can we uh resume order of business can we stand for the Pledge of Allegiance motion to can I get a motion to resume order of business so moved second all in favor I any n or abstentions okay we can continue the pled of Allegiance all right good evening everyone I want to welcome everyone to the first regularly scheduled Board of Ved meeting uh for the 2024 year uh hope everyone had a great end of year break and a wonderful new year it is an honor to serve as the 2024 Robinsville uh board president I look forward to working with the district to enhance the transparency and Communications to the parents and Community uh this past week we've had our first excitement for the year we uh recorded our first and second accumulating snowfalls of uh one inch or more in the last two years uh hope all the children of the district were able to enjoy both days off and were able to play in the snow uh I want to thank the grounds team for their effort to clear the snow uh from the properties and to make it safe for the children and staff to return to the buildings uh Brian if you could just clarify for us any impact uh if you know potential impact that this snowfall had on the count the academic year or uh end of year activities that be great during your address um you know I want you know we have a full agenda for this evening so I want to thank you all for coming and joining us this evening and now um I'm going to pass it off to the uh executive Council LeBron Rose and Tyler Cohen hello um we hope everyone is having a great new year so far I'm Tyler Cohen I'm talking in place of Daffy because she could not make uh tonight's meeting so um first of all February 8th is Mr rhs um we have a few members of executive Council participating uh Lebron is Mr January Dylan is Mr July and Daffy is part of Mr February also um um last month or last week we raised over $500 for Capital City cancer classic Foundation um we raised money during all three lunches and presented a check at halftime during the Nottingham versus Robinsville basketball game um auditions for the spring musical were held and the stage career started building their sets and also the wrestling team is now 13 and4 with a highly successful season so far and they're undefeated in the CBC okay so here I have Pond and Sharon uh Pon TV was excited to welcome back prms class of 2010 and rhs class of 2014 Alum Miss Nicole dentry Nikki is an Emmy award-winning Philadelphia CBS news reporter she spoke to our fledging reporters at Pon and ran a mini workshop for them on keys to successful reporting and newscast there was a Q&A and Nikki also interviewed a teacher she identified as having a longlasting impact on her life Mr Mike Johnson um and the students have been doing an amazing job so far um they also have a YouTube channel YouTube channel at ponv at Pon tv- gq2 so before closing for winter break um Pon had a winter fund day organized by their student council all students enjoyed games and activities like Ela will of Fortune prms trivia finish a song and upon Family Feud Etc students had a very fun time they enjoyed themselves and had an overwhelmingly positive day as they headed home for the holidays we are also excited to that our that their leadership eighth grade leadership group will be joining students at Sharon school next month to implement lessons in kindness and caring using the book The Bad Seed it sounds bad but it it's actually good we had so many we had many uh eighth grade volunteers that will be visiting Sharon school once in February and also later in the spring um the eighth graders will be working with all of the current fourth graders and already practicing their lessons so that their message is polished and sounds fun so for Sharon school kindergarten students have started their 8-week safe andure program offered by campfire New Jersey through the safe andure program the student will promise to make safe decisions in all kinds of difficult situations and the objective of of this program is to help young children gain self-confidence and assertive skills uh the second grade students performed their annual music performance the snowflake spectacular all of the students did a great job and congratulations to Mrs applebe and Mrs nton and third grade students and families please look out for information regarding a couple of new after school activities such as the robotics club with Miss Mrs gold and a yoga club with Miss Marshall and that's our school updates thank you very much thank you LeBron and Tyler so our our meeting was canceled because of the snow right but I'm hearing rumors that you guys executive Council have a huge idea you want to run by me I'm sure miss Avery also is a little nervous like I am hearing your ideas but they worked out last time for Halloween did it not yes right so we're meeting next week I can't wait to hear the ideas and keep the the good news coming guys thank you yes thank you thank you gentlemen uh Mr bets the superintendent report thank you so as you may or may not know January is School Board recognition month here in New Jersey um along with all the perks and the high salaries you get as board members um you also get a a a little uh certificate uh of my appreciation for being board members in your maroon folder tonight um a little certificate thanking you for being a board member uh from veteran board members to new board members uh your work does go unnoticed because as you you're finding out there's a lot behind the scenes of reading talking committee work that goes into this job it's not just sitting here once a month there's a lot that goes into this and you do not get paid uh so the least I can do tonight is give you a certificate and recognize your hard work and say thank you for being a board member here in Robinsville thank you sure um so uh every uh six months uh superintendents are requireed fired to report out on acts of violence vandalism and HIV to uh the public so tonight uh is that time I thank Lori rundo for putting the report together for me um this is the period that covers September 20123 through January 1st 2024 um and the reports uh come out in different categories substance abuse violence vandalism and uh anything involving a weapon um I can tell you we have incredibly safe schools due in large part to our amazing parents fantastic staff and administration that runs uh the buildings and we have just great kids as you can tell tonight so at uh Sharon Elementary we had four restraints which is what we're also required to report out on during marking period one four restraints uh and and that's it no violence vandalism or hivs at pwn road we had one incident occurred um where in the following categories we had an incident of vandalism no substance abuse no violence and no weapons at the high school we had one incident we had an incident of substance abuse no vandalism no violence and zero weapons uh which is just remarkable at Sharon no HIV cases at Pawn road we had one HIV case in that time period which was unfounded and at Robinsville high school we had one HIV case which was also unfounded again it's just incredible uh you this is a report for one day in many other school districts across the state um again we have incredibly safe schools I had a uh on Sunday night attended an event at the Muslim uh Museum or the uh the Moss down down the road um it's Muslim recognition heritage month and I was talking to some of our students and I said you know do you feel safe in our schools particularly what's happening in the world and they both said yes they they do feel safe in our schools and again that just doesn't happen by accident it takes um a village it takes a lot of us to make sure that happens it starts with our parents and our students and of course our Administration and teachers working together to make our school safe are they perfect no he said sometimes kids are calling them names uh that happens but it's addressed when it does it does not go unnoticed uh we have incredibly safe schools and we should be very proud of that because if students and children feel safe coming to our schools that's when they can achieve at higher levels and it starts there so I want to thank everyone involved uh and again Lori for you know putting together this report it's pretty uh impressive and we should just not take it for granted uh so uh we had three women uh come here uh before they had to leave because they're all parents and they had to get home to take care of their kids uh from the beind uh Foundation here in Robinsville Cindy Rosen is um the co-founder and the vice president of Bine she was here along with secretary Tina carera and Treasurer ashika Nick and what they did was they came to Nick um a few weeks ago and said they wanted to raise money to help some of our students at lunch and pay for lunch and breakfast so what this group does be kind they provide kindness of joy of giving and they're donating 467 $5 for those students to help them out at lunch about 187 students they were here we took a picture with them they had to go but uh incredible generosity from this group they're also running a clothing drive out at Sharon with their student council um they kind of work behind the scenes and then do some great things for the community so I want to really um thank them for their donation and for helping our kids and just being role models and and helping again with that whole safe attitude and giving back to the community that is so prevalent in in Robins so thank you to be kind um we will be recognizing them um on our website and social media uh they said they're going to go home and watch the live feed also so hopefully uh they're uh they are watching at home safe with their with their kids a couple of other things I wanted to talk talk about really quickly tonight um snow days that's been an issue I I see on social media some people are concerned about snow days at the end of the school year um as uh Peter said we do have two snow days so far it is only January 23rd so I am a little nervous um so as it stands now we're adding school days to the end of the school year but this has to be something that's presented to the Board of Education they would have to uh approve a final uh calendar revision which will come later as we get through the winter but right now it looks like June 17 and 18th will be those makeup days early dismissal days the problem comes in that week of June uh because of juneth it falls right in the middle of that week and we try to avoid that because of the recognition of the end slavery of of what juneth represents so um it's going to be kind of a you know a juggling act um if we get more snow days but right now if it was the end of uh March or maybe even you know knock on wood April Spring Break um it looks like the 18th would be the last student day um and staff day um trying to avoid the 19th um let's pray that we don't have any more snow um but again this only January 23rd um and you know we'll address it as we as we move forward but as of right now that's what it looks like uh High School graduation is something that Miss Avery and I would have to uh discuss um we have final exams that have to be fit into that those past those last four days as well um everything's up in the air again it's it is only the end of January I know some parents want to make plans for graduation parties and uh putting down deposits for restaurants so on and so forth we will make a decision as soon as possible and communicate as we go along with our parents and our public to where we stand with with all of that and all as all that is happening um we are working with the union g is here tonight um on next year's calendar which is also proving to be challenging with that juneth uh coming down on that Thursday um and the state and the federal recognition of juneth being two different options so we're working I think we have a solution Jen um Sharon Martin came up with a really nice idea uh and I'll we can talk about it uh later so um we're trying to next year's a unique year because winter break is going to be really long next year and that throws a monkey wrench into the rest of the school year trying to get everything in before the end of uh the third week of of June so a lot of moving parts right now but as of right now it looks like those the 17th and 18th are the only things that are kind of falling into into place and again I will communicate with the community as we move forward and make uh final decisions um as we move toward the public question which is happening on March 12th I sent a letter out uh just giving people a kind of a general idea of what uh the public question will be about we're looking to have a full day voting no early voting and one polling place at the high school for the for the community we haven't confirmed that we have to confirm that with the town and the county they've not gotten back to us yet but as soon as we know for sure we will communicate that information uh with our Public Relations Committee Ragu is the chairperson we've put together a really structured approach where all board members and some administrators and whatnot will be reaching out and doing different things to get the word out um about about the public question um Amanda has been active in that in that uh sheet so thank you for doing that in that document um we'll be reaching out to local sporting events to uh religious organizations ptas uh doing the videos doing um uh you know coffees uh online doing a lot of different things uh that we didn't do last time and some of the same things we did last time uh there'll be a standard brochure that that committee will approve at our next meeting in February um we do have more time because there is no early voting we don't have to get things done weeks before the actual vote date we can get things done now and not worry about getting them done way too early you'll see more of rolling out of all that information over the next week or so as we complete our tasks as board members but we will get the message out and get get everyone informed as much as possible uh for the 12th of March which is the vote again at the high school something as we're talking about this in uh community relations a topic came up and we want to make sure that we are crystal clear on this with the community and I will reiterate this over and over again typically school districts apply for GR ANS there are um grants that that from the federal government that you get for special education and for uh free induced lunches a lot of different grants that come our way that's filtered in and mixed into the budget but routinely districts apply for Grants and I don't want people to think that if we apply for a grant and are successful in that grant that it affects the public question for instance last time as we're going coming up to the to the uh the vote on November 7th we were given something called a rod Grant which is regularly operating districts money that could be used to fix things and it's a matching Grant we couldn't use the rod grant for staff we couldn't use it for creating new programs the rod Grant is to fix things um roofs HVAC system those types of things and it's a mat matching Grant we were awarded $7 million for things that we've determined in the finance committee in the business committee that needed to be repaired the problem is we would have to come up with the $7 million to match all or part of those grants it didn't help us in the public question and I think a lot of people were confused when it came out oh they're getting $7 million but they're asking for 4.8 why do we need to vote for this public question they have nothing to do with with each other so as we're getting near that vote on March 12th we have applied for two other grants the New Jersey learning acceleration program high impact tutoring grant that is just for tutoring students and it's not a lot of money it's enough to possibly offer tutoring for third grade and maybe fourth grade that's it it doesn't help us with the public question it doesn't H help us with the operating budget and we're not even sure getting the the money so that's the high impact tutoring grant that we've applied for we've also applied for preschool expansion we should know if we're getting that Grant in early February but if we get it it's just for the title of the program preschool expansion it doesn't help solve the operating budget so we want to make our that make sure that we're Crystal Clear when we go out with messaging if we are successful with grants they have nothing to do with the operating budget and the public question so um we're working on moring as we put more information out we will be very specific if we do get either of those two grants we we'll be very specific we'll get out in front of it so people don't think oh I don't have to vote for this public question now they just got you know a bunch of money um it doesn't work that way so we be we will be crystal clear on that um last two things I also wanted to talk about tonight uh tomorrow is something start of something called texo down in Atlantic City it's an annual uh conference where all the Educators from New Jersey get together and they see the latest and greatest things happening with technology and data and all that really good stuff well this year our curriculum Department was chosen to present at texo so very proud of Steve Christie Michelle and Amanda um it's not personal its data is the the title of the program program I saw an overview of it today it's very engaging it's a lot of fun bottom line it really talks about the journey this district has been on for the past 12 months about using data to inform instruction and that's what it's about and once you go through it tomorrow I'm G to ask you probably present to the the curriculum and uh in instruction uh policy committee um it's really good it just charts everything that we've been through and what we're going to do with data moving forward to make us a true data informed District which is really really uh powerful stuff for our staff and for our kids so guys congratulations looking forward to that tomorrow uh you also hear about um our audit um as you talk budgets and things uh I do want to say big thank you to Nick mccre for the third year in a row there were no audit findings which is pretty remarkable so Nick congratulations on that uh you run a very tight ship and a legal ship apparently according to our order um but uh you know thank you for for all you do in that area it's important when you're dealing with over $60 million of of budgetary money and you are a fiduciary in charge of that for the public uh no audit findings is exactly what the public should uh be expecting and you don't let us down so thank you for that as well um and if there no questions that ends my report Brian s this one question about the U the plan and the grand document that we prepared uh how can we share that with the community yeah I can I can bring it up right here if you'd like um I was ready to do that um it's kind of rough but I I can bring it up yeah I think it'll be good to actually just show and you know the the following question is can we as from a community relations perspective we can actually show the plan to the public to kind of you know get some feedbacks AB yeah we can actually do that okay and and the GR document also that that was prepared how would we share that you know can that be shared through community relations or um we have a drop down for uh on the main website about the public question we could put it right on there and in my um my messaging out to the community tell them to go right there give them the link so they can see the plan it's kind of light right there but it starts with press releases that are ongoing um we have our our PR um gentleman working on that um m Flyers handouts doing slide presentations we have a FAQ uh coming out uh start with social media post videos like we did last time blasts uh to our to our community uh through email um fact sheets other uh uh communication reaching out to recreational groups women's groups the root Rotary Club I'll be speaking to them on February 2nd about the public question um mom's CL club's Public Library we're going to have Flyers out there uh addressing it with our ptas um as we said before we do have Town Council supporting the public question so if they could put something in their uh newsletter that would be terrific that way it reaches everyone in the community uh Pride event is coming up um possible Community zooms religious events uh town hall with uh the president and I Robinsville Night Out is on the 6th of March um I'll be here doing a painting class so we'll make sure information gets out to uh everyone there uh the Middle School play is coming up in in a week and a half we'll have information out there for parents uh ptas PJs um little league Boy Scouts Girl Scouts I mean there's we're going to really reach out which we didn't last time to the individual groups in the community and make sure they're talking about it uh and that way hopefully we get people to come out and vote um on this public question thank you Brian we'll put this out uh on the website under our drop down so whatever goes on the website Brian can we put in the s'more report for from the board meeting that we put out that's ragdu is the he's the master schore Creator so that's something you that you can actually highlight it in that that' be great be great idea yeah it's great thank you okay any other questions or comments thank you Mr bets um the on reports are there any LS on reports for the month not seeing any uh Mr McCree the business M I'm the business administrator's uh report good evening Mr President thank you um thank you for the kind words about the audit obviously uh it's not just me I have a whole team that supports me um and we check a lot of um areas and so I I think I think it's more of I think a lot of people put up with me uh and so I should say thank you to them for for putting up with me for so many years uh uh on this audit uh that we do so uh we check many things and the auditor will come up before I introduce him um he's your auditor this report is for you and for the board um and they check I mean he checks everything it's Student Activities so the secretaries at each s of the schools run Student Activities for the children and some of them are in the hundreds of thousands of dollars and so they check that they check their food service department they checked the before and after care as well they now we've made additional funds so they're checking the athletic Revenue athletic sales and the facil rentals fund so you'll see that in the report as well he made a two-pager for you for all to see to kind of summarize it but it it's open for you to ask pretty much any question for him um you've had the the audit for a while now um and I like to bring up uh Mr David MCN partner of hul MCN and Associates he's been the auditor for this school district before I've been here so I'm not sure how long it's been Mr mcnali few years yeah five maybe five years thank you sure um good evening everyone thanks for the introduction as Nick said I'm Dave MCN partner with h MCN Associates um going to give a summary on the June 30 2023 audit we did Issue our audit as of December 18th which is about two months ahead of last year which is exciting a little bit about what's going on in the audit World in New Jersey there's been a lot of delays if you can recall um I think I've been here maybe in March or April the last couple years given this report so it's nice to be here um earlier um the audit was extended officially to uh due date of January 15 so we're in compliance with that extended due date um next year's due date is also going to be January 15th uh like Nick mentioned I provided a two-page handout um I'll go through quickly I know it's a it's not the most exciting topic um but everything went very well um as you'll see we issue three reports when we come to do the audit so we spend about three weeks on site uh there's a lot of um followup after that and from that we come up with our opinion our opinion this year is what's called an unmodified opinion best opinion you can receive basically says that as of June 30th 2023 your financials statements are fairly stated in all material respects so best opinion you can receive we also issue report on internal controls over compliance um there's a whole host of compliance requirements that New Jersey schools are required to follow we review the school's compliance with those steps and we were happy to report there was no control weaknesses or compliance findings our third report is a report which we call a single audit it's a report over major programs and internal control over those programs whenever you spend over 750 $50,000 in federal or state funding that triggers the special single audit we did a federal single audit on your ESF funds all the erer funding and then we did a state single audit on your general state aid again uh this was an unmodified opinion um basically says that the district complied in all material respects as of June 30 2023 so three clean reports which is great I made some other notes on the handout there there's a Management's discussion and Analysis on page 21 through 27 that's an area I suggest if you want to pick of the 200 Page report to read it'd be a good one to read on your own um a little bit about the financial statements um I know Nick is well versed in this and can give you more info but just some highlights uh you have governmental funds a special Revenue Fund in in the in the report on page 37 and 38 the ending fund balance for that fund is $351,000 as of June 30 2023 those are your Student Activity and scholarship funds you have a Debt Service fund you have two remaining Bond issues you have a 2005 refunding issue with $1,985 still due on that and then a two 2013 bond issue at 10,624 on that issue as of June 30 2023 proprietary funds there's now four uh you have food service fund that net position decreased this year at the end of the year there was $244,000 in that food service fund a healthy position the red program end of the year um unrestricted net position the deficit actually uh decreased by $118,000 so if you remember that that fund during covid went well well into the red since the program kids stopped attending um so that deficit is slowly decreasing which is good news uh the new fund that funds that were created there's a school facilities fund that ends the year with $224,000 in that position and and an Athletics fund which ended the year with $24,000 and again we audit those numbers in detail um and there was no issues to note the second page is a recap of your general fund which is the most um important it's your operating fund your main operating fund I gave you a four-year history so I guess it's been four years maybe since I've been doing the audit so there's a four year fouryear history of how you how your budget performed for 2023 you'll see at the top there um there was excess Revenue over budget of $773,000 there are unexpended Appropriations so money not spent from your budget of 2,99 288 the combination of those two numbers generated fund balance for the District of 3,683 209 you did to use 3,575 772 of fund balance to balance your 23 budget and there were incumbrances from the year before that were paid of a mil 5279 so all that activity actually resulted in a deficit or a utilization of fund balance of 945 358 you'll see in the middle of the page this Compares total budget to spent the district spent about 94.7 one% of their budget you'll see the year before was 94% 2021 93 and the year before that about 91% so it's been getting a little bit tighter each year um and that's part of the reason why you didn't generate fund balance because you're spending more of your budget each year the final third of that second page is a recap of your overall fund balance as of June 30 2023 so like I mentioned your overall fund balance decreased it went from 11,165 604 down to 10,220 246 of that number that's made up of various fund balances and Reserves at the top there you have a reserve for encumbrances of 729 753 those of funds that have been obligated to spend you have excess surplus of 1,400,000 even that's going to be the amount you need to use in your upcoming budget that's going to be prepared you have a capital reserve of 2,335 393 funds set aside for future Capital needs of the district the maintenance Reserve is at 2,125 476 funds that have been set aside for maintenance um 300,000 of that number was already used in the year you're in now Reserve FY employment uh $62,000 that's obviously reserved for future unemployment claims the 1,576 292 or is fund balance that you've used in a 23 24 year and that leaves you with 1, 45872 and that's really the the only fund balance that's left at the end of the day the 2% of your operating expenditures and that's the max you can have in that amount um and that's really all I like to go through very brief summary like I mentioned um everything went really well I do thank Brian Nick and his team um it's a lot of uh pestering the staff for three weeks and that they are very professional and helpful it's very nice to come to Robinsville so I do appreciate that and my team's treated really well that's all I really have does anybody have any questions for me thank you D sure the um that 95% yes of what we spend typically what do you find other other districts that number being yeah so um it ranges but normally 95 is on the high end for sure um I think the the highest I've had other than Robinsville is more like 92 but normally they're in the 90% 85% range so 95 is definitely on the higher side of spent yep I I do have a question um it's like my question's going to be super serious now um so with regards to I so how many other if you don't mind um stating other districts you do similar um reports for sure we have 37 schools districts currently awesome okay and I was just curious to know if you could State some of and I know it sounds like an excellent report so kind of the best school districts where what are the pitfalls that they're falling in that we should keep on our radar um you know in in the next few years my biggest issue I've seen is there's been a lot of turnover in the uh business office world and that lead that can really deteriorate things in a hurry um so consistency with your Staffing is Big um most districts you know they're set up to succeed in their structure but soon as someone leaves they may get an interum or not be able to fill that position and that's when things start to get messy um other than that I mean I think um obviously budgets are getting tighter I don't know where State going to go um but I think controlling your your Surplus um is probably the biggest thing keeping a consistent fund balance do do you also get that's very helpful thank you do you do you get visibility as to revenue building opportunities that really work well for other districts that we should keep on our radar that's a good question um I don't see too much creativity I'm trying to think of some I can get back to you on that as I as I review some of my other clients on on unique programs they may have um I know I see a lot of school facility rentals are big um but in terms of anything uh unique I'd have to get back to you on that okay may not have to be unique we could probably do like even the basics too yeah no problem awesome um and then I had one one more um could could you state your opinion on the need for an increased an operating budget for for our school so we're going for a referendum for our town um on increasing our operating budget and so looking at our Financial Health being strong but also noting that there are opportunities and a need to to do more um with not enough do you have an opinion um from a financial perspective on as an auditor um the only thing I can see so I don't get involved in the you know what your upcoming needs are right but I do see as we talked about how tight your budget is already so spending 95% of your budget obviously there it's very tight uh it won't take much of you know an emergency or something to really put you in a deficit um but I can't speak to obviously the future I don't get into that in terms of hey here's what we have up coming down the road um but like like I said just from the current situation it's definitely your budgets on the tighter side I appreciate it thank you sure just to uh follow up on that as you look at the operating expense and our call it headcount which is a student population so I see there's been a decrease in the populations when you do an analysis of what are we catering to and what are we spending and the per pupil compare boths to others how are your stack ranking for from a expense side of it as well as from a feasibility side of serving I I truthfully do not analyze that in detail in terms are you asking like in in in compared to other school districts yeah I mean whether if it's a ratio whether if it's you know population to um staff population to expense population to all the different measurables that we should be looking at since we are training at 95% so what are some of the those ratios we need to be keeping an eyee out for and how are we comparing with again effective school districts that you have audited yeah I don't have too much Insight on that it's not something that we analyze in terms of per pupil spending obviously when we're looking at um we look at things analytically if there was something way out of whack for some reason way off of what we expect we'd bring that to your attention um but that's not something that we've noticed in terms of you know something you're way outside the box of of other districts I don't know that probably doesn't answer your question but I don't have a benchmark I guess is my is my point on that and from um inflationary perspective how are we compared to the other districts from last year to this year in terms of your spending um well you I mean your your budget can only increase by so much I think you're you're somewhat in line obviously your like I mentioned your percent of budget is increased but that's pretty typical so coming out of Co a lot of districts were spending say 80% of their budget Robinsville never got that low um they've ticked up to those other districts so they're now normalizing say 88% of their budget but you're up at 95 so um you've kind of you know I guess I should say stayed more consistent than other districts if I look at it whereas you know you somehow the budget's been so tight at Robinsville that you didn't have that big influx of fund balance that other districts had so during 2020 20 and 2021 most of my clients put a lot of fund balance and reserves back in because they had operating expenditures were down excess you know on the grant funding coming in um Robinsville really hasn't had that from what I can see just to follow up on that one do you see effective District spend somewhere around 90% or 85% what is the median 90 probably now it was around 85 but 90 is pretty typical 88 to 90% is most of my schools there's exceptions um some are 92 but I I think Robinsville is my highest at the 94 95 and do you and you can actually tell me if this is a question that you cannot answer but do you think that's healthy sometimes it is you know in a way we are actually managing to the penny to good extent but that also tells that hey we don't have anything much in the reserve and we probably are hitting the wall some sometime right no I would agree that 95 is getting a little too high the the struggle is for a school district is you only can have 2% of your budget in your fund balance so there's no real piggy bank for you so any misstep can really put you in trouble um it's also how you build your budget so when I mentioned some districts might spend 80% of their budget they're kind of banking on bringing money back in to then use the fund balance it's it's kind of a budget mechanism um but I've noticed you know 90% probably would be a good number probably thank you sure just follow up again on that on a line byline basis on the expense side are we higher in one area or the other that's causing us to be at this 95% no I don't believe so I think it's probably across the board um there is a nice schedule in the audit um the C1 exhibit I don't know if you're familiar um but that will show you the budget for the year as well as what was spent and then you can see what was left over um if I can scroll to that quickly that's on pages 85 through 90 90 um so that will show you budget the actual um and you can kind of see what lines have been completely spent verse some have been completely spent verse what lines have money left over um so at the end of the day you can probably go through and see that most are pretty well spent down there are some savings maybe in energy it looks like but not much health benefits was probably your biggest one that had excess funding um but if you look through that C1 you'll see there's not really too many areas that stick out they're all pretty consistently spent I'd like to jump in um and so I I've got three things to point out so we spoke about the 2% um so when you think of 95% you're like oh out of a 100 really it's out of 98 because you have to have your 2% in our district and this is historical with our district and probably half the districts out there you use your excess funds from the year before to balance your budget so we always come out 1.4 million in the whole before we even start and the only way to fix that is with a tax increase and so it's like do you want to fix something that's really is it broken or not is it dis but it's never been fixed and we're not pushing to get it fixed but we always start that and so at the end of the year you have to have at least 1.4 million to put back so it's 95% of [Music] 98 okay um typically you should have an um asbo international business administrator International they'll tell you you should have 10% because it's it's your error we don't have room for error if we screw something up it's our children and it's okay wait to do an election we're seeing right now how long does it take to do an election how long before you can raise taxes and so forth I don't I can't just go out and get a loan and so forth so that's why they want you to have Reserves at a certain point and then when you take into account your Capital needs and your building needs starting to go down and and so forth and costs going up you have to manage that money um the audit will be posted online so I'll post it tomorrow the day after it's also posted with the state and they actually have already had it for a couple weeks now already they take that data that's going to M what Mr gady is saying they're going to run a report uh you can just Google tges or taxpayers guide to educational spending and they have about 20 metrics that break down every single School District in the state by size by county and so forth so you can see if there's any trend lines are we spending a lot in legal is an administrative expense is there high benefits cost uh is your educational cost too high you can see and you can judge that where we are and where everybody else goes um and so that report hopefully in a few months will be out um I do know school districts whove just started doing their audits a month ago and so I'm very fortunate we are very fortunate uh H MCN associates finished theirs on time um so that's actually a good thing for us and and and happy to have him um and then to to wrap it up we say 95% on the flip side it means we're also efficient and so but to be efficient means you're cutting it close so hope for the best right um and uh we'll probably leave it at that any more questions for uh Mr MCN no Nick I think thank you very much for clarifying that because that's an important point it's not just 95% it is more than that that's that's very critical thank you and if you have questions just email me I'll forward it on to him or take a look at it um it's nice bedtime reading so a couple hundred Pages um there are some interesting reports in here especially the J reports and so we take some time looking at the J reports about the town and the debts and so forth and where we're going so there's some interesting data that as boards it's the J reports that that stand out okay thank you great thank you everybody have a good night thank you just noted R for the revenue building opportunity areas yes okay awesome Y and we when when um Nick posts the uh budget online can you can you link that in your small report as well yeah okay um public comment can I get a motion to open public comment uh on agenda items only for 30 minutes please so moved second thank you Jay thank you Jeff um any all in favor I I I any n or abstentions all right um so we're going to open public session uh public comment for 3 minutes each please keep it polite and courteous I won't read through the entire uh note here in the agenda but again flight courteous and it's not a Q&A so we'll try to you maybe at the end if Brian can't answer anything we'll try to answer them while we're here so uh mic is open anyone for public comment anyone for public comment on agenda items only all right not seeing any um can have a motion to close public comment so moved second thank you Jay thank you Ru all in favor I I any NS or extensions not seeing any so we'll close that public comment I'm can I get a motion to approve the minutes from last the last board meeting so moved second thank you J thank you Ru all in favor I I any other extensions besides uh the new board members for that one all right motion passes and now we ready for the committee reports all right uh unfortunately Miss Lima had to step out um but Dr Pi is willing to walk us through the uh committee report for Ed policy thank you Mr President so Ed education and policy committee met on uh January 9th at 6 o'clock um present was uh Tanya art Amanda and myself also um from the administration Brian Steve and Christie were also present uh Dr vusi went and explained um to the new committee members the process for which uh policies are approved he also further went on to just discuss the general process for um policies how they're presented to us for adoption um and for air modification under new business um Dr vusi and Miss defasio present it on pre school expansion uh they've been working on this grant for a while it's for Robinsville 3 to four year olds for full day quality Universal preschool um we're hoping to hear from the state um if we are approved on February 2nd we also looked at the 2425 District calendar um Mr BET's uh next move is to meet with the Rea determine which calendar um works out best for the district thank you Jeff uh Personnel that's also me um so present for um Personnel committee was on January 16th at 6:00 um Mr gladi uh Nadia Anthony and myself were present for it along with from Administration um Brian and uh Lisa Tremor I start the meeting by going over new business which was reviewing the Staffing spreadsheet and then we um talked about uh job descriptions uh for a data input specialist executive assistant to superintendent and the events coordinator so the district is investigating realigning these positions by shifting responsibilities between the positions the realignment would look to be net neutral in cost to the district through cost savings and rental fees um and the board will be provided with possible job descriptions of if this is to move forward at a future meeting thank you uh the business committee that's myself we met on January 18th um at 3:30 uh in in attendance were uh Mr Gadi Dr Pio and myself uh from the administration was uh Mr Betts Mr mccre Dr wusi uh M stasio and and Brian Murphy uh we reviewed all the maintenance for um all the buildings uh rhs and and pond were more of a HVAC and um boiler and Generator review um the reing project did close out at at rhs and that was a big initiative by by the district um um for Sharon um they all the lights were converted to LEDs which should see a benefit for the schools from uh you know I think uh we heard the auto report the energy saving initiatives um we also reviewed a potential to repave or or reeal the uh the entire school grounds throughout the district uh waiting on the uh the assessment reports for those um also reviewed a lot of the initiatives that um we heard about tonight between the audit um for the public question we discussed and we discussed the grants any questions yeah just curious to know are there um which grants are upcoming to apply for just is there kind of the number of them maybe for the next one but just curious to know so the grants we reviewed were the acers the preschool grant that uh that Brian discussed uh the beind um there was a um or the beind was a donation I'm sorry so the two AIDS were the acers and the the preschool expansion it typically not a a schedule of Grants they they come up and we get notified through the Department of Education then we can apply for them if we meet the criteria it's not really a annual thing um what typically happens is they they have a set of money uh districts apply for it the ones that are successful whatever's left over they may go out again and again again and again so it's it's hard to tell um but we'll take advantage of anything that that comes our way so we also have um you know have the board approve them so you'll see in the grants or donations uh or Aid section it's all there for for approvals um right now we have um teachers out there who are applying for Grants as well so we're screening those making sure the principals also screen them is it appropriate and so forth uh and can we maintain those whatever we we receive so we're going to start putting that out there um and a school districts across the board we having um a little bit of a interesting dilemma that we don't know how to solve is um there's a you know people are doing their own fundraising without board approvals and so it's great that they're doing this but it's what are you getting like is it is it appropriate is it part of the curriculum or not and so donors chooses one of them out there uh go fund me and so forth so we're trying to come up with rules and regulations so we'll bring this to policy and try to um you know um get this into a right ways so that we can support our teachers and our staff uh in running these programs and they're also protected as well um so we'll we'll do more of that in the future so it's like a governance model for teachers before they apply for Grants just sort of like process and play okay cool and the same goes for um you know our our our um our um I'm sorry I'm forgetting their name uh they give money every year um Ed Foundation foundation and so they'll they'll put the the applications out please apply they have a screening process the principal screen and and it works its way up and then the ad Foundation screens as well like what they can support or not and so after that goes through it comes to us we'll accept the funds I'll create a Grant Line and they'll spend the money against that Grant Line and so um and sometimes grants come out of the blue have you seen this Grant and so last year the police department came hey did you see this Federal grant which did not come from the NJ Doe um so we applied for that only three schools W it in the whole entire state but we want to apply again um for some of the security items that we're looking for so sometimes it's just you know you spend hours doing it and it's a long shot but if you win it's a big win so we're we're going for those grants for for our students and faculty yeah I wonder I just um if somebody if we can take this with the Personnel committee because I'm curious to know if there's any existing Personnel that can take maybe like Grant Management or Grant overview or Grant governance under their belt just to to keep it all in line as a possibility um probably no one currently on staff um you we're we're very thin uh administratively central office the schools uh we did cut back on uh executive assistance at the school level um last year with the budget cuts uh I did contact a few outside organizations that'll do that for us and take a part of the grant as their fee um um there's just nothing out there because um we we have they'll say we have too much money um and we don't qualify for those grants uh so but I do have some people looking for us that there are private organizations that do that kind of work because we don't have anyone on staff to do that it actually came out of the the Strategic strategic plan to do that very thing they're just not a lot of organizations out there that'll help meet our needs so we're trying to be more efficient on that uh Mr fio signed me up for a course on chat GPT and how to write grants um so uh it'll help me out uh with my engineering mind to to soften uh my writing style um but uh it is difficult um unfortunately the grants the way they're structured is predominantly and it's people donate money they want to donate it to certain groups and when you have 3 to 5% I think we're at 6% now free and reduced that's one of the big Target points what's your percentage the other big Target point is what's your title one population which is also related and Co money came that way we were the bottom 15% of funding for covid you know um and if you think about it other people got four five six times more than we did per child and so it it they look at your districts and it's it's predominant so when you think of being a grant writer you're taking a commission and like what are my odds of winning I'm going to spend all my time and so you know or you can just hire some on staff um but we haven't gotten there yet because is it so we're trying to handle internally because once again it's let's save as many teaching positions as we can because if you do that then you have to take somewhere else from our limited resources other questions comments okay conratulations Mr Nan hey thank you the community relations met on January 10th at 6 p.m. all the committee members were in attendance the team extensively deliberated on the communication plan for the public question board members expressed their commitment to assist the administration in disseminating the message across different events and groups of course ensuring adherence to Legal boundaries and presenting the materials only approved by both the administration and the board the administration took the action um on the initiative to finalize the plan incorporating activity dates presented to the community you know community in the report thank you Brian which which was presented today Additionally the members of community relation committee will engage with the community members within their circles to discuss the plan and gather any feedback the committee was briefed on parent Square which is a software um the administration will facilitate robust communication about this change providing support to community members through videos and town halls upon its rollout tentatively scheduled for September 2024 with a preview for staff and administration in July 2024 updates on various grants were shared by the administration prompting the committee to recommend creating a concise presentation outlining the applied grants and their spending mandates if approved uh the team took an action expressed the desire for this presentation to be included in the report which Brian also presented today and that will be shared with the community the committee Charters uh Brian thank you very much for coming up with the committee Charters uh which was written and emailed um this basically tells what each committee does um for all the Committees it's out there we request the respective chairs of the committee to review the same so that we can also make that available to the community at large so that people understand what each committee does the next meeting is scheduled for February 7 2024 however there is a possibility of an earlier meeting depending on the calendar particularly considering the public question discussion thank you thank you um Brian Nick for the for the Committees if we can and that was I I recall the the mission statements if we can go through those maybe at all the other committees just to make sure it's on the agenda so we can you know get that into community relations that'd be great okay um ad hoc security that's me uh we met January 18th at 8: a.m. um here in at pwn Road uh in attendants were um Arthur Howard Jay Gatti Anthony Ray and myself um from the administration uh Mr Betts Mr McCree Dr winki building principles the sro's and uh Mr Murphy uh we reviewed um from the principales their their safety report uh they went through all the scheduled drills that each of the schools uh practiced um they also reviewed that uh the protocols that each of the each of the buildings went over with staff to make sure that they were up to date uh the sro's uh reviewed a recommendation for for an enhanced communication plan throughout the district uh which is going to be covered in technology um and they reviewed the treny procedure um in Old business we reviewed um an engineering and design report for the camera systems we reviewed the re reing project the generators um and a security audit that uh Mr mccre and Mr V were able to uh determine a new vendor Force um so right now the next meeting is scheduled for February 29th but I think that might be up in the air based on timing for the for the group uh any questions all right uh ad hoc special education Mrs uh Hill Angel hi everybody um we met via zoom on January 22nd it was myself and Miss georan Johnson um to communicate everybody we H uh student services has made great Headway with the new special education parent adversary group um or otherwise known as cpag their first parent meeting is set to occur via zoom on Wednesday evening um on the 24th of this month georan Johnson Miss corus and myself will all meet with leadership uh in the following days to debrief and receive feedback from the parents following that meeting hopefully making a plan going forward on how we want to handle this year and new initiatives cpeg has done a great job providing guidance in terms of parent recommendations for the presentations they'd like to see in the future they adjusted uh The Parent Academy series to include two different workshops special education 101 and the IEP process in February and April respectively thanks thank you and last but not least at technology Mr gat thank you Peter uh we met yesterday January 22nd uh via teams in presence of myself Peter olberg Anthony Ray and Randon uh we also had Brian Betts Nick mccre and our director of Technology John leer we talked about our systems update and also reviewed some policies and procedures of our core infrastructure we talked about budget items related to electronic documents retention as well as products for document retention as per policy we talked about the needs for Dr and high availability we also discussed the need for uh software policies uh as well as the U celebration of the fact that we went live with the one of our student systems Genesis to the cloud we had further discussions related to the communication systems uh and the need for a potential D system and uh right now we're going to be doing more research and the costs associated for that system thank you thank you Mr clot any questions or comments for any of the chairs all right not seeing any we'll move on the monthly resolutions superintendent recommends that the Board of Education approve uh the following action items a through C can I get a motion to approve the monthly resolutions stay mov second Mr Nandan Mr Gadi all in favor I I any n or extensions I got I got agre roll call oh you have do a roll call any discussion no no thank you uh Miss banduka uh yes Mr G yes Miss Hill DeAngelo yes Mr Howard yes Miss Leman absent Mr nandon yes Mr Ray yes Dr Pio yes Mr alberg yes thank you very much motion sorry Nick I got a little gung-ho there any old business any new business all right I have a motion to open public comment on school related matters for 30 minutes so moves second can Jeff regu all in favor all right any needs or extensions not seeing any um same rules apply 3 minutes per person um the mic is open any public comment all right not seeing any may have a motion to close public comment so moved Mr Gadi and Nadia all in favor all right any ner extensions all right um we're uh can I get a motion to open executive session for uh a Personnel matter smov second J all in favor all right n or extensions all right let's go back into exec okay before before we go I'd like to make an announcement so uh this is going to an executive session there are no is no action to be taken after executive session after they are done uh they'll come out in public and adjourn and that's it so uh I will be going home thank you Mr uh Carrick for taking over for me but there will be no action after executive session tonight have a good evening thank you n for the clarification for