e e e e e a special meeting of the Walltown trip Board of Education uh please join me in this saluting the flag stands one nation under God indivisible with liy and justice for all good evening thanks for joining us at this time I'm going to ask our board secretary to please read the sunshine announcement and perform roll call thank you this is the Walltown Board of Education special meeting for which notice under the open public meeting Act was provided by a publication in the coast star written notice to the Asbury Park Press Township clerk's office and the Wall Township Public Schools uh and in the board Administration office on March 28th 2024 take a roll call Mr adeso here miss barbier here Mr buffer here m d Giovani here Mr Mali here Mr Nasser here M shco here Mr wandra miss stes here thank thank you and at this time I'm going to be turning it over to Dr handerhan to um make introductions of the special presentation thank you so much Miss Stites good evening tonight's public budget hearing is designed to provide an opportunity for the public to receive an overview of the proposed budget for the 2024 2025 school year there will be an opportunity for public comment prior to the vote last year I prepared a video of the budget presentation after receiving feedback that viewers at home had difficulty seeing the slides during the live stream of my in-person presentation the following that the public feedback was very positive regarding the video production and viewers at home were able to see uh See the presentation and the slides with much greater Clarity since the um presentation is also available on the website I was so happy to see that quite a few people logged on last year to view it as well as such I created a video presentation again this year so that we could engage as many um members of our public as possible so ladies and gentlemen um I'm going to ask those of us that are sitting on the front the sides I think you you'll be okay if you could just move to um to the wings of the deis that would be terrific [Music] and ladies and gentlemen may I present next year's budget presentation welcome to the Wall Township Public Schools public budget hearing for the 2024 2025 school year this year the budgeting process required almost a full year to complete during this time administrators work closely with Board of Education members to evaluate needs and set priorities many of which are established lished through the district's strategic goals in the case of facilities improvements the district uses the long range facilities plan to identify projects for the upcoming school year this winter and early spring there were two public budget Workshop sessions one held on February 27th and the other held on March 26th these Public Work sessions are quite informative as budgeting rationale is a large part of the discussions please visit our website to see the workshop presentations in action for more specific information regarding next year's budget priorities on March 19th the Board of Education approved the submission of a tentative budget to the New Jersey Department of Education this evening following tonight's presentation and public hearing the Board of Education will vote on the proposed budget wtps has spent the school year planning major curriculum projects and programming next year our budget goals include the implementation of identified curricular projects and the introduction of new programming student wellness will continue to be a priority professional development and optimization of Human Resources will once again be areas of focus we will also continue to allocate funds for capital projects I would like to note that capital projects discuss here this evening do not include those projects identified through the referendum referendum projects for the upcoming school year will be discussed at a separate Board of Education meeting along with multi-year completion [Music] timelines the district is excited for the implementation of the new master schedule at wall High School a great deal of research and planning has taken place over the last 2 years to ensure this new schedule will be the best fit for our students and maximize active instructional time in addition to the new schedule there are new elective courses and course revisions for the upcoming school year these include highin courses such as business law architecture Studio journalism marine biology fantasy fiction anatomy and sports medicine and financial crimes as an aside we are all looking forward to the new dual enrollment partnership with Stockton University this school year the district reviewed achievement data from multiple sources this past year a great deal of time was dedicated to assess individual elementary students reading progress these data Dives will continue and will inform instruction and Target individual student needs new textbooks online databases and other resources have been identifi to support targeted instruction one major curriculum implementation for next year includes extending science of reading protocols and methodologies into grades 3 through five following this year's K through2 implementation I am thrilled about the implementation of an evidence-based brain-based reading approach I look forward to additional upcoming professional development and parent information programs regarding the science of read the district will continue to invest in instructional resources both print and digital to support curricular programs across the grade levels we are also very excited to share that next year's proposed budget also includes Elementary leadership opportunities for grade levels and special education school districts must provide specialized programming for students with special needs it is also necessary to make these Provisions within the least restrictive environment supports include learning materials and resources adaptive technology various Professional Services like speech and occupational therapy some students require an extended school year to meet their learning objectives I would like to sh share that next year's budget proposal includes the addition of an Innovative School within a school which will provide a restorative individualized and supportive education or Rise program at the high school this program is designed to meet the needs of students who require individualized school-based therapeutic services in an academic learning environment I would like to mention that one of the benefits of developing such a program is to provide a least restrictive environment for students needing such specialized programming as this type of special programming has warranted ad of District placements in the past our goal is to send less students to ad of district schools so they can benefit from an education in their home District not only is this type of less restrictive program beneficial to students but the district will realize cost savings it is also possible that we may be in a position to offset costs by accepting tuition students from other school districts needing this unique programming as was the case with our new er program established this year at the Intermediate [Music] School it is imperative that Wellness is at the Forefront of our decision making I am proud of this District's commitment to nursing and counseling services this summer a 9th grade transitional counseling curriculum will be crafted to provide freshmen with tools and services to optimize academic and social success it is Paramount that students be made aware of the resources available to them sometimes it is necessary for students to re receive home instruction next year's budget will provide for this required accommodation this year the seven mindsets initiative was funded through Esser monies since all Esser funds must be expended by September 30th 2024 the next phase in its implementation will be funded through the local budget for those of you that may be new to the seven mindsets program it is an evidence-based approach to strengthen foundations in resilience motivation self-determination self-awareness confidence and engagement updating the district's technology infrastructure and security measures continues to be a priority in next year's proposed budget as is implementing New Management tools to minimize redundancies and increase productivity monies are also allocated to technical maintenance and prepairs with respect respect to technical devices the district is committed to maintaining the replenishment cycle cyber security is of the utmost importance and as such the district will expand its use of multiactor authentication protocols and further enhance network [Music] monitoring maximizing efficiency in Human Resources remains a priority in an effort to ensure the sustainability and expansion of our District's programs this year's budget includes new Staffing to support the adoption of the new high school schedule and creation and implementation of The Rise program The District's supervisory position that had previously been unfilled and removed from the past budget has been reestablished for the 2024 2025 school year this budget also reflects a 5.35 full-time equivalency or FTE decrease and a current salary Savings of over $300,000 the total budget salary increase for the 2024 2025 school year is approximately 3.09% the majority of the savings has been captured through attrition that is through retirement resignation or promotion staff transfers will also be utilized as a means to ensure savings and maximizing Personnel efficiency I believe it is important to note that the trend of increasing health care costs is expected to continue after consultation with employee benefits professionals it was necessary to budget an additional 6% for health benefits this year [Music] I would like to stress that the capital projects identified in this upcoming proposed budget are separate and apart from referendum projects next year's projects funded by the proposed annual school budget include repaving the parking lots at Old Mill school and W primary school redesigning and replacing the main and athletic entrances at wall High School and temporarily relocating the transportation department just over $1 million is budgeted for these projects funded through Capital Improvements a little over $700,000 has been budgeted for districtwide building maintenance which includes refinishing the gym floor at the high [Music] school this slide provides a detailed view over the last 3 years for spending in each program category this slide also details the percent change over the current year budget as I mentioned earlier it was necessary to budget for an increase of 6% in health benefits with this increase total benefits which includes health benefits makes up over 20% of next year's annual school budget I find this pie chart to be helpful in visualizing the budget [Music] Appropriations this slide provides an overview of how the budget is divided up by function over the past 3 years this view is particularly helpful at identifying trends this slide details the sources of funding used to develop the budget as I am sure you are aware most of the budget is raised through local tax levy this year we are asking for a 2% increase in tax levy state and federal as well as Reserve accounts also help fund the annual school budget I would like to share with you that there is an additional source of funding in this budget that is a health waiver when the costs of the state health benefits plan increases are greater than 2% school districts are eligible for a waiver for the amount exceeding 2% up to the amount of the state health benefits increase which this year is 6.3% this waiver exists for the purpose of Assisting School districts in absorbing substantial increases in health benefits faced with a 6% increase in health benefits cost the district requests the use of this waiver so that student programs services and curricular initiatives are not eliminated or lessened the district is also using banked cap which is taxing Authority from one of the two prior years that was not used in the amount of the 2024 2025 school budget as compared to the current budget marks a total increase of just over 2% yielding a total budget of $87,200 [Music] th000 what does this budget mean in terms of dollars for taxpayers to illustrate this chart provides for some different house assessment values and corresponding increases as you can see in the highlighted column the average assessed home in Wall Township is $492,500 the proposed budget calls for an annual increase of $874 with a monthly increase of $729 this figure includes this year's reference random increase we at Wall Township Public Schools are excited to embark on the exciting initiatives and projects out for the 2024 2025 school year I thank you for your time e Co okay okay thank you so much for creating that video I hope that that's helpful for folks um and I appreciate the video format because if there's anything you miss you can certainly go back watch it again um and Rewind um at this point in time I will be opening the floor for public comment on our special presentation I would like to make um the point um that we ask our speakers to be respectful um when they're at the podium and just remind the public gently that this is not necessarily um a back and forth exchange of ideas at this point this is the Public's opportunity to make comment uh to the board um the board will not be responding to questions during this portion of the meeting um but at this time the floor is open so please come to the podium bety cross I live in Wall Township I mean I think it's kind of ridiculous that you're not taking questions I mean that's the purpose of a budget hearing you invited people to come here so I'd like to get my questions answered um there is one I think School employee here and the newspaper and that's about it so if I go over my three minutes I'd like to have uh more more time I handed to uh Mr SMI through the security office the budget projection for health benefits so this is one thing that didn't go to Lester richens it doesn't seem like it maybe it went to the board but could you tell me how much you're budgeting just for health benefits just for prescription and just for dental um I know you've used the waiver and up 6% but where you coming up with the numbers you just pulling out of a hat or just a money grab uh looks like a money grab um insurance premiums Mr SMI gave me an Oprah back on April 17 2024 but the rates he gave here are not the rates he gave to Lester richens so that's a problem um his own premiums are wrong in his cost analysis uh then he gives me another report today and his health benefits are actually different on this one and I sent an email on it um he says his health benefits are like 24,000 when they're uh 44,000 with us paying 70 70% which is around $32,000 um it's over $700,000 the differences between what Mr SMI is charging the I guess the employees and the taxpayers versus gave to Lester richens I don't know if that's insurance fraud but I've sent it to everybody possible so I think somebody is going to look into it because so much just isn't making sense um your numbers are you have it just in two years with declining enrollment your operating budget's going up 6.3 million your local your tax levy is going up five million it's a seven and a% seven and a half percent increase we don't see any talk about how are we ever going to save money all we do is just take more and more and more it's a complete money grab I was trying to go over this with Dr handerhan today Princeton has 366 teachers 3,700 students wall has 358 teachers we have more teachers with 600 less students our cost per pupil is like 31,000 Princeton is 32,000 Ridgewood is 23923 it's extremely um deceiving to start deducting numbers so your cost per pupil goes down and hope that nobody notices it and it's a little I can't even understand why you had to ask me why don't you ask your business administrator what what are we paying him all this money for he's got $26,000 for himself in the in in this budget for tonight I would like my answers to the health benefits cuz that's a big a big problem I want to know what the numbers are and you shouldn't approve the budget if Christine States you personally can't answer Mrs cross um there's nobody else here your time is up Mrs cross thank you I'd like you to answer my questions Christine or you should resign tonight thank you Mrs this is we used to get questions answered all the time your time is up now that you were the wtaa person of the year we don't get questions we don't get questions answer this cross your time is up well your time should be up you're not going to answer questions and I hope a board member says Miss stes we should answer the Public's questions miss miss you are done a board member should say I would like Mr Smite to answer why his rates are different complete your time at the podium we will get to answering questions oh you're' got to answer okay good thank you ma'am thank you you started off with we're not answering questions I told you that we are not having a back and forth during public comment so that is what I told you I did not say we were not answering questions thank you your time is up okay so this sheet I would like these answers too I'd like all the numbers Mr Smite to Rattle off and if he can't then that means you shouldn't be approving the budget tonight because that means you don't have the numbers in front of you um do we have anyone else for public comment at this time seeing none we're going to be closing the floor for public comment thank you again for folks who are at home or have come to our meetings in the past the board has worked very hard to try to establish um a more congenial respectful um positive kind of uh flow to the meeting um unfortunately we can't always achieve that but that is in fact why we do not have exchanges during public comment it's not a question of um not wanting to talk to people but unfortunately if you know the history of how meetings have gone they have really devolved into um some really unfortunate um exchanges so we've been trying to avoid that and so far I think it's been pretty successful so moving forward at this time there have been um comments that have been made at the podium and questions um I think some of the information that's presented has has been potentially inaccurate so um Mr malof and I did have a meeting today um and we have asked that some of those questions to the best of the ability um of some of our administrators could be answered this evening um and so what I'm going to do at this time is first I'm going to turn the floor over to Dr handerhan the superintendent and um then you will continue to direct as you see fit okay thank you thank you Miss ties um first of all just to um answer a very simple question uh that was posed uh during a public comment is the um the wooden gym floor at the high school will be refinished in next year's budget so we will be refinishing it and um working on the refreshing the logo and um really making it nice for our students so we look forward to that project um so to gear back a little bit to I guess really an extension this evening I just wanted to uh mention that I find it incredibly hard to believe that I'm wrapping up my um my fourth year as superintendent in W Township Public Schools I'm not even sure how that happened and I'm not I'm certainly not sure where the time went but during my time here it has become abundantly clear that residents are proud of this town residents and parents are incredibly dedicated to our schools and I have had the opportunity to not only speak to students but parents parents and also many community members so I speak but I have had the pleasure of just listening and uh listening is probably one of the most underrated things I think that that takes place in our current Society but you can learn so much from listening and what I've heard loud and clear is that wall wants to maintain the fact that employees working with their children are Board of Education employees throughout my career I have seen school districts shift to contracted services for busing Food Services custodial and maintenance services often this is done in the hopes of saving some money initially what I have heard loud and clear is that wall residents do not want cont contracted Services wall residents want to forge relationships with the people who drive their children to and from school every single day wall residents want to know that the custodian helping their child open her locker is the same custodian that assisted her older brother during last year's Community strategic focus groups this message was deafening to me and this board of education they listened this board of education is proud to still provide this culture of family for our students their families and all of their residents at this time I I welcome because uh certainly this is a a bud public budget hearing we had a budget presentation and I think it's imperative uh that I ask Mr SMI to provide some more details on next year's budget and also to um really expand upon various expenditures just in general so Mr SMI I'm going to turn it over to you public comment from um this evening and also uh last night and one of the topics of conversation is our cost per pupil uh how that's calculated uh the the figure that was um provided last night at $32,000 um is uh not what the state department of education uh utilizes for uh School District to be compared to one another uh if you were to look at all costs inclusive of uh operating budget your debt service grants uh as well as the um the funds that the state uh reimburses school districts or that the state pays for um the uh pension costs and pension social security for are uh certificated staff um then that comparison uh or or that cost on a per student basis would be $31,000 um however the state provides and you know anyone from the public can reference it it's the taxpayers guide to educational spending uh and with that they provide for um School dist School District to can be be compared based on budgetary comparative uh numbers um so they take certain uh uh factors into the equation to better compare school districts but with regard to where that number was derived and the comments yesterday uh that came from the audit uh it's one of our J schedules and as part of uh the J schedule it provides the total expenditures that are uh for a given year it gives the enrollment for the year and from that it calculates a um uh cost per pupil uh the change that occurred in 2020 uh wasn't just arbitrary by the school districts that we decided uh that we were not going to include certain costs uh The District in 2020 uh retained a new auditor uh and the new Auditor's procedure in calculating the expend the uh uh total expenditures for the purposes of the J schedule did not include the reimbursement uh that the state provides or the cost that the state actually pays uh for the T ppaf contributions uh for certificated staff um that the footnote on each audit identifies exactly what is included in the number um but the J schedule that is referenced provides a 10-year history for that school district the purpose of that is not to be compared to other school districts unless of course you would take note of the footnotes to see what exactly is included and what's not included uh the state puts out a vital statistics for that purpose um where they actually calculate all inclusive costs again including the uh tpaf reimbursement from the state uh for a comparative uh basis um also we were compared with Ridgewood uh I I don't know why that particular School District tonight it's it's Princeton uh Ridgewood is not in the state SI what would be considered a comparable District uh based on the number of students uh also I would note that you know our demographic our square footage of our area is significantly larger um and that'll factor into when the uh State utilizes comparative uh comparative costs so for Mammoth County for a school district with similar number of enrollments uh we would be compared with uh an Ocean Township a Neptune Township a Homedale Township so we're $31,000 according to the state as a vital statistic when you include all costs uh Ocean Township is 31 421 Neptune Township is 36695 hell is 28515 um so when compared to similar life districts uh in the county um you know we we do measure accordingly with those other districts when you go um to a larger School District uh the the cost per student tends to go down and when you go to a smaller District the the costs uh uh tend to go up and again that's available uh on the state department of education's website uh when you get into comp comparative costs uh what the state provides and it's part of the advertised budget that we put in the paper it's part of the userfriendly budget that we provide is the uh budgetary comparative costs uh those the things that they take out are add a district tuition because uh they view that that's not comparable District to District uh also student transportation again Wall Township is 31 sare miles it's considerably more to transport students in Wall Township than it may be in a district that is six square miles or a district that um uh again that is just a a smaller District which was the size of the district that we were uh compared with so the state uh removes those costs uh so that districts can be uh compared so for Wall Township for 2223 are comparative costs and this is a number that's more readily uh utilized we are are just under 22,000 we are 21916 again the same school districts ocean Neptune and hell they're 22,000 436 Neptune's um uh 20, 381 and homow is uh 19,0 555 again um you know we're we're comparable when it uh when you consider like districts within the county same number of students uh and for a number of those schools about the same number of uh school buildings uh and grade level Etc um also uh I I guess um with regard to the J schedule was the comment as far as the number of positions that we provide in the J schedule um on the audit um the the comment was that Ridgewood has 2400 more students and somehow wall has 13 five more more staff members um The Wall Township does not have 135 more staff members again the J schedules when with within an audit uh if they're going to be compared you need to compare more than just the total number at the bottom you need to compare what is being reported Wall Township uh and we've done this for the last 12 years within our audits uh includes a line item for other instruction which the definition for other instruction is coaches and co-curricular we provide that number uh you don't need to utilize it uh other districts leave that line blank or don't included um you know Wall Township does does include it if you just want to compare teachers then we also have the breakdown of the number of general education teachers the number of special education teachers number of instructional uh support staff we provide the number of uh custodial maintenance the number of student transportation and all those are comparable against uh any other District that provides that break down which the majority do we just add an additional line of other instruction which includes coaches so if you're going to compare the total of ours against another District then yeah you may say that we have more uh and it's the full-time equivalence of employees in the district and it's viewed as positions in the district and that corresponds with our budget because one of the things we're required to do when we submit to the Department of Education is provide our full-time equivalency and a position control roster which provides every account the total dollar amounts the number of positions we are budgeting in the uh in the upcoming school year and those number of positions and the dollars we're budgeting for each position has to uh correspond with the total dollars that were including in the budget uh which is um provided um can I mention that all the other districts do include other instruction those so with regard to um uh paying for health dental and prescription uh it was mentioned last night specific to me it was mentioned again that uh three sets of numbers are provided um and perhaps um I don't know maybe insurance fraud may have been thrown in there or that the information is is being provided is misleading um you know we provide a lot of information if I can take a moment to touch on the uh open public records act and uh the the number of responses we provide which um you know we're over 115 responses uh that we've provided this school year um if I could take this month we've provided 16 or 17 we we essentially have to provide if you average it out one every day um so we had about 20 business days in the month of um uh March and we provided about 20 responses the month before that um you know we provided equal to more than the number of responses as to the number of work days uh in each of the last three months which again averages out that we provide this information uh you know we're providing responses on on a daily basis um you know that information depending on what is being re requested and what is being provided um yesterday it was stated that the district is paying $44,000 for uh my health dental and prescription cost uh that is not accurate uh that 7% of 44,000 so don't say I'm going to ask that folks in the gallery keep their comments themselves at this time the truth this is not an exchange right now thank you say the truth and I want if we want to continue with answering questions I'm going to ask that people are respectful in the gallery and do not respond at this time so you know trying to take an opportunity to to respond to the questions respond to the the comments uh any the accusation yes the the statement last night was that the district is paying um for health dental and prescription drugs $445 16 uh what was uh not said as part of that is that that is the total cost of that plan uh as uh Public Employee uh districts are uh employees are required to pay a portion of that uh for myself it's 30% of that cost which is on that same sheet that was provided as the breakdown of cost related to my contract it indicated that the cost by the employee is over 13,000 so the net cost which is the actual cost uh to the district is approximately $31,000 uh with regard to the comments tonight that there's different figures again it's part of the um uh budget information that is provided uh on the district's website in the form of the userfriendly budget um you know any employee who is not within a collective bargaining agreement that makes over $75,000 per year is required to be included on the userfriendly budget as along with the uh contract Provisions salary benefits Etc uh as part of that it is the cost to the district um which on the medical is 24 if you then add the uh cost for the prescription and the cost to the dental uh I believe and again this is a projection for um uh you know the next school year um or perhaps it's current school year but it works out to be uh the the same cost as what was provided uh but again the the this is multiple pieces of information being provided in response to multiple oah requests the uh contract cost was provided last June to the depart uh to the county executive superintendent prior to approving the contract um the information as part of the budget was provided within the last two months uh based on uh current current information uh I would ask that um a number of comments have have been made with regard to the com troller office keep saying that um you know please keep sending us this information keep sending the uh comparisons uh and if it's related to Wall Township I would ask that those requests by the Comptroller's office be provided to us uh I'd be interested to see um you know what correspondence that the comp controller's office is uh is providing to Residents in the community uh with regard to requesting additional information on the Wall Township uh Public School District uh with regard to state aid uh there was a comment last night with regard to uh uh not sure if our state aid is based is is we received an increase in the current year uh that's been talked about at our Workshop meetings uh but that the uh state aid increase was due to the way we report the number of Staff we have uh in the district which again I think goes back to the uh reference to the J schedules within the audit um I guess to allude to the fact that our state aid increase was based uh erroneously on information that we provided in our audit um however that's not the case and just this clarification state aid is not based on the number of Staff uh or even the number of positions the district has uh state aid is based on the number of students uh the enrollment and the uh type of students that a district has it's considerably more complicated than just the number of students but it I can say it has nothing to do with the um staff any questions on I anything so far from from the board Mr SM would you please um just clarify briefly the difference between an FTE meaning meaning the number of positions versus the number of personnel I think there's some confusion um kind of in the public in general as far as what those numbers mean sure so uh full-time equivalent um you know just as an example if somebody's a full-time position uh a full-time person in that position uh their FTE is a one if they're halftime which would be if they were parttime and it was halftime their FTE would be 0.5 uh but also what what uh is important is and it ties into the position control roster that districts are required to maintain is um you know what we budget for uh although we budget the salaries of individuals we're actually budgeting for positions um whether it be a vacancy uh and the FTE is um what we include within the budget and again that translates to the audit uh the number of positions so if you have an employee who uh serves in the capacity of two separate positions that may be one person but they um and if it's two halftime FTE then they would equate to one however if the um duplication of services is less than one then uh um it would be less and if it exceeded one there is the potential that their ft would be greater than 1.0 uh for example if you're a coach if you're co-curricular they are budgeted positions within our budget uh they are included as a uh FTE within our uh audit again broken out as a separate line item so if a person is both a teacher and a coach uh it's one employee uh but it it would be considered two positions within uh the budget uh and that accounts and and we have to provide again position control rosters includes coaches and co-curricular stipended positions that we provide because there is a salary line item that we submit to the Department of Education and we have to provide the backup um to to support that Mr SM um sorry um one additional question on the budget and I know this was covered in your presentation a few weeks ago specific to the the overall budget but within the determination of whether or not there's benefit to remaining self-insured versus um being insured in a more traditional plan um can you walk us through the process of how the comparison is made and how we arrive at whether we stay at the within our own self-insured program or go to a more traditional plan absolutely and you know I I'll provide some history we were uh a fully insured plan for years since I I was hired 1999 through 20 uh8 uh we were a fully insured plan where we uh had a plan directly with Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield we could have had Etna we could have had uh uh any provider um and then for three years we were in the state health benefits plan and in um January 1 2011 we opted out of the state health benefits plan and we went self-insured uh I uh can tell you during that process it was diff difficult to um collect data that would be used to leave the state health benefit plan in order to solicit uh quotes to be privately insured or to solicit uh quotes for the components we would need to be self-insured because again you know the the state plan is large uh has a lot of members and to try to extrapolate just Wall Township uh was difficult and that's the information need in order to um uh leave the state health benefit plan so uh you know I just I say that in in a sense to be that we would have to be cautious if we were to go into the state plan knowing that it would be difficult um um to to leave uh I can say since January 1 2011 uh we uh annually compared ourselves uh with the State Health Benefit Plan and uh we had significant savings as compared to being in the State Health Benefit Plan uh it became so commonplace that it it stopped being reviewed I will say um in the last you know you know five years ago the state tried to be very competitive they were cutting rates in order to bring districts in uh we were tempted uh however in the subsequent year they raised the rates uh again within the state plan um but what we do um we ask our broker to compare our costs that are uh that we would not incur if we were not self-insured and compare them to uh if we were enrolled in the State Health Benefit Plan uh last year um and again one of the benefits of being self-insured uh you know one there's a number of them but from from the standpoint of providing a benefit you know we pay what the actual benefit is or what the actual service we're providing to our employees we're not paying somebody else to provide that service we're paying the actual cost so the the actual expenses that we incur are are in fact accurate they're not a just based on a projection 15 months ago um but what we do uh what we require our broker to do is to compare um you know their projections to us also enrolling in the State Health Benefit Plan uh you know 1920 school year uh was you know the year of covid the uh March April May June are you know basically everything shut down anyone who's in the state plan anybody who had a fully insured private plan they paid premiums in March April May in June while Township didn't pay any claims um during that period of time uh for the most part uh our budget at the end we had a balance remaining of $2 million uh and that was because we were self-insured if we were anything else we would not have had that balance remaining at the end of the year what happens with those with that balance it goes uh toward the district Surplus and it is either used as a funding source in the subsequent budget or by board resolution it gets transferred to one of the three available reserves that the district uses again and then those reserves are used in subsequent uh budgets as as a revenue um but the the process is uh in comparing us to the state health benefit plan we look at the cost of providing and the components of being self-insured uh one we have a third party administrator who manages our plan uh for the district it's Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield so our employees uh are managed within that plan they're in the Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield network uh the discounts that uh Horizon Blue Cross uh receives we receive as a self-insured for the uh for the services provided uh in addition to that third part part administrator we have stop loss Insurance uh that we pay annually it's $1.2 million is included in the budget for next year and uh that is uh basically a reinsurance for the district so uh the district is responsible for claims up to $125,000 for those enrolled in the plan any cost in a in a year for that individual that would exceed the $125,000 the district is reimbursed for uh those costs which um you know over the years we've had a number of uh uh circumstances where unfortunately uh claims for an individual did exceed those costs and the district uh receives that reimbursement uh additionally uh we pay an A4 tax uh for retirees because we're not in the State Health Benefit Plan uh so that is a cost that we pay to the the state that is uh factored into the equation when it's compared to the state health benefits plan um but those costs as projected are compared to taking our uh our our our staff uh taking the en uh the enrollments in the health benefit plan and whether you're in the direct 15 whether you're in the Educator's Health Plan the Garden State Plan um and whether you're single memb spouse parent child or family uh the rates from the State Health Benefit Plan are multiplied against our enrollment and uh it's compared to those costs that um those cost that the district uh either has incurred in the current year or is budgeted in in the subsequent year uh we have had years where uh it has been um uh borderline or close with the State Health Benefit Plan again we moved into this year we talked about it at fnf that we were concerned with the costs uh we were concerned with the impact of chapter 44 uh which changed the uh uh the way the health benefits are provided to to staff any employee that's hired after July 1 2020 is required to go into either the educator health plan or the Garden State Plan uh the contribution is different it's no longer a contribution uh or a percentage of the premium for the uh for the health benefit plan it is uh a percentage of the employees salary uh that is the required contribution so those things have impacted uh you know our plan as well as many school districts uh health benefit plan um so we were uh you know very cognizant of that we were concerned throughout from July August September October uh however uh the trend has moved more favorable since we started reporting that in October November again we've asked the uh broker to provide the comparison they looked at July through December for uh the cost for the district for being self-insured as compared to being in the State Health Benefit Plan and it was it's more costeffective to be self-insured uh and again based on their projection uh you know the State Health Benefit Plan is uh based on Trend the broker uh suggests that their increase will be double digits uh next January and again uh the State Health Benefit Plan runs calendar year our fiscal year is July through June so we would have to anticipate an increase uh in January of the subsequent year if we were enrolled in the State Health Benefit Plan and that uh increase that calculation doesn't come out till August so our budget would be completed and we would be into the U school year so can I uh I know this is an enthralling subject for everybody so I'm going to keep this one quick um so for an employee we're self-insured we're paying out actual claims yet um the way that state law works is the employees pay percentage of a premium uh without knowing what the actual cost are for an employee to have health benefits during a year how do you figure out what the percentage of the premium is uh in that case so if if we were again uh fully insured if we were in the state plan those premiums are are provided to us and if you were if you're an employee that was in the district prior to July 1 2020 and you were uh in in chapter 78 appli to you which your contribution would be a percentage of the uh premium um then it would simply which is based on salary it would be based on a percentage of that premium again self-insured to your point it's not an exact figure we rely on the uh actuaries for the uh health benefits broker to calculate based on our experience for each group and the membership of each group what that premium would be if we were a horizon or at the calculating the premium um for a client so it's done uh the the same way the district refers to that as a premium equivalent we don't call it a premium it's a premium equivalent uh I will say with especially with regard to our direct 15 plan uh which is um the majority it's what the majority of staff are in um if they're not subject to chapter 44 and a goal of ours because our um costs have been less than being enrolled in the State Health Benefit Plan the premum premium equivalent of our uh plans uh for direct uh for direct 15 as compared to the state are less so as an employee their contribution would be based on a uh a a lower premium than if we were in a state health benefit plan and I I think that's just um fair and Equitable if this if the district as a whole is spending less uh being self-insured than being uh enrolled in the State Health Benefit Plan then our premium equivalent should be less than the uh State Health Benefit Plan premiums and therefore the employees contributions uh would equally be less um since chapter 44 um in July 1 2020 the contributions of and all new employees are required to be in again uh the plans under chapter 44 for 7 years uh and their contributions are based on salary only not the actual cost of the plan I question does anyone on the board have any other questions on any of the topics that we've covered thus far okay I go on no so I think also no um why not with regard no we're not we're not done yet Mrs cross thank you well I have questions someone he just went over so why can't I ask Mrs cross we're going to we're going to continue with our we're going to continue with our program right now thank you heers for his own healthit so that's the thir of number I just got it today can we mute the mic there I'm not gonna okay so 62 of 109 if you could go over that what you gave me today today this is a budget hearing Cath and they'll get to you when it's time let them finish the presentation I'm really sick and tired of have sit here every with you screening how about answer questions Kathleen okay Mrs cross cross please sit down have a seat this Mrs cross this is a presentation for the people of Wall Township it is not strictly directed to you there are topics we are going to cover that pertain to more questions than just you because that is my prerogative as the president of the board well thank you you're done Mrs cross sit down if I need to we will recess I apologize Mr Smite please continue where were we um so with regard to uh again talking about benefits uh it's included in the presentation when we compare advertised budgets between uh different school districts uh and sometimes we within the advertised budget there's a line item referred to Personnel benefits uh and the understanding is that that's strictly just health benefits which is which is not the case health benefits uh which typically is a very large portion of that line item also includes other costs such as Social Security that's paid um pension obligation of the school district for support service uh or support positions within the district that are not in tpif if they're in a different pension system and the dist rather than that pension uh obligation being paid by the state the pension obligation is paid by the Board of Education that's a line item that's uh that's important for a district like Wall Township where uh the not even the majority all of our services that we provide are provided by in-house uh staff to Dr Hans point that has been uh you know a recurring theme uh level of importance strategic plan any discussion uh that um that the services should be provided by in-house staff and not Outsource um so our uh Personnel that are in our student transportation Personnel that are custodial maintenance you know compared to a district that outsources all of those um we have uh uh those Services provided inhouse and there's a about a $1.5 million uh per pension contribution that the district is responsible for uh because of those Services that's and so when you compare the total line item for benefits to another school district that may not have those in-house Services uh then it's not a true Apples to Apples uh comparison with regard to that so thank you okay um at this time I'd like to just um maybe make a few comments and then direct this back to Dr handerhan in the event you have anything to add um in terms of the budget um obviously we all live here this is a big budget um and we are certainly respectful of that and understand how this impacts um our fellow taxpayers and our own households um so certainly um it's valid to ask are there cost-saving things that the budget or that the district is doing um I just like to touch on the fact that I know there's been a tremendous amount of work um in maximizing Personnel efficiency I know that we have at the district and when I say we I don't mean the board this is um you know District administration has done a lot of deep diving into um the number of students that we have in classes um particularly obviously we have certain um teacher student ratios at the elementary schools that are published and then I know at the middle school and the high school we've done a lot of Investigation in terms of numbers of students in classes um and how you know taking a look to see what we can do to maximize the schedule um and and maximize where we are using our Personnel that we value so highly um I know those things have been done uh there's been a lot of attention given to individual school supply and program Supply requests and costs um efforts have been made to centralize um those supplies um again to be more efficient in the use of funds um as is you know mentioned tonight there's been over $3,000 $300,000 Savings in terms of um holding those total salary increases to 3.09% overall I'm hoping that maybe you could just give a little bit more maybe a little bit more information to FKS so that they understand what the district has done in order to maximize where these funds are going and use them responsibly of course um in the presentation I mentioned that there are some positions that were um we received retirement notes some uh there were some promotions within District we do a deep D Deep dive to see if we need to fill if we need to fill that specific position um in some cases um largely and sometimes due to enrollment or changing needs of the district we don't need this particular um uh particular uh position however we may like for for example U to run the new master schedule at the high school we knew that we needed to increase our um some of our special education services so class the classroom teachers that perhaps um may have been a you know we had a retirement in third grade that position would have been um transferred to the high school so um whereas it it really is trading one position for another that's needed so at the end of the day uh we are we are down like the presentation says 5.35 we five FTE and again that's full-time equivalence now we all also did a very deep dive and I want to U commend um Miss Jennifer McAn and U her particular staff because they I mean I she looked at a tremendous amount of expenses U and really working to make sure that we are not being redundant in our spending with and digging in and making sure that we're getting the best POS possible purchasing that we can um and we do so centrally centrally now due to our leadership because we're able to do more of a bulk approach through central office as opposed to individual School purchasing so there's been a lot of movement with that um Miss bond with her leadership we are uh being Innovative we're developing programs uh we are able to um and I did mention it quickly uh last year at our budget presentation uh she spoke about developing an ER program at whis um right now that that position isn't the at the end of the day is actually making money for the district so while we have um certainly we're Wall Township Board of Education is paying uh salaries to run that program we are providing the best possible program for our Wall Township students but we have vacancies in that room that we are able to to um if the if the program matches another child's needs in another District we're able to build those districts tuition um so that their child can be educated in a wonderful environment which also helps our students because um you know some specialized programs if we only have two students locally that that would need that program that's not really beneficial socially for that child so it's to everyone's Advantage both social emotional and fisal um to their to that benefit so these are the types of Maneuvers that are going on behind the scenes and um you know I I just want to thank um you know Mr scano has been incredibly busy with um you know with all the really maneuvering Personnel um you know and in the presentation I also discussed uh transfers that we um there are a few transfers to maximize um because we you know it's funny enrollment in especially in the elementary schools you know sometimes times there will be a couple years ago you might remember we had a lot of kindergarteners in Allenwood well the following year the Allenwood kindergarten went down and Old Mill went up so there there's this this type of this type of um you know popping that goes on with um you know just it's just an interesting um observation but we have to make sure that we are Staffing appropriately for the buildings and um you know we are not engaged in practices where oh need to open because another child's um you know we just went over the max for kindergarten we're not going to you know say okay well now we need another kindergarten teacher and then divide that to where you know each kindergarten has um a class size of 10 or 11 students so we are not um we're not uh using those practices we're using practices okay where do I have the where do I have classes where we have a small class size so these these are the and is a transfer appropriate these are the types of things that we are very very busy um working on um I know U Mr Heim I know it was a you know little Bittersweet meeting for me last night um you know with uh the acceptance of of his retirement but I I will say he is um spent dug deep and spent a tremendous amount of time in cyber security uh protocols to protect the district because um again there's a there there are a lot of threats out there so we're investing monies in places where we you know where we need um Miss Steiner is you know she is actively uh seeking grants and trying to find different funding sources and to accomplish and enhance what we're able to provide from um State funding and the local school budget in terms of social emotional needs of students um yeah it's just um you know certainly Mr SMI I mean he is you know he's with he works incredibly hard to um really dig deep into this budget um I it you know I've had the pleasure for the last six months I you know unfortunately for Mr SMI I'm his neighbor now in the office and um you know he he he works tirelessly to make sure that this district is positioned as well as it possibly can financially um and to provide our students and our staff with everything that they need to be successful um I would be remiss if I did not share tonight that I am incredibly grateful for the support of this community for its schools for this board of education because we are able to move forward and build and work to provide a best the best education possible for our students and the best supportive environment for our staff I have colleagues that are just miles from here that are having to make the most unimaginable educational DEC I can't even call them educational decision they're non-educational decisions and um I I I follow these stories closely and my heart is breaking for these um these school districts these children these staff members because of um you know the the budget complications and challenges especially coming forth this year so um I sit here tonight um you know remarkably grateful um to this community and to this board of education because um you know I just you know I I I wish my colleagues that are in that position a tremendous amount of strength because it's a it's a terrible place to be um where they are right now so um my thoughts have been with them for um many many weeks now and um you know it's I'm really grateful that we're able to provide what what we can for this community because um you know I'm I'm already super excited about next year because there's some amazing things on the Forefront and um you know here's to 2024 2025 yes your choice I'll just look to address uh just so we're clear with regard to the one question uh regarding health benefits because I I thought I in fact did address it uh that it's the third set of numbers that were provided that's incorrect um you know the numbers may be different because of what the question is what's being presented to the county uh again the one is the cost of a contract uh that uh you're required to provide the total cost of a benefit and then you are also to itemize the total cost of the employee contribution the net cost to the district for that benefit works out to be $31,000 on the userfriendly budget the submission to the Department of Education uh you know it asks for just the cost of the of the district for the benefit again I'm only speaking specific to me if you ought to add up the cost of the medical the dental and the prescription again it adds to the same 31 ,000 uh and we're comparing information that was provided with a contract back in May June of last year uh as compared to the budget information being submitted to uh the Department of Education for this budget but again uh it still works out to be uh the same the same figures so thank you go over page2 109 gave today to members of the board um at this this time um excuse me Mrs cross I'm addressing my board right now would my board um would my board allow um another one minute of public comment I'm fine with that yes Mr ad need you what did you say yes Mr baffa Mr Mal okay I don't know how I is M it's okay I've got it okay at this time I even though um there is not a second public comment um in the sense of spirit of community I am going to just give another uh one minute at the microphone Mrs cross so sure can you hit that button please Mr SMI gave me an exhibit today and on Page 6 2 109 for health insurance he has 24752 so where's Dental where's R Rex so when you make mistakes like this how do I know you're not doing it for 539 other people that's why when I asked you for this and I handed it to you if you don't have this broken down in front of you you can't vote on 14,157 because you don't know what you're voting on we need the break out of everything how many claims you're projecting we know the stop loss is 1.2 million what's the cost of everything else so hopefully you get this on the video but the where are these numbers how do you vote without having the numbers employee benefits I sent you an email in your presentation last month it was 5 12,262 now the numbers changed to around four some 400 and something what makes up the 400 and something ,000 that's what I'm wondering because to 22 you projected 50,000 then you went to 200,000 now you're projecting 520 so what is shoved in that line item so if Mr Smith can go over that exactly I'd like it I did a spreadsheet of what you said in your last I'm going to direct these questions at this time I direct them as the president of the board to the superintendent of schools thank you Miss Stites um the I think um Mr SMI has done um an excellent job digging deep and explaining the um really um a wonderful overview of how our benefits program works um how our uh how our calculations are arrived at and um you know I think that many of the answers are embedded in exactly what he uh said this evening um and okay gu I have no problem saying it one more time okay uh with regard to page 62 and the benefits this is and this doesn't impact the budget for next year these are you know current year reporting on again employees that make over $75,000 a year page page 62 of 109 health insurance for the medical plan is 24752 correct three lines down Dental is 2951 the next page you go through and you go for prescription is$ 3,988 pretty sure if you add them up it equals $331,000 which is the district's cost for the but you don't medical dental and prescription for that employee offer that dental plan your dental plan monthly is 131 so Dr handam yes thank you thank you Mr SMI I think that was um very explicitly presented and I I thank you for that Clarity um I would also be remiss if I did not thank all of our central office support staff because um you know that there is so much that goes on behind the scenes before board meetings to prepare a budget and to prepare a budget here a budget hearing evening just like tonight uh there are countless countless hours and we arguably have the greatest central office support staff that I have ever that I could possibly imagine so I just wanted to thank them for their tireless work um and you know I I see what you're up to guys I see the emails coming at all hours of the night and you know your commitment and you know what's unfortunately um your commitment you don't get to see the benefits that I see I get to walk in these schools every single day and I get to see the smiles on the children's faces and I get to see the happiness and I get to see the joy and you don't have that privilege most of you and you show up every day you put in your 10 12 hour days and I cannot be any more grateful than I am to you and you are fantastic so I just want to leave I just want to leave my last words um celebrating the um the most aming people that I get to come to work with each and every day thank you Dr handerhan at this time I would like to please ask for a motion for the approval of the adoption of the 2024 2025 school budget I'll make the motion Mr Buffa I will second Mr Nasser Mr SMI would please take roll call Mr Ania yes Miss barbier yes Mr buffer yes Miss dgani yes Mr Malik yes Mr Nasser yes Miss shimko yes Miss stes yes thank you um thank you very much to our board thank you very much to our staff for all the hard work that's gone into the budget um this year um best wishes to our community I hope that you see the fruits of um the labor of our district um staff I hope your children and our students continue to excel um and I wish you a good evening may I please have a motion to turnour I'll make that motion Mr Mali Mr adio all in favor thank you e