e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e may I have a second all in favor I welcome this evening's meeting notice that this regular meeting of the Pitman Board of Education was advertised in the South Jersey Times posted at bur Hall and a copy thereof delivered to all Pitman schools to be posted and posted on the district's website further notice was posted in file is required by law St board meet and close session at 7:00 p.m. in the Pitman high school media center president shall entertain any objections with supporting reasons to the conduct of this meeting on the grounds that it violates the open public meeting act seeing none please join me for a moment of silence thank you please join me in a s to the flag I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the repblic for it stands one nation God indivisible and justice for all Mrs Rose will you please call roll Miss Miller here miss papalardo here miss hio here Mr Gman miss farell m Miss po here miss Bolton here Mr crisen here all present well good evening everyone uh it's my pleasure tonight to be able to introduce to you one of our County Commissioners Mr Jim Jefferson for a very very special presentation that's the warmest reception I ever got thanks very very kind of you check check on we're good you're good uh on behalf of Gloucester County and our 300,000 residents we wanted to honor and recognize group one boys one boys basketball Champions we give a round of applause to the [Applause] boys so I'm a little bit of a sports fanatic uh love to follow high school and college sports and love to follow local athletes and so I was at the game uh when you guys took down the kip charter school and man what a a flow of emotions we were up high and then it got nervous at the end and I'm glad I didn't have a child on the team because my knees were knocking and I didn't even have uh someone on the team but what a great uh show of resilience working together uh I know you guys went up big and what I love as a as an athlete and as a coach is just to see how you guys work together what uh great teamwork team effort and I think it really exemplifies this community uh just everybody coming together working together I mean this is one of the most storyed uh basketball programs in South Jersey so it was great to see great to watch and um on behalf of all the County Commissioners I'm just really proud of you and I don't think we do enough of honoring and recognizing the work of young people so so we made it a point to come out to you and to your community look you in the face and tell you how proud of you we are so I have fellow Pitman resident commissioner Matt Wang with me today we're going to hand out a proclamation and certificates to honor recognize you guys and I know um there's been a lot said about boys basketball this year and some controversies um you know what you guys had to face in the state semi-final I mean I just want to personally say that was wrong and how you guys had to end your season but you guys faced it like men work together gave them a run for their money and when a lot of people didn't think it would be that close proud of you guys how you faced that challenge and uh what you did as together as a team really really proud of you and just wanted to say congratulations on a great season anything you want to add Jimmy said it all we're very proud of you you're the pride of Pitman pride of gler County honored to be here to uh be able to honor you thank you so much all right so we're going to go in great order um the man who was raining threes on that Saturday afternoon Mr Steve dainy me and Steve do not have the same haircut great job man congratulations U Mr Colin ambrosus Colin congratulations Mike I don't want to pronounce your last name ficaro there we go Mike my congratulations Jake epting not here I'm just GNA say Porter because I don't want to misspell I Porter there we go quter I want to apologize I have the most American name Jim Jefferson so I don't I mean no harm to you congratulations Sunny Myers Sunny congratulations Sean pal Chris Wy Chris congratulations Elijah Chrisman congratulations B no problem Greg Peterson Right congratulations Hudson r congratulations problem Trey I'm gonna just say Trey I'm sorry how do you pronounce it tinges t tinges I'm sorry man again I have a very American name congratulations bu problem Dane colum Lucas Razzy congratulations no problem Laney Guzman Parker D Christopher par congratulations man head coach Ron Meyers coach congratulations no problem problem assistant coach Steve chrisen uh Fred georgetti assistant coach congratulations coach and assistant coach uh Jim Muson coach congratulations so this Proclamation that uh we're going to present you with uh is going to be read into the meeting uh minutes at Gloucester County Board of Commissioners at our next meeting and so you guys will literally go down in history in Gloucester County being recognized today for your Championship South Jersey group one Champs 2024 super proud of you guys coach I'm going to present this to you on behalf of clester County its residents congratulations we're have to get freshman and sophomores take a n guys put the old guy on his NE also gentlemen the of like a certificate of championship guys pictures [Applause] congratulations about five minutes right e e e e e e I cleared out so that's going to bring us to our referendum update and I'm going to turn it over to Mrs bolt that was good okay so um I'll just give you guys update on our referendum um we are supposed to be going out for Bond we um are set up to have our vote um on in December um at that election so we have been working through uh I don't know how many of you know we have done recently did our strategic planning in the district so with that we had a facilities committee they walked a lot of our grounds to see what we needed updates on and um um it was a really hard decision for us because we know how much um things cost these days and we were kind of shocked at some of the prices but we really wanted to do our D due diligence to kind of come up with a plan of what was really needed um just so that taxpayers you know we're all taxpayers too so whatever we're putting on you we want to make sure we're comfortable putting on ourselves as well um so we really have hammered this out we have had multiple conversations with our um financial advisers was the latest we came up with calculators did all sorts of things with formulas to make sure that we were plugging in numbers if we borrow this much how much is it going to cost the average taxpayer um we talked to the Architects to see what was really needed and necessary so we think we have come up with a um a resolution um that we are going to finally an executive session do we have it all on the resolution is on there is number okay y all right I say it so all of that but that does not have our list it not that's just that's the approval to go out for Bond and for our Architects to be able to go ahead and bring these projects to the state and for us to be able to go to the December 2024 ballot okay so should I read out the do we need to do this it's up to you or you want to inform if I it I think we should I would say our biggest our biggest contributor contributor um to the fond this year is probably going to be our heating system um our hbac at PES is very dated at this point um and those are funds that we're not going to be able to come up with if we don't go out for Bond it's not something that we can go into our reserves for you know different projects that there are some projects that we kind of wanted to do with the bond but we said you know we'll save them um because we really felt like we needed to do some really important things over there um so I would say our hbac is probably going to be the biggest chunk uh out for bond this time and then we do have a few uh drainage issues that we're going to fix and maybe um and roof as well here at the high school so that should eat up most of our money I think the board really did work diligently and you know we kind of took it right up to the wire with Mrs Bolton going back and forth with calls and Mrs Rose and Mr Chrisman making sure that they were checking everything twice and we had all the information so we were making a really informed decision it was definitely a matter of balancing the the needs the wants really couldn't possibly even make it onto the list because we want to be good stewards of taxpayer dollars but we also recognize that when your youngest facility is 50 plus years old you have to put some repairs in from time to time so that was I think everyone kind of put the work in and really wrestled with the overall Financial impact so thank you that's going to bring us to our first public comment the Pitman Public School Board recognizes the value of public comment on educational issues and the importance of allowing members of the public to express themselves on school matters of community interest this is the first of two public comments we will have tonight the first public hearing is on agenda items only this is a public comment and not comment and not a dialogue between the board and the public you will have three minutes to speak it's your opportunity to comment or ask questions in accordance with board policy number 0167 we ask that you state your name Municipality of residents and group affiliation of applicable to be recognized to speak please stand to the podium located on my right and speak clearly into the microphone seeing no one that will bring us to correspondents Mrs Rose any corresponded we do not have any thank you I will now move to accept a motion for the minutes of the Pitman Board of Education as held on the dates listed below are approved as printed and reading dispensed with may I have a second seconda all in favor any extensions any objections okay all right that's going to take us to our president's report where it's that time of year where I do a really terrible quality Google slideshow on our funding formula all right I'm confident that it's user error on my part but I don't know how to get this guy to he's not on oh jeez it should even be an easy fix to where am I looking oh okay thanks they they realized that was too much I wasn't going to be able to figure it out smart assessment I know no patience we have the world's best tech if you guys aren't aware this is 100% user error on my part they're amazing okay so I just wanted to go ahead and and give a brief background um about some of the legislative advocacy efforts of the Board of Education and to review the sfra funding formula and what the challenges are um both for members of the public and the Board of Education I know this is something I kind of speak a lot about but I really do think it's one of the most critical area is that we need to be pursuing legislative advocacy efforts so so let's talk about so there's this is the equation so adequacy budget which is how much it should cost to provide a thorough and efficient education the state then subtracts your local fair share which is what the state formula estimates local taxpayers should be able to afford in school taxes and it equals Equalization Aid and that's what the state contributes to the district's cost of providing a thorough and fair education so this is really the Crux of one of the largest parts of the sfra they they look at you know the ba the enrollment of your students they say this is how much your local fair share of taxes are this is how much Equalization age you'll get so there's buckets when they look at your when they're figuring out what your budget should be they they put kids into buckets they have full day kindergarten through fifth grade they have Middle School 6th through e8th and they have high school each of those buckets have a different weight that's the number in white on the front so the the number of sixth to e8th graders are multiplied by 1.04 and the number of 9th to 12th graders are multiplied by 1.15 and these numbers are supposed to give you what is called a weighted enrollment because the state assumes that to provide a thorough and efficient education to a high schooler there's additional cost comparative to what it would cost to educate say a first grader so that's where those weighted calculations come from so what the state does when they're getting their Adis squisy budget is they don't say okay these are the number of kids you have and this is how many kids you have in each of those grade levels and so this is the amount of money you should be spending it's not so fast from the state's perspective they use what's called a growth rate calculation so a growth rate calculation uses a six-year look back period in an effort to determine what the enrollment Trends were in your District in our case while we are seeing rebounding enrollment our numbers are starting to creep back up we're still being penalized by our past loss of students so Suburban districts had some of the largest loss in enrollment during covid but those are the numbers that are represented in our six-year look back period so we're being penalized with 3.49% of our students being taken right off the top from the number of students that are enrolled in our district so you can see down here this right up here is our actual prior year resident enrollment and it's a pretty complicated formula so they use three years and they divide the sum of those three years by the next three years and then they take the square root the the third root of those my math didn't go that high so and then they subtract it they create this growth rate calculation so off the top we're missing about 50 students from our adequacy budget that aren't accounted for when the state says this is how much it should cost you to provide a thorough and efficient education so our weighted enrollment from the state's perspective is 170 students PRK is not counted in this by the way when in reality our weighted base enrollment should be 1,20 1,120 so off the top we're losing th those numbers the price tag for that loss $76,500 that's then rated that's then calculated against the per pupil rate then there's what's called a geographic cost factor that is discounted a little bit because we're in South Jersey so they assume it costs less to educate students down here and then it's multiplied by 2/3 so that's how you arrive at that 676 so that's money that is the state is not allocating to us in our adequacy budget that they're saying that we should be permitted to spend um when they're when they're trying to figure out the math on how much state aid is owed up us the second part of this are student characteristics so I'll be honest I'm going to briefly highlight these items because we are such a small District that we could get into some student identifying information and I want to make sure that we're steering clear of that because it's segmented by where those students are at within our buildings so these are also not accurate though like for example at risk or children who are on free and reduced lunch limited English proficiency are students with limited English proficiency and then you receive an additional weight when students fall into both of those categories this I'm just going to that this is not an accurate reflection of what our student population enrollment actually is because like I said kind of getting into the Weeds on this could be student identifying and I feel like that would be really um inappropriate Oh wrong computer so this is our adequacy budget calculation so the second factor in this adequacy budget calculation and these are copied right off of our state aid numbers is the census versus actual population so if you could see in the second category there special education the state does not provide us with special education funds in our adequacy budget that's reflective of the ACT ual population of our students they say that we have 161 students in our special education population where in reality we have 244 classified students so we do not receive that per pupil funding in our adequacy budget so remember that's that top number that they start with that they say you should be spending to provide a thorough and efficient education so off the top and this is another one it's $2,868 per puple multiplied by the growth uh or by the geographic cost analysis and and then times 2.3 so the loss of census versus actual population on just that special education component is $1.1 million of money that is not allocated to our adequacy budget that the state is using to calculate what our Equalization Aid is the next thing you get to is that local fair share that was the second part of that that equation first item of this is Equalization valuation this is something we've talked a lot about over the last two years Pitman from fiscal year 22 to 25 has seen a 40 a half% increase in their Equalization valuation that's the real value of the the taxable properties in our community our sr3 for sr3 a form has 3,26 mostly Residential Properties and they have determine that the rate of value on those have gone up by over 40 and a half per. they add that to the district income of course it's a more compul formula but this is kind of the basis of it and it creates what your local fair share of tax burden should be the challenge with using something like an equalization valuation to determine a District's wealth is that it doesn't correlate to their median income and it doesn't cor it's it's a false equivalency for back lack of a better word because your people's salaries did not rise comparably I don't know many people in Pitman since 2022 who've seen a 40 and a half percent increase in their salaries so they don't use District income and Equalization valuation comparably to look for overall wealth increases so if you ranked municipalities in the state of New Jersey by media and household income fit would be in the bottom 35th percentile I would say that that is not representative of a community that can afford to sell fund to their school district but when the state uses an equalization valuation it allows them to almost arbitrarily to almost arbitrarily apply that formula to our wealth and determine that we should see a large increase so this is the actual calculation state has a multiplier they divide it by two they add it together um so as you can see they raised our local fair share to 14,850 288 we've seen a 29% increase in this number since fiscal year 2022 so again we look at that formula we see an adequacy budget where we're not receiving credit for students that we have actually enrolled where they then subtract a local fair share that I believe they've arbitrarily inflated which then equals a decrease in Equalization a meaning that if just looking at these two factors we're missing nearly $3 million in Equalization aid from this year's calculation we've lost 50% of Equalization Aid in the same time period that I've referenced earlier that the state has continued to decrease the amount of Aid that they've provided us here's a chart we're trying to look at one of the pending pieces of legislation which is assembly Bill 942 which would take a fiveyear calculation for Equalization valuation to cl to slow those large growth calculations but if you can see in fiscal year 23 to 24 to 25 the amount that those 3200 properties went up in value in Pitman is astronomical District income as well went up 31 and 31% and we saw that local fair share now this is stretched over an additional Year from what we previously discussed up by 25% and a decrease in 49% of our Equalization a meanwhile our adequacy budget how much they think we should be spending went up less than a percentage point this is what's driving our state aid down and we are we are not alone so when we look at the number of districts that are self-funded which is the terminology that's often used to talk about districts that receive zero dollars in Equalization valuation they've drastically increased in the last two years to give you an example of a local community that is self-funded is haddenfield so when we're talking about Pitman being a self-funded district I don't necessarily believe that as much as we would all like to believe that we've we've made these huge Leaps and Bounds and we certainly have as a community we've seen a tremendous amount of regrowth in our community I don't know that we've achieved that level of property value or income wealth so these are some of the items that we're advocating for from a legislative advocacy standpoint the assembly bill that I just mentioned that requires a five-year average for the equalization valuation would return about a million dollars to Pitman we're talking about dual enrollment counts that would require districts to provide enrollment data from both October and February so that we're receiving the most accurate numbers repr presented on our funding formula that's another particular item there's an additional item that's evaluating a legislative action that would be evaluating the adequacy budget and whether or not it is sufficient um for the students actually that we actually have on rooll so I know this is a lot of numbers and I'm happy to share this information with any members of the public that would like it and the board hears it a whole lot but I I do feel like this is really what is driving our state and that we've allowed the narrative to become some of these things like S2 and other factors and in reality it's really it's really a weight that's being put on the other side of the scale that's decreasing the state aid it is artificially being inflated by some of the mechanisms within the state funding formula and it's why districts this year that were hit weren't the same districts that were historically hit so there's some new communities that were really taken back to be on the losing end of the funding formula because they weren't S2 districts or they weren't districts that face some of the same challenges as a Pitman and they're shocked and they're really heated because I see them at the same hearings I'm at um so the hope is that we'll see some level of relief this year but the bigger long-term goal will be to provide more insight and Analysis into the funding formula so that we see legislative efforts to amend that in a way that is productive for all the districts in the community so just to share a couple quick updates um both with boards and members of the public on March 11th I was able to attend the New Jersey assembly education Committee in Trenton um we discussed the funding formula we talked a lot about that fiveyear Equalization um valuation number and what that would mean and what the challenges were for districts that saw sometimes even larger increases or decreases um on March 14th Pitman was invited to be one of the 10 districts that had an opportunity to provide testimony at cator gopal's education Committee hearing and it was part it was just regarding the funding formula um they really asked us to shy away from harping on any of our previous fiscal challenges or the um numbers that we've received in the past they ask us to focus on being really solution oriented and providing the legislature with ideas that we had to correct the funding formula and we kind of have hit upon all of the ones that we had and then on March 19th yesterday I was able to provide testimony to the Senate budget and Appropriations Committee um about some of the challenges that we have the only other item that I'd like to add from a legislative advocacy standpoint just for full transparency because we do communicate regularly as a board to make sure everyone's on the same page but for members of the public as well is the extraordinary Aid is another component so when we look at next year about 12% of our operating budget would be allocated for special education out a district placement um which is about less than 3% of our population and some of the rising costs associated with that um could be Pupil Transportation contracts that are $100,000 plus that were not eligible for Extraordinary Aid um for those for transportation costs tuition costs Aid costs these things have grown exorbitantly like everything else in our current economy and when we look at the extraordinary Aid that we received back in that one bucket it works out to be about 10 cents on the dollar comparative to what we actually put out so when we talk about self-funding a district we have to be mindful of the reality that those are some of the cost factors that are growing disproportionate to when SF calculated what it took to run a thorough and efficient education School District or to provide a thorough and efficient education um and it would be incredibly difficult for most communities to raise enough in local property taxes to accommodate those types of cost factors so that extraordinary Aid this the governor has announced in his fiscal year 25 that it would be flat funded which would actually be a decrease because we know that the costs have risen so this year we were given 71 cents on the dollar um for the eligible costs and you know that will go down because if it's flat funded and those costs have gone up each district will be entitled to less of those funds but while spending more so that's just an additional item of legislative advocacy that the board has continued to kind of bring to the legislator's attention um like I said I always welcome any questions from members of the public I know that the board like I said hears this a whole lot and they get really longly worded emails because I'm very passionate about the fact that this is this is the real Challenge and Suburban districts [Music] are just being driven to the the ends of their their ability to compensate for this type of loss and our district tries really hard to make it make it all work I mean Mr for members of the public Mr Chrisman and Mrs Rose have entertained quite a lot of questions with nuanced uh even our pea lots of questions at the 11th hour if you could please provide me with this extremely nuanced statistic so that I can speak to whatever point I'm trying to kind of make and draw you know members of the legislator's attention to and they have all participated and helped and the entire board is very supportive so I really appreciate everyone's efforts on this um but I just had to share that as part of our update for this month and then I'm going to turn it over to Mrs papalardo for theh CSA review um and before I go into the CSA information I know that as a board we all really appreciate everything that Mrs Miller does and continues to do um it's it's no secret we don't get paid and we don't get raises so nothing of nothing is nothing and um she really goes out of her way to dig and find answers and information and things that don't make sense and then really tries to educate us and then um the community as well on this is what's going on this is why we're in you know the predicament that we're in and what can we do to maybe try and advocate for ourselves I think she's the best Advocate um of a board that I've ever seen as far as fighting for her district and really like no stone is left unturned she's she's going to find everyone and turn it over um to try and make something happen so that as a district we can continue and really hold on to all of our important traditions and the things that we have um because we know that's why we're here why the community is here why we send our kids here um so I just wanted to give her a a quick props and say thank you for all that you do and um thank you for breaking it down for us because it's not something I would ever be able to break down she's great with numbers I am not um so she's also able to kind of show us okay in a nutshell this is what's going on this is where the money is this is where it's not and this is why we're feeling all the things that we're feeling especially with this budget um process this year so with that being said um every year we have to do an evaluation of our CSA CSA is a fancy word for superintendent um or fancy letters for superintendent and um because Mr crisen will be leaving us at the end of this uh end of this school year we will still be doing EV an evaluation but there is a long form and a short form we will be doing the short form which is a little bit more informal um gives us a chance to actually kind of instead of check off the boxes and write it actually lets us use our voices and kind of write down where we think the district is and what he has done and um you know kind of give him an idea as we send him off um of all the things that he's really done you know that we have appreciate so the uh njsba it gives us a tool to do it it's on their website and the portal for it is already open I did reach out to Mr crisen over the weekend and told him that we would like to try and get it done sooner rather than later so um he will go on he will complete his part and then once his his part is done we will complete our part and then uh we will meet with him to go over it and work our goal is I think by the end of April to have everything kind of signed off and done so that's where we are all right you're up all right this just a and I need a microphone right right underneath I good evening everyone I tonight the board of education as you can see on our agenda we'll be approving a tenative budget to submit to the county superintendent for their review and approval this will be the 2425 budget and I guess in essence what I will be doing tonight will'll be providing a very brief overview the more detailed presentation is done at the public hearing which will be in April uh so tonight I'm just going to kind of again briefly go through kind of where we are at this particular time and I think more or less I'm taking the information that April's already presented to you relative to all the funding challenges that we're facing to kind of share with you the impact that that's now having in terms of the programs and services that we're be able able to offer the students here in the Pitman School District to start the presentation I am going to begin with a document that I've been using since I've been here just to kind of give you an illustration of the challenges we Face relative to our enrollment relative to our state aid and the Board of Education your copies are as an attachment on the agenda there going to ask rebecc if you wouldn't mine handing that out members of our community all right and the information that you're receiving is kind of like a 10year snapshot of our enrollment because as you kind of heard a little bit about in what April was presenting our or enrollment is somewhat tied in a very indirect way to our funding and then also a kind of a roughly about a 10year snapshot of our state aid totals over that period of time as far as the budget is concerned we're going to be taking a look at some of the details of the budget but generally speaking uh what we're able to provide in the way of services to our the students here in Pitman is totally largely however you want to look at it uh driven by the amount of state aid that we receive there's only two resource there's only two Revenue resources that we really have available to us one of those is state aid a large one and the other is our tax levy so just very simply you can see there uh certainly enrollment has been a challenge over that 10-year period as you can see how it has decreased over that period of time April mentioned kind of a little bit of an upswing there as you can see is over the course of the last couple years at the bottom is the more important piece because this really kind of gives you an illustration of the impact uh that the reductions in state aid have had over this period of time so you can see a summary there and I'm going to come back to this in a second I just want to comment on S2 so if this was not bad enough and when I say this this up here is just the basic funding form for s for for school districts what 2008 I think it was officially approved um it's the kind of the Baseline of determines our main um source of state aid which is Equalization Aid and I think April's done a really really nice job of kind of indicating I think there's a general consensus that there's some flaws in the system that need to be looked at and that are currently being looked at that have significantly impacted districts like Pitman so you have that as a baseline that's the basic formul fora then on top of this we now have S2 S2 is a senate um action that was taken to adjust Aid to school districts so we go back to just real history lesson back to 2008 there was a new funding formula uh the powers at B did not like how the funding formula was figuring out numbers for certain places in the states and so they basically said we're going to hold harmless districts we're not going to take money away from districts and we're going to make that adjustment through the form of an adjustment Aid and it's on here you can see it very clearly at the bottom there's a thing called adjustment a so we were one of those districts that they elected not to adjust according to the formula which was already flawed so they decide not to adjust our Aid and they give us this adjustment Aid to hold us harmless to kind of keep things kind of equal and then about six years ago seven eight years ago when the legisl was passed they basically said now this is wrong and what we need to do now is we need to adjust this to give the money back to the districts that should have been getting it that didn't get it did not receive it during all those years and take it away from the districts that received it but weren't entitled to receive it which was the Pitman and you can see during this period of time as April has indicated Equalization Aid is our largest Aid the largest amount of Aid that we receive it's what's based on the this formula that she talked about and you can see how much that's decreased over this period of time I start with about 201617 is about one of the highest amounts that we received and you go to the projections for next year and that's got to be close to 3.5 or $3.6 million just in adjustment Aid 3.5 $3.6 million is a lot provides a lot of services to our students in addition to that if you look down to the adjustment Aid the adjust Aid was also phased out during that period of time which was another what $1.6 million during some periods of time in there so you put those two do things together and you get down to the end and you look at that total of the 4.7 compared to the five 9.8 it's over $5 million that we've lost in state aid again one of the major sources of revenue for the district so S2 again was a six period adjustment that we've gone through next year is the last year of this adjustment and that kind of plays in as a very important factor in our conversation tonight uh because you know we're going through the challenges of reductions in state aid we're hopeful that there's going to be changes in the formula that those changes are going to result in hopefully some adjustments on the more positive side maybe for us with state aid so our goal I think from an administrative perspective Mrs Rose and myself and Rebecca as we work through this process we got to get through one more year that's what we have to do and I've Shar shared with the staff I don't think this is this is not a budget that enables us to take steps forward this budget that we're proposing is more a budget of survival and I say that in all seriousness this is survival when we went into the process and we got the numbers and we put the numbers into our budget and when I say put into our budget you we start a budget with kind of a wish list kind of things we'd like to be able to do we like to think positive that hopefully you know people are going to see that this is not right and they're going to do something to f fix it or they'll at least give us level funding can't imagine they're going to take another $700,000 away it seemed like maybe last year they saw how how bad the formula was how flawed the formula was and they gave the S2 districts back two-thirds of what they were taking away from us so oh they see it now they get it well they didn't because the formula the formula still continued in the same way it did and we knew it was going to be about this amount based on the calculations that we had available to us and this is where we are when we went into the process of starting to have to balance the budget we were about $1.8 million over where we needed to be there was an imbalance our cost expenditures on one side was $1.8 million more than the revenue over here and that's because on this side the revenue side there's only two main s sources there state aid which was going down by 700 plus thousand and there's tax the tax levy and the tax levy can only go up by 2% that's our cap every year and we're going to talk a little more that in a few minutes over here we have costs that are rising much more significantly than that one little 2% remember that's not even 2% because we lost 700,000 our costs for salaries are going up way much more than that health benefits special education other costs and that's where we get this imbalance last year we had an option it was not certainly an option any of us really wanted to move forward through but it was what we had to do to again survive and and it enabled us to I think stay strong as a district but um unfortunately happen to close two schools and enabl US to be able to get through last year and maintain I think a strong staff um for at least another year this year was much more difficult because we did not have those options and the impact it's going to have throughout the district could be significant and I say could be because we're still working through this process we've only had a couple weeks since we got our state aid numbers um it's a very difficult sure uh we think we have a a sense of kind of where this is going to be and I will share that information with you but we will still we will be still working on the budget until we have to present the final budget for final approval at the public hearing so with that I'm going to hand out a second document here again don't mind board has a copy of this at your tables here this is also a document that we have been using in some of our conversations and this is just going to provide me a means by which I can give you a very brief simplistic overview of kind of the challenges that we are facing and highlight some of the areas where we will in all likelihood see some budgetary reductions so the first thing I just want to mention I've numbered these on the front page in the lower right hand corner there's a number 22 mil8 01644 that's actually a number one that's next to it all I want to illustrate here is that what we have to do is we have to ensure that our budget is imbalan um the budget that we're presenting to the county office and that means that our expenditures equal our revenues so if you this is the revenue side the front the revenue side if you just flip it over to the back you will see a number one in the upper right hand corner and you'll see the same number 22 million 801 644 that is our total operating budget it's called the general fund on that side side on the other side um it is called the total operating budget it's kind of the same thing that is the basic budget that we have put together that will enable us to operate the district given the reductions that we've had um in the state aid formulas so that's the first piece um just to highlight a couple things there on the revenue side um number two is that Equalization aid number that I've already showed you on the other documents this is on the the front page right now this is number two you can see it was uh 5.7 million two years ago 4.2 last year and it goes down to 3.5 roughly the the difference of$ 700 and some thousand major source of our funding I want to also point out just to add to the challenges that we face if you go um well you go up to number three which is at the top that's our tax levy you can see our tax levy is the major source whether we like it or not um this is a community that's has valued education and we recognize how important it is to this community but it is the major source of our revenue and you can see how that is increased over the three years I want to point out and also for the board the increase that we're permitted is 2% every year last year through the calculations that we run and that are provided to us by the state we were allowed to exceed that 2% last year by a very small amount so it was roughly maybe about a percentage roughly about a percent so last year kind of helped this a little bit and we're able to exceed that because of the projected health benefit cost our health benefits were going up like nine or 10% it's in the state calculation health benefits is one of the means by which you can exceed the 2% cap um because we were in such Dire Straits last year the board felt that it was necessary to exceed that 2% cap so they did now again that was an estimate that was built into the system as it turned out you know through some certain savings that we were able to realize on the health benefit side we did not realize that savings so in essence that 1% that was added to the cap last year has been reduced from the cap this year so that number that you're seeing there from 2023 24 to 24 25 is not a 2% cap it's really closer to a 1% that right a 1% cap so we can't argue that that's fair I mean we want to stay close and we don't want to have too much of an impact on the tax levy but obviously it's one more layer to the challenge that we're facing this year as far as having a reduced amount of revenues to work with um the fourth one if you look down a little bit further about three quarters down the page that's our withdrawal from capital reserve I only want to highlight that one because somebody might want to say well what's that $1.87 million number there from last year and why is it only 30,000 it's a big difference the number from last year is uh for some of you may recall we received a rod Grant from the state the state will be paying to have an upgraded HVAC system here at the high school uh we have to put the money up front first and then the state will come in and will refund us that amount up to 60% I think we have to pay 40% of that so that's what's represented there that's because of the rod Grant that money will go back into our capital reserve account when this is all said and done board can utilize that for maybe projects that we're not going to be able to do through the referendum because of our limitations on the money so I just want to point that out then I want to point out maybe the most important number which is number five and sometimes this is something that gets overlooked anytime I've worked with the Board of Education when it comes to budget I tell them it's probably the most important number uh for them to ensure they're managing appropriately and this is budgeted fund balance this is basically our savings account and here you can see that generally school districts most school districts use elements of their savings account to help fund the next year's budget and we've done that in the past and we're projecting to do that of the $1.2 million that you see there about 900,000 of that we are required to utilize for the budget and won't get into that we could get more than that into the public hearing we'll explain that but there is a part of the calculation uh excess Surplus so we're required so that's not even something there there's a decision on the difference there between let's say the 900,000 and maybe the 1.2 is a decision we're making right now as a district as an Administration in our recommendation to the board to use addition link just to get the budget balanced right that makes sense so in addition to the nine that we have to put in and it's a little over nine we were put in say an additional close to maybe 300 maybe $250,000 in additional Surplus um to be able to balance the budget to support the revenue side so we don't have to cut another $250,000 from the budget the caution here is like if you were utilizing your savings to pay your bills savings runs out and if you don't have the savings to continue to do do that what do you have to end up doing you have to reduce what your um the amount of money you have to pay your bills and for us it would be reducing the budget so it's a caution that we put out there um chissa so forward won't be chissa but we will be working administratively um to continue to look at ways in which we can maybe reduce that amount so this is definitely as I'm saying talking really more to the board right now this is something we need to look at very very carefully so even though we're going to talk in a second about some of the budgetary reductions we may not be where we need to be in order to have a budget that enables us to move forward in a positive direction as we're working hard this year to fix the problems of the past we don't want to use Band-Aids I would say this is a Band-Aid and we want to eliminate Band-Aids because if you don't eliminate Band-Aids they're going to have to be dealt with in the next year so that's just something again to the Board of Education we're going to continue to look at if there's means by which we feel comfortable if things happen happen um retirements and breakage and savings and things of that nature you know you and we will have decisions to make and whether or not we utilize that those funds to potentially fund other positions that are being cut from the budget or do we look to reduce that number and try to get rid of that Band-Aid so again working forward after next year we're starting on kind of I think a ground zero for the first time probably in a long time knowing that it's S2 is behind us after next year to then be able to start to build um for the future so that's going to take us over to the expenditure side and I've highlighted a few things there as Appropriations I guess I numbered them continue with other number we just going to start down the top and I'm I'm going to give you some generalization but you can just see those numbers where there has been some significant reductions we're going to talk about those in a second um you can review them on your own you can see some areas where there's been some significant increases we talk about the you know some of our areas where we're we're challenged I would say generally most of these these are not areas where we have choices these are things that we're mandated to be able to provide um so with that let me just kind of give the board and the community a sense of the impact I talked about the fact that we had $1.8 million that we had to reduce I had the opportunity yesterday to meet with the teachers at Memorial and at Pitman Elementary School and one of the things I shared right off the bat which is probably a major area where we're looking at potential reductions I say this to the board it is going to be very very difficult for us to be able to maintain four classes at Pitman Elementary School in all grades we have four right now we have four seconds four thirs four fours four fifths and four sixs it's five grades at Pitman Elementary School it is going to be very difficult to maintain four classes of those five grades we're in the process of looking about what that might look like um I would say ballpark maybe three of those five sixth grade we have a departmentalized program uh in sixth grade therefore it kind of requires four teachers because they're teaching four different subject areas certainly it's something that could be evaluated we could go to a more um self-contained type structure one teacher or similar structure to what we have in the other grades where one's teaching Ela the others are teaching math social studies and science one teacher teaching all subjects those things are options but I think it was very important for this community when we made the transition last year at Pitman Elementary School when we maintained the sixth grade there that they had a s an experience similar to the experience that we were having when it was a middle school and that they have that opportunity before they transition to the junior high school so right now that's still there we have four teachers in this sixth grade content Specialists uh that will be providing those levels of instruction fifth fth grade is a large grade it's why we're probably on a fence and saying we're going to need four grades probably in in fifth grade next year fourth third and second right now there's a strong likelihood there will not be we're talking earlier class sizes probably in the higher 20s we're probably in that low to mid 20s in some areas but it's it's certainly not going to be where we would like it to be but that's the reality that we're dealing with certainly the potential of some impacts in terms of Support Services uh especially at the elementary school relative to special education right now we have a a very strong supportive special education program at the elementary school we have a co- teing model that we're very proud of uh that we feel has done great things but it is a challenging model to be able to support financially it's a model which we for the most part in most grades in most inclass support classrooms have a full-time special education teacher with a full-time classroom teacher it's great that have but we will have a very difficult time maintaining that structure we'll still be meeting an IP in terms of what the IP requires but to have that teacher in there for all subjects for for the most part for the entire day is going to be much very much a challenge basic skills will be very much a challenge to maintain the basic skills program that we currently have uh at the elementary level and that kind of spills over a little bit to Memorial because Memorial has also has a basic skills program uh we're going to be challenged to maintain that program program to the level that it is being provided now a lot of what I have said has has had an impact there will be an impact at the Junior Senior High Level uh they'll be probably minimally the two to three teachers that will be impacted as far as that's concerned you have to keep in mind the High School Junior Senior High School those grades took the major brunt last year because in bringing the seventh and eighth grade over we were able to start sharing teachers and by the sharing of teachers we probably cut at least one teacher from every subject area right across the board at the high school level so they took the major brunt of the teaching staff uh we lost two administrators we're both really primarily middle school high school we're the two administrators we lost there have no Vice principles as you know here at the high school so they really took the brunt Elementary for the most part I mean we lost the guidance counselor you lose the nurse you we lost some certainly positions we like to be able have been able to maintain there but we still maintained four classes which is what we had before at each grade level we maintained the co- teing model we maintain the basic skills program everything for the most part remained intact unfortunately we're we're not going to be in a position where we're going to be able to continue that every other area they will not be the only areas I don't think there will be an area as I shared yesterday that won't be touched um from all support areas from the facility staff in all areas of custodial of Maintenance of grounds um supports um we're still working through again what that would look like but we cannot imagine imagine that there won't be every area impacted in order for us to be able to to get to the number that we need to get to tonight in order to be able to approve a budget that is in Balance I said Le uh the other day we will certainly at starting probably next week be looking at the impact on Staffing um share will be looking at certifications how we can move staff around to be able to maintain as many people as we possibly can you know it's usually this time of year we start getting retirements we can start to see how those pieces start to fit in U retirement sometimes will enable us to be able to have savings and how we may be able to utilize that savings either again to fix this problem over here or to be able to be able to bring back some of the services that we might be losing I think the last thing that I want to mention as far as the budget is concerned um as April indicated there's a lot of conversations about State funding the formula uh if you recall last year we were fortunate enough to be able to get onetime funding the adjustment for the S2 districts I say to the board I say to this community if we're fortunate enough to be able to get funding additional funding um we have to be very very careful how that funding is used we have to be very careful the that we don't kind of again it's a Band-Aid and if we want to use the funding to bring something back we have to remember we're only bringing it back for one year if the board decided that we got some funding and we want to make make sure that we can lower those class sizes at the elementary level which I think we would all agree would be incredibly nice and important to do it's only for one year because once that onetime funding goes away those positions have to go away it's kind of where we are this year in one one of the challenges we're facing this year to be able to present a balanced budget given the funding that we received last year and I think the last thing that I've said to staff please keep in mind that you will see things getting done and you're going to question them um I mentioned the rod Grant there's going to be questions we're going to come in here and we're going to do work in the gymnasium and they're going to put in this beautiful hbac system and people are going to ask the question wait how can we put in an hbac system when we're losing staff this comes out of a different Revenue Source funded by the state it's outside the operating budget uh we will be purchasing computers next year for all of our students in first Fifth and ninth grades those computers are not in the budget they are usze we're going to be utilizing a one-time resource we have some federal monies that we have not yet spent through arer that we're going to be able to utilize unfortunately though they're not in the budget any longer so what happens after next year is it to be determined that's not kind of where we wanted to go but where we needed to go in order to be able to uh to balance the budget we have a math curriculum that's being considered right now math curriculums are not inexpensive they're very expensive again it's something else that that we're looking to utilize a one-time Revenue source so as I said to all the staff you'll still see things happening over here please understand they're coming out of one-time sources they are not in the regular budget we need to develop approve and move forward with a budget that we know is something that we can build on the future that's going to support our operating expenses so tonight you have a the tenative budget that's being presented uh it'll be on our agenda the board will be taking action um I don't know if we want entertain any questions now probably be a good time while we're here any specific questions anybody has yes so I have three questions actually um my first question is when you say that we're looking at survival um I always like to know what the options are last year I really asked you a lot about the send and receive and that was you said too expensive more expensive than what we're doing so I'm wondering like what are the other options is regionalization another option is that somehow cheaper or like what what would happen if we don't survive first question well I I think we have to Define what what survival is when when we went into this process and when we were at 1.8 I say we Chris and I Rebecca I didn't know if we'd survive I didn't I really truly didn't know I mean there were points where we're look at each other and say where where where do we go from here and it was at that point and again it was early in the process this is a process really digging deep and conversations I was where probably was at that point are we at the point where we no longer can be the Pitman School District K to2 that we currently have I think at the at the end of the day none of us like this none of us like where we're going to be but I still think we're in a relatively good place I think we can still be strong I think the fact that it is the LA last year of S2 and that they hopefully we know they're not going to be taking any more of the aid away through the adjustments anything else that happens from here on in is going to be the formula and hopefully they're going to address the formula we don't know what that means for us but I can't imagine it means the significant decreases that we've had so I think we survived and I believe that what we're recommending to the Board of Education tonight is a sound budget it's not where we want to be but I think it's still we're strong and we still maintain some we still maintain the people that we have um and I think that'll give us a baseline in order for us to be able to to grow from I don't I don't believe and I I don't think this board we none of us are ready to even have a conversation you know about what that could look like as far as from I guess from a 9 through 12 perspective more specific to the budget and I don't know if there's going to be another it budget coming out but I am curious like most things are decreasing but it looks like School sponsored extracurricular activities are increasing a little bit and school sponsored Athletics instruction are increasing a fair amount um can you talk it all about I I can't I don't know the details this is just like a snapshots yes there is the more detailed presentation which is at the public Hearing in April lot more details tonight is tentative still a lot of movement we'll see probably a lot of numbers move around in order to do what we have to do but yeah have that conversation my third question is um about curriculum and specifically edtech so edtech is a billion dollar industry at this point um and it is um many of the programs that are being utilized are not um researched well enough to know their effectiveness and I'm I'm just asking like what given our budget constraints what is the vetting process of new curriculum particularly Technologies and apps and curriculums that are online what does that vetting process look like and are we really careful about what we're choosing to buy to see that there's evidence based to using it I'm not the person to answer that yeah that's a great question if you can give us some time let us evaluate that and provide a i me much better answer than I can provide yeah thank you it's something that I'm super curious right thank you very much Mrs Reed if I just make a suggestion I would encourage you to email Mrs moody she can speak at length um about some of those uh your third question some of those items and I know she has a wealth of information um that she could provide for you and we have the hien security drills so I'll turn it over to the student representative thank you um on a lighter note um thanks Becca we needed that did um the Panthers have had an electric electric past couple weeks if you seen by the presentation the boys basketball team became the South Jersey Division Champions with many Panthers sitting in the stands cheering them on the whole way this show of Pitman Pride was enlightening and the students congratulate every B Bas basketball player and coach on the team last weekend SpongeBob the musical had its four Productions to show the community what they've been working on for these last months congratulations to all craft crew directors and volunteers involved for putting on such a great show the high school is currently in the throws of academic spirit week as students dress up every day and compete in events such as quizo and academic Bowl during this time the student council also puts on a teacher teachers appreciation lunch in which you can see by the mysterious curtain and all hidden behind it to celebrate the teachers that help us students significantly in the school thank you to student council for giving students and teachers a week of fun in these weeks before spring break thank you that completes my report who's going to win the academic Bowl there's no competition there is yeah who are the Juniors worried about the seniors the seniors okay I was just curious they show up they did man no not sweating the freshman at all are you no I'll be sure to really thank you all right that we don't have a data ad hoc committee report um that's going to bring us to finan and facilities and I'm gonna actually turn it over to Mrs Bolton today all right here we go with that I will keep it short and sweet tonight guys okay the finance and facility committee met on March 13th at 3:30 p.m. in attendance were Mr crisen Mrs Rose Mrs Miller and myself uh some of the items we discussed were the update um little up dates to the panther Club handbook uh submitt of the preschool budget um transportation and computer contract renewals uh the third year grant for ourmes and um that was basically it most of just agenda items so with that I'd like to make a motion to approve items 1 through 15 as written any questions good all right I have a second second discussion N Mrs Rose please call the vote no yes Bolton yes barl yes papalardo yes Co yes Miller yes rman yes item 15 pass thank you so take us to curriculum instruction and I will turn it over to Mrs frell the curriculum and instruction committee met on Wednesday March 13th 2024 at 4:30 p.m. in attendance were Mr crisen Mrs Moody Mrs Rose Mrs Miller Mrs papalardo and myself we discussed the update in regards to choosing a new elementary math program the selection has been narrowed down to two programs we also discussed the Clayton model application process looking specifically at PES this would assist in social emotional interventions and support services to our students we also talked about the challenges of Designing a schedule for the junior senior high for the upcoming school year as well as discuss child study team services in particular for our younger children at the preschool level so with that I'd like to make a motion to approve items 2 through 25 as written and walk on the motion item number 26 to resend the acceptance of the resonation of Mark Mars so we're going to do the I apologize we're going to do the first yeah so just just a motion for motion to approve items 2 through 25 as written okay may have a second second any discussion I just want to make sure everybody understands uh for number 19 for Sam Gman uh that that attachment is a letter from the county superintendent of schools as per board policy um allowing Sam to be approved uh into that position and then if we could just have a discussion as the board about item I want to make sure I got this right item number seven so that is our school calendar for the 2425 school year one of the items that um we discussed is it currently has this coming back for half day on the 23rd of December and I think that sounds like a bummer but our options aren't great either so it's one of our built-on snow days we had a couple different scenarios we discussed um in terms of where we could see that additional day added back in it was either reducing a day off of spring break reducing the Friday prior to to Memorial Day weekend or an earlier in December additional day which was December 15th does that sound right no that's not right um Friday May 23rd okay Friday May 23rd that would probably be the number one option yeah so I wanted to discuss it with the board either the Friday of Memorial Day weekend or the Wednesday of um the spring break break so what is what are the board's thoughts well if we wind up using no snow days does that Friday before Memorial Day return is day off or is that if that's what we pick it's gone no we have to switch right yeah we have to switch December 23rd with something yeah it just seems stupid to come back for a half day on a Monday when families travel for the holidays a lot I agree can you make the Friday before Memorial a half day I think that would be the one yep does anybody have anything else to add so would we amend that item okay so is that what we think is best the 23rd May 2 23d yeah sure yeah yeah I'd say do the May date okay all right break so let's amend that do we need I apologize do we need another do we need to do anything now that we've amended that motion no just a okay great and we already have a second so Mrs Rose please call the vote Yes Bon yes Carol yes papalardo yes po yes grman yes to all but 19 I mustain Miller yes motions one I'm sorry two through 25 pass I'm going turn it back over to Mrs frell for all right so now I'm going to walk on the motion item number 26 to resend the acceptance of the resonation of Mark Maris as facil manager I have a second second discussion see n please call the vote Yes Bolton yes Carell yes papalardo yes pop yes cman yes and Miller yes all motions pass thank you it's going bring us to communication and policy committee I'll turn it over to Mrs hia he the commun ation and policy committee met on March 11th at 4:30 p.m. and attendance were board members Melissa farl Natalie Po and myself and superintendent Steve crisen the committee discussed the recent Strauss ese policy alerts the vast majority of the recommended and mandated policy revisions are merely revising the list of protected classes of persons listed within the policies the list of protected classes is codified in the New Jersey administrative code and it is not discretionary uh the committee has also completed its review of the first group of board policies 0 to 177 which cover the board's bylaws and is not presently recommending any revisions we will be continuing the review next month with the next group of policies covering Administration with that I move to approve item one as written which is the first reading of the recommended and mandated policy revisions I have a second second any discussion seeing none Mrs Rose please call the vote iono Yes Bolton yes TL yes tardo yes po yes grman yes Miller yes motion passes it's going to bring us to our second public comment you'd like to to speak please come stand by the at the podium located on my right state your name Municipality of residents and group affiliation if applicable and please limit your comments to 3 minutes okay see no one it's going to take us to Old business does anybody have anything for old business okay new business I would just like to wish Mrs Rose well in her future endeavors this will be her last evening enjoying a board meeting with us and all of our Shenanigans and funding formula um does anybody else have any items for new business okay I will entertain a motion to adjourn so moved have a second second all in favor hi next Board of Education meeting is scheduled for Wednesday April 17 Junior Senior High Media Center