MINUTES OF THE PATERSON BOARD OF EDUCATION REGULAR MEETING November 26, 2019 – 7:08 p.m. John F. Kennedy High School Presiding: Comm. Nakima Redmon, Vice President Present: Ms. Eileen F. Shafer, State District Superintendent Ms. Susana Peron, Deputy Superintendent Robert Murray, Esq., General Counsel Comm. Emanuel Capers Comm. Joel Ramirez Comm. Jonathan Hodges Comm. Robinson Rondon Comm. Manuel Martinez *Comm. Oshin Castillo, President Comm. Eddy Olivares Absent: Comm. Kenneth Simmons The Salute to the Flag and Posting of the Colors was led by the John F. Kennedy High School JROTC. Comm. Capers read the Open Public Meetings Act: The New Jersey Open Public Meetings Act was enacted to insure the right of the public to have advance notice of, and to attend the meetings of the Paterson Public School District, as well as other public bodies at which any business affecting the interest of the public is discussed or acted upon. In accordance with the provisions of this law, the Paterson Public School District has caused notice of this meeting: Regular Meeting November 26, 2019 at 7:00 p.m. John F. Kennedy High School 61-127 Preakness Avenue Paterson, New Jersey to be published by having the date, time and place posted in the office of the City Clerk of the City of Paterson, at the entrance of the Paterson Public School offices, on the district’s website, and by sending notice of the meeting to the Arab Voice, El Diario, the Italian Voice, the North Jersey Herald & News, and The Record. *Comm. Castillo enters the meeting at 7:15 p.m. PATERSON READERS, TOMORROW’S LEADERS Ms. Shafer: If there are any children in the audience, if they would please come forward. Luis Rojas is at the end of the table and will be giving books out. Any children Page 1 11/26/19 want to come forward to take books home to read? You have a holiday break. You can get a lot of reading in. You can come to the microphone. Zain Huq – 6th grade PRESENTATIONS AND COMMUNICATIONS Fund Balance Review Mr. Richard Matthews: Good evening everybody. As part of the transition to local control, three times a year we're going to give you guys a fund balance review. That's going to be done every November, February, and May. The fund balance review is a snapshot of what we see as far as our current spend going on with some projection on where we feel we're going to land at the end of the year. The transition plan requires that we do this three times a year and it's a snapshot. It's basically looking at where we are today and making those projections going forward and saying that we want to have a balanced budget at the end of the year with some fund balance. This slide is in terms of our performance in 2015-2016 to 2018-2019 on audited years. They've been reviewed by our auditors and these are the official numbers that we have put into our coffers. If you look at 2019-2020, this is what we're projecting at the end of the year. The top part of the sheet is our revenues section. You see your tax levy, tuitions, state aid, and sale/leaseback of textbooks in 18-19. You see there $513 million in general fund. Below that number in 19-20 is $520 million in appropriations. That $520 million is basically what we're saying we're going to spend this year for the entire year. Typically, we spend 90% of our appropriations every year. Our budget is $530 million. We're saying at the end of the year we're going to spend at 98%. What we're trying to do right now is drive that number down to 97% or 96%. We'll talk about that a little later on. Another point I want to bring to your attention is at the bottom you see the $11.4 million. That's the revenue number. That's the number that has been our revenue budget, but I have it down here because it's fund balance. As we operate during the course of the year, we don’t want to touch that money. We want that money to be carried forward into the 2020-2021 year. Dr. Hodges, do you see that number in the 2018-2019 column? That's really revenue. If you look at our 2019-2020 budget, you'll see budgeted fund balance as a revenue item. For the purpose of this fund balance projection, we're keeping it there because our attempt is not to touch that money. Between the $513 million that we're going to spend this year, we're saying right now based on today we're going to spend $6 million over our revenue line. That money is going to come from the $11.4 million if we don’t drive down that $513 million. The slide doesn’t really show it, but at the bottom you see $10.4 million. That's the unassigned find balance. We need to be at 2% at the end of the year. We're statutorily required to be at that number. We're trying to drive the $520 million to $513 million before the end of the year so we don’t touch the $11.4 million. This is why I'm saying right now that we're going to use $6 million of fund balance to balance out our budget. We're not going to use the $11.4 million because we've put in cost savings strategies and measures to hold everybody accountable in the district so we can drive the number down to $513 million. That's our goal, to not touch the fund balance. These are some of the items that are going to impact the 2019-2020 budget. Obviously, using unreserved fund balance, which is $11.4 million. Charter schools every year come the January timeframe give us a true up of charter school enrollment. We budgeted $63 million this year for charter schools, but the numbers do change. We're looking at a mid-year adjustment. Health benefits are also a driver to the current budget, judgments against the school district, and special education and sub-costs. Again, we're putting measures to try to keep the cost down so we end up at $513 million in terms of appropriations. In summary, what we're seeing today is that we're going to use $6 million based on where we are today, what our Page 2 11/26/19 current spend is, what our projections are. We're seeing $6 million in fund balance is being used right now. We're going to drive that number down. Vacancy breakage is not available until the end of the year. Sometimes in years past we have used breakage in the current year for other things. We're definitely not doing that this year. We want to keep looking at our spending. These numbers are going to be revised during the year as things change. Revenues may increase. Last year we budgeted $3 million for extraordinary aid. We ended up getting $3.5 million. Medicaid reimbursement numbers came up a little higher last year. These numbers are going to change up and down. We'll continue to monitor it and report back to you guys in February. The projection is going to change as we go throughout the year. Are there any comments or questions? Comm. Capers: Thank you for that presentation. When you talk about health benefits, what is the projected savings? When we changed brokerage firms, we were supposed to the savings. What is the projected savings from year to year? Mr. Matthews: From last year to this year the health benefits numbers are going to go up based on the current spend, and based on the claims that have come through so far that number is going up. Again, that's a moving target. Comm. Capers: We were promised that there was going to be a savings this year. Where is the savings? Mr. Matthews: Last year in May when they did the presentation they did not project a savings. Comm. Capers: Thank you. Comm. Hodges: We went into this year’s budget with the realization that this does not provide a thorough and efficient education for our children. What are the educational impacts which are really what we're here to focus on? What are some of the educational impacts that are going to be important to look at throughout the course of the year? Ms. Shafer: When we started this current budget, 19-20, I had about $25 million in instructional program priorities. They did not get in the budget. They include things like textbooks. Our five-year textbook plan right is about $10 million. Every year you should be adopting a different textbook contingent upon your five-year plan. We have not been able to do that for a number of years. Now we're backlogged and our textbook need right now is at $10 million. Comm. Hodges: Will that leave students without textbooks in the classrooms? Ms. Shafer: They're old textbooks. They're not up-to-date textbooks like they should be. Comm. Hodges: I know that we were in move from gaining an understanding in the classroom to the curriculum to a mastery of the curriculum. What will be the impact on that? I know we have over 300 classrooms with over 30 students in them, which is a significant problem.