that'll be voted on later this week is uh Bill a 4161 I believe what that essentially does is allows um if it passes can allow a district who has been receiving uh decreases in state aid to go up their tax Lev will go up to 99.9% could go up to 99.9% additionally if you do go above 2% you'll get Aid back from the state of New Jersey as well they appropriated they'll give two-thirds back state aid that you lost so essentially there the state is saying that sure we'll give you back some state aid but only if it's the on the onus of the taxpayer you have to go above your your 2% so in in some early calculations that we ran um we went kind of down the line from two to three to four to five to six to 7 to8 to 9 to 9.9 which is the highest but as Jay has asked um worst case scenario so at a 99.9% um that would bring an additional $9 million back back to the district that of just tax levy again at 2% you're increasing $113 um at 99.9% it's $35.98 at a average assessed home of 15654 so the monthly increase at that average assessment is $25.50 again for that monthly increase increase you're bringing you're helping assist and bring back $9 million back to The District in addition to uh two3 of the $2.5 million will be 1.67 um 1,67 something along those lines so we will effectively if their legislation passes and if the board then has a very tough decision as Dave said in past meetings it's the toughest year you'll probably ever have to be a board member um because if there is a vote and we can go up to 99.9% um again you can effectively wipe out our $1 million uh deficit but again so for the $25 tax increase nine is already included so for $12 so two cups of Dunkin' Donuts coffee you too can have a school district that doesn't have Cuts so again none of us want tax increases but we want the school system more so I'd like to U make a statement or at least clarify um and correct if I'm wrong um and for full transparency because really that's honestly what's so important right now the amount that you said Mr weell of $35 for the year um at a possible 99.9% increase and the $25 per month that is the portion of our taxes that the school district receives which is approximately 58% correct correct that's just the school portion of the your tax School portion right and we're we're talking about the school budget so obviously that's completely Rel but what's also relevant to every taxpayer is well hold on I don't want to know exactly how my taxes are going up for just the school district I want to know how they're going up allog together so the number is essentially higher I haven't done the math of the other 42% but just for full transparency it's a little bit more than that am I correct correct this just pertains to your school portion of your taxes just want you know just want to be clear I also have something to ask um I think what a lot of people want to know is in worst case scenario how does this ffect the kids what programs will be cut what programs won't be cut and I think that's what what's scaring everyone I know I'm sure everyone else has gotten emails I have gotten emails of people asking certain you know certain programs is my is my child going to be affected by this and I think that's what the parents want to know thank you anyone else okay we're going to do whatever we can at the board level and the administrative level to hold on to as many programs as we can you have to bear with us and hopefully we can get some help from uh Senator uh and Trenton right now anyone else and happy birthday March oh that's right happy birthday okay we'll open up to the public now yeah now this is pertaining to any school issue or the budget good evening Andrew Lewis Oba uh just to Echo what Miss maone said if you could describe for us the impact what our schools would look like next year if it's only a 2.97% increase class size programs staff job losses and then what that could look like if it was you know 5% 99.9% give us a little bit detail the presentation was great thank you for the detailed presentation board members for their comments but if we can just get a picture of what the school district might look like some of the different levels next year thank you thank you anyone else press the button and stay your okay hi my name is Jessica you probably some of you saw my Facebook post asking people to come out because I feel it's so important that we do I have five kids um three still in the system with years and years to go I really feel like to get parents to write to the Senators and legislators and representatives to pass these things to increase the taxes we need to know what the challenges we're going to face are we need to know what's going to be cut there's so many rumors out there and people need to know what's really on The Chopping Block to be motivated to write these legislators and Senators because there's no motivation right now I don't even know how many people knew about this meeting because nobody's talking about it and it's so important to talk about so I feel like we really need to know I don't know if everyone else here agrees but that's why I'm here tonight thank you anyone else okay I guess we're going to close the portion of to the public do we have a executive session Mr solowski yes I I feel as though I wanted at least give some response to that I can't I'm not going to go through like every step along the way as we looked at it but I'll give you the best case scenario and the worst case scenario the worst case scenario if no legislation comes through or the board regret re the board rejects anything other than the mandatory 2.9% um you're looking at things as re regressing back to half day kindergarten you're looking at um the high school eliminating programs uh anything that's not mandatory uh in in Pro in programming so that could be anything from your what makes is a comprehensive High School um like your vocational Arts um uh programs that are optional electives any elective that's not mandatory because at that point the state is just giving you what is the bare minimum to operate a school district and it doesn't take into effect their third efficient that I talked about earlier so it could be the elimination of programs any anything beyond what's mandatory in the school day so you have to have four years of English four years of physical education um three years of math one year of a World Language and you'd get one elective in there um basically the school day for a high school student would end around 12:30 every day um that's how devastating it would be and that's why we need legislation that makes sense and doesn't as well said hold schools and students hostage for we don't we don't have any control in it the board of education at this point has no control in it we don't decide you know people's income we don't decide their value is of their homes we just get the revenue based upon that and the state is saying that it's there the the there's a a gap between what it's the values are and what we're allowed to get and we can't operate outside of that um so it it would be looking at a bare minimum for clubs and activities and sports it could be just varsity at that point um the best case scenario the best case scenario still has some increased class size at the middle school level I don't think it would be a substantial increase in class size probably classes from ranging from 18 to maybe 25 students would be the best case scenario um other things in there we looking at is some of our student transportation that's not mandatory um I know a lot of districts over the years who have S2 districts or districts that even have lots of funding have um removed optional Transportation so we'll still transport students to and from G of that but once they get back to the field Houser of school um it require parents or core pooling to get them from that point on um any anything beyond that is kind of a Luxury Transportation and when we're in S2 District in year seven and asking for more um from the taxpayers unfortunately that becomes a luxury we can't afford so those are the worst case scenarios like you know for me I I became superint in the superintendent's office the first year we had full day kindergarten and it was probably one of the proudest days of my life that you know we were moving into the modern world and educating our youngest children and it's still it's still unfor unbelievable to me that the state of New Jersey kindergarten is not mandatory I'll say it again kindergart is not mandatory in the state of New Jersey prek is mandatory and express certain needs but Kindergarten is not mandatory and you've had districts talk about their budget and districts in similar situations as us saying they're just going to eliminate kindergarten because you know whe the students going to take a gap year or something I don't know but it's just ridiculous as to what they're so out of whack this funding formula that people who have never stepped in a classroom have developed um and don't know the needs of the students you look at you know what has changed in the past since 1994 when we were um funded this way you didn't have school security that you have now and no one here would think of not having police officers at our schools as you look at the what the incidences of violence that arise in schools um you didn't have counseling in schools we had we had a part-time counselor shared between elementary schools that's unforeseeable in 20124 where schools are not only an educational facility we're a mental health facility helping families deal with some of the struggles that they have um all of that is increased uh tiered interventions um has all increased during that time um but unfortunately all of those things could go away uh without the support of legislation and a very brave board Mr sedo thank you um I know that's probably one of the worst speeches that you've ever as administrator want to give um and I know as a town that's probably one of the worst things that you want to hear uh our staff you know we don't want to lose you know I don't want people to go running um hearing it but you know just again hope for that that legislation to pass thank you for sharing the information oh the volume down okay okay we're going to go into uh Jer Matt good night folks wait wait wait wait wait goe can I just say something yes go ahead so I know this comes on the heels of um not so great news or potentially not so great news but I just wanted to mention that it is um teacher appreciation week and as the school year comes to a close there's 32 more wakeups I wanted to take a moment to express my deepest gratitude to all of our Oldbridge teachers for everything you do every single day your dedication passion and unwavering commitment to our students does not go unnoticed I always say that teaching is the hardest job you can ever do and the best job you could ever do I love visiting schools and classrooms in our district and what I see in every school is Teachers approaching their jobs with such Grace and determination and never letting the distractions bring them down despite the challenges and obstacles you face you continue to inspire educate and nurture the minds of our students teaching is not just about creating and delivering lesson plans it's about understanding each student's unique needs fostering a supportive learning environment and constantly adapting to ensure that every child has the opportunity to succeed I can attest firsthand to the countless hours of preparation the emotional investment and the sheer passion required to be a teacher it's a role that demands so much more than the mere knowledge of a subject it requires empathy creativity and an unwavering belief in the potential of every student so as we reflect on another school year year almost coming to a close I want to remind you that your efforts do not go unnoticed you are shaping the future of a generation instilling values and making a difference in the lives of your students students who will be your kids forever your impact extends far beyond the classroom and for that we are eternally grateful thank you for being the Guiding Light the mentor and the friend that our students need your dedication inspires all of us and never forget to take pride in knowing that your influence will be felt for years to come thank you m Jin very well put thank you well miss miss jorrey I'm going to take do like a bridesmaids moment and one up you um I'm glad somebody got the reference um well tomorrow's also Nurses Day so we want to thank our School nurses um they're much more than Band-Aids and Frozen paper towels these days they do toileting they do uh Fe feeding tubes and they do so much more to make sure our students feel safe uh within our school so thank you to all of them I do want to say that on the 7th I'm inviting um no 14th the 14th is next Tuesday inviting two special members of our transportation department um to come join us I'm going to tell you a little brief story I want to get um clearances from everyone who is involved but before this happens this is a really heartwarming story and how it evolve so um two members of our transportation team who were just just doing an incredible job our transportation team um I dropped off a three-year-old from a preschool program at home handed that child to their parents parent took the child by the hand went inside the house and they went on their way to continue dropping off students they went back out to an elementary school now to do the elementary run after the preschool run was done while going back into the similar neighborhood the same neighborhood they dropped off that three-year-old at they saw many blocks from that home that three-year-old now running by himself outside um they knew the child was in danger and would probably be harmed if they didn't do what their hearts told them to do and they pulled over the bus and encouraged the child to get on the back on the school bus when they brought the child back to the house the house was already surrounded by the police and detectives as they were parting together a search party to look for the child and you know those that bus driver in the aid was able to prevent the child's worst the parents worst nightmare um from what I'm told the parents did everything they could obviously to ensure the child was you know in the safe in the house and but kids are promiscuous kids are you know they just want to get where they want to go because they want an adventure um so we're going to thank them personally um and I have a little bit of a surprise for them for next week too because I reached out to um a business owner who's going to thank them as well so thank you Mr sadino okay can I get a motion to go journ what some move missal second you got it everyone all in favor all in favor thank you good night folks we'll see you next Tuesday and the Tuesday after that