BOARD OF EDUCATION OF THE VOCATIONAL SCHOOLS IN THE COUNTY OF BERGEN

MIN liTES

Regular Meeting February 26, 2013

6:45PM

Community Services Building-Auditorium 327 East Ridgewood Avenue, Paramus, New Jersey

A regular meeting of the Board of Education was held this day in the Auditorium at 327 E. Ridgewood Avenue, Paramus. President Jason Kim called the meeting to order at 7:04PM.

ROLLCALL:

Present at roll call: Raymond Hryczyk Marie E. La Testa William J. Meisner, Ed.D., Vice President Jason Kim, President

Absent at roll call: Todd C. Flora, Interim Executive County Superintendent of Schools

Also in attendance: Howard Lerner, Ed.D, Superintendent John Susino, Board Secretary/School Business Administrator William Soukas, Esq., Board Attorney Thomas Klemm, Director of Human Resources

All present pledged allegiance to the flag.

OPEN PUBLIC MEETINGS ACT STATEMENT:

"The New Jersey Open Public Meetings Law was enacted to insure the right of the public to have advance notice of and to attend the meetings of the public bodies at which any business affecting their interests is discussed or acted upon. In accordance with the provisions of this act, the Board of Vocational Education in the County of Bergen has caused notice of this meeting to be published by having the date, time, and place thereof posted on a bulletin board prominently displayed in this school to all board members and the following:

County Clerk Clerk of the Board of Chosen Freeholders Editor, The Record Editor, Herald News

The district is an equal opportunity/affirmative action employer."

MINUTES OF PREVIOUS MEETINGS:

The minutes of the work session meeting of January 22, 2013 were approved on the motion of Mrs. La Testa, second by Dr. Meisner and approved by a unanimous roll call vote.

BCTS Regular Meeting Minutes February 26,2013

Page 2

The minutes of the executive work session of the meeting of January 22, 2013 were approved on the motion of Dr. Meisner, second by Mrs. La Testa and approved by a unanimous roll call vote.

The minutes of the regular meeting of January 22,2013 were approved on the motion of Mrs. La Testa, second by Dr. Meisner and approved by a unanimous roll call vote.

BUSINESS ADMINISTRATOR/B_OARD SECRETARY REPORT

Board Secretary Susino informed the Board that due to construction on this building to accommodate the needs of the Bergen County Police Department, the administrative office of the school district will need to be re-located to the second floor. This auditorium will not be available for the next few months and consequently, we will move the board meetings to the Norman A. Bleshman School located on this campus.

And now I will begin my proposed 2013-2014 budget presentation.

As you are aware, I presented the 2013-2014 budget workbook to you on February 12 at a special public meeting of the board of education. Tonight, I intend to give a brief overview of the district's proposed anticipated revenues and expenditures for the coming year.

When crafting this budget, the administration was mindful of the 2% budget cap faced by our funding sources. Consequently, the administration began the budget process with the goal of keeping next year's budget increase below 2%. To do so, the administration balanced increasing fixed costs with the district's goal to maintain the same level of award winning programs and services the district is known for and even expand upon them when appropriate. I am happy to report that we were able to remain a cutting edge career and technical school district and still decrease the budget by 3.1% over this current year. We were able to do this by working closely with our central administration staff, building administrators, and our program managers.

I will begin by summarizing the district's revenue sources. As you can see from the chart, (see attached Power Point slide illustrations)

• Nearly 41% of our revenue comes from the county. • Tuition from the sending school districts comprises 33.7% of our revenues. • Our state and federal grants, specifically the WIA/One Stop programs, IDEA and Perkins funding, amount to

12.97% of the budget. We are budgeting State and federal aid is 7.91% of the budget. Presently, we are budgeting state aid to remain the same as last year.

• 3.05% of the district's revenue comes from what is classified as miscellaneous revenue, that is, revenue from such sources as tuition for the Adult and Continuing Education program, the EMS training facility, the rental of the Bergen Academies Auditorium, and interest on investments.

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The county provides the district with just over $29 million dollars. This amount represents a 0% increase from last year. The district's second largest source of income is tuition. In actual dollars, we are budgeting $24,137,100. We are increasing our tuition rate by an average of 1.4%. State/federal aid is $5,659,633 .

• Finally, we are appropriating $1,100,000 of the district's surplus as revenue to balance the budget. This revenue will be spent in the following manner:

As you can see from the chart, over 60% of our budget is spent on direct classroom instruction. These items include Instruction, Employee Benefits, Instructional Support Services, which includes such items as nursing services, guidance, child study teams, and other student support services such as student transportation.

The Operation and Maintenance of our facilities, which includes the salaries for our maintenance and custodial staff is 11.23% of the budget.

BCTS Regular Meeting Minutes February 26,2013

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There were also non-HIB incidents: Three Paramus students were involved in a HIB case. It was investigated and deemed non- HIB .

Dr. Lerner shared some highlights of the many accomplishments our students and staff have had, including the following:

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For the second year in a row, Bergen County Academies has won the Yale Model UN competition! Our school won the following awards:

Best Large Delegation: Bergen County Academies Individual Awards were: Best Delegation, Outstanding Delegates and Honorable Mentions.

BCA took first place overall in their first visit to the Johns Hopkins Math Tournament, with 40 teams attending . Many individual awards also went to BCA students. BCA Scholastic Art Awards abound! 2 Gold Key Portfolios ... 24 Gold Keys ... 6 Silver ... 9 Honorable Mention!!! I am so proud to share with you our amazing and accomplished artists for 2012-13 at the Regional Level. GOOD LUCK as they proceed to the national adjudication level! Paramus Automotive Technology seniors, Robert Cerda, Richard Orlando and Markus Taylor received a certificate of Appreciation for volunteering at Berkeley College for their Annual Car Show. Paramus Science teacher Amy Heid recently passed her exam to become a Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Green Associate. LEED accreditation is the proof that individual professionals have demonstrated their knowledge of green buildings and the LEED rating systems. This exam serves as the first step for becoming certified in five different specialties under the LEED Accredited Professional umbrella. Teterboro senior Yanique 0. Spigner advanced to Finalist standing in the National Achievement Scholarship Program of 2013. Teterboro Culinology senior, Philip Lee, has been selected as a candidate for the United States Presidential Scholars program. Teterboro student, Dan Vinakovsky is currently in 4th place in the State of NJ for the Cyber Corps Challenge- this was his 3rd test so far! Teterboro Biology Teachers , Mr. Castella, Mr. Olivo, and Mr. Suro, recently met with representatives from Apple to share the first chapter of their IBook. The meeting allowed the teachers to gain feedback, and will help assist with the creation of the district's first open source text. Congratulations to BCTHS-Teterboro's Njaire McKoy on recently surpassing the 1 ,000-point plateau in girls ' basketball. Currently averaging 16.4 points per game this season, Njaire is only the second female in school history to reach this milestone. Congratulations to Dr. Sankar and several students from the Bergen County Technical High School - Teterboro for being selected to participate in the Young Science Achievers Program. YSAP's mission is to inspire and encourage groups underrepresented in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics. As part of the program, students were awarded a total of approximately $1500 in funding for their research projects. The Adult School Program hosted a National Site Managers Meeting on Friday, February 22nd, 2013 for the eight Service Employees International Union colleagues, plus three training administrators from New York. The goal is to show all site managers our excellent training facilities and location regarding our technical offerings in Carpentry, Plumbing, HVAC and Electrical, as well as the academic and technology classrooms. Athletics: Our Competitive Cheerleaders came in second place in the national competition. Boys' Fencing placed third and will move on to the Sweet Sixteen v. Millburn. Girls Fencing placed second in their district. Our Freshman Basketball team placed second in the tournament. All of the Tech schools, as well as the Adult School and BELA, have conducted Safety and Security Table Top exercises with OEM. Teterboro had a Table Top exercise regarding a bomb threat in January and will have another on an Active Shooter on February 27. Paramus conducted a Table Top exercise in December on an "Active Shooter" as did the Academy earlier this month. I believe the staff finds them to be very beneficial and relevant because of the "What If' scenarios. They give all of us a read on how to respond to a particular situation and an important debriefing with administrators after the exercise. Princeton University informed me that Donna Leonardi, one of our research instructors at BCA, has been named one of their 10 finalists for the Princeton Teacher of the Year Award! In the near future a representative from Princeton will visit BCA to interview Donna, her colleagues, and her students as they make their final determination of the four teachers who will be recognized at Princeton's Commencement exercises in June. Dr. Jayasree Sankar is the district nominee for State Teacher of the Year. Dr. Sankar is a teacher of chemistry at

• Teterboro and one of the pioneers in the Culinology program.

BCTS Regular Meeting Minutes February 26,2013

Page 5

If the Board will indulge me, I would like to read an email I received from a parent this past weekend that I truly believe represents everything we try to accomplish within our district. It reads as follows:

Good afternoon, We can't begin to describe how excited Olivia is over the Pepsi field trip.

When I picked her up, she got in the car gushing with details. From the branding, to the formulas, to the interaction with the professionals ... she's even discovered a job for her brother that she thinks he'd be great at: marketing!

The opportunity to see first hand what a major can lead to is more than most high school students get to see and Bergen Tech has provided her with so many! The Hackensack Oncology project and her internship at Hackensack Hospital have also led her to mature , definite decisions about her future. She's applied to college as a Chemistry major and has been admitted to Rutgers among others. She's heard from professionals at both Pepsi and Rev ion that they hire most of their Chemistry interns from Rutgers and in turn, hire them after graduation. She SMILES when she describe the triangle between Bergen Tech , Rutgers and Pepsi.

She has not made her college commitment yet since she is waiting for all her responses; however, we are extremely proud of the way she is forming ideas about her future and certainly give credit to Bergen Tech for the EXCELLENT exposure she's received to lead her there.

Thanks to all of you!

Janice and Keith Robertson

PUBLIC PARTICIPATION (CONSENT AGENDA ONLY):

None

BOARD OF EDUCATION ACTION~:

On motion of Dr. Meisner, second by Mrs. La Testa, Resolutions 13-A- 71T through 13- A- 78T, 13-A-80T through 13-A-84T, 13-P- 74T through 13-P-88T, and 13-F-114T through 13-F-133T were presented for approval. Board discussion followed. Dr. Meisner requested a withdrawal of Resolution 13- A-79T. Roll call vote was taken:

Yes No Abstain Absent

Mr. Flora X

Mr. Hryczyk X

Mrs. La Testa X

Dr. Meisner X

Mr. Kim X

OFF CONSENT RESOLUTION:

On motion of Mrs. La Testa, second by Dr. Meisner, off consent resolution 13-A-79T was presented for approval. Board discussion followed. Dr. Meisner suggested several changes to paragraph six of the resolution regarding terminology and the composition of the committee. The discussion was tabled and a stipulation was made that verbiage would be revised and sent to the Board of Trustees for reflection. A new resolution would be entered on the agenda for the next Board of Education Meeting. Roll call vote was taken:

Yes

Mr. Flora

Mr. Hryczyk X

Mrs. La Testa X

Dr. Meisner X

Mr. Kim X

PUBLIC PARTICIPATION (ANY ISSQI:.;t

No Abstain Absent

X

BCTS Regular Meeting Minutes February 26,2013

Page 6

Michael Tarantino, EMS Director-Mr. Tarantino informed the Board on February 6 there was a graduation for over five hundred members of the Fall class. He elaborated that 108 took the State test and 102 passed the State test. He thanked the Board for the support they have given the EMS program over the years. Mr. Tarantino also wanted them to know that we "touch everybody's life" throughout the County, especially during times of medical emergencies.

ADJOURNMENT OF MEETINQ:

A motion to adjourn the meeting was made at 7:32PM by Mrs. La Testa, second by Dr. Meisner. All members present voted in the affirmative.

NOTE: No further action will be taken today.

Respectfully submitted,

John Susino Board Secretary/School Business Administrator

Approved by, the Board of Education at its regular meeting of 3/21/13

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REVENUE AS A PERCENTAGE OF THE BUDGET

Miscellaneous 3.05%

State/Federal Aid 7.91 °/o

Surplus 1.54%

Grants 12.97%

Tuition 33.74°/o

County Aid 40.80%

2

General Fund

County Aid

Tuition

State/Federal Aid

Miscellaneous

Surplus

Total General Fund

Special Revenue Fund

Local Grants

State Grants

Federal Grants

Total Special Revenue

Grand Total

REVENUES ACTUAL DOLLARS

$ 29,190,098

$ 24,137,100

$ 5,659,633

$ 2,182,000

$ 1,100,000

.. $ ........ G.~l-~f?~~~~t .. ---

$ 190,000

$ 2,115,000

$ 6,971,000

$ ······· · · ·····- -~~?..?. .fil99..9. .............................

$ 71,544,831

40.80%

33.74%

7.91%

3.05%

1.54%

12.97%

100.00%

3

APPROPRIATIONS AS A PERCENTAGE OF THE BUDGET

Special Schools 4.54°/o

State/Federal Grants 12.97°/o

Capital Outlay 1.75%

Employee Benefits & Other Support

Services 19.23%

Operation & Maintenance of

Plant 11.23°/o

School, General & Central

Administration 6.73%

Instruction 31.57%

Instruction -Support Services

11 .99%

4

APPROPRIATIONS ACTUAL DOLLARS

Instruction $ 22,585,419

Undistributed

Instruction- Support Services $ 8,575,715

School, General & Central Administration $ 4,817,803

Operation & Maintenance of Plant $ 8,034,662

Employee Benefits & Other Support Services $ 13,756,613

Capital Outlay $ 1,250,000

Special Schools $ 3,248,619

State/Federal Grants $ 9,276,000

Grand Total $ 71,544,831

31.57%

11.99%

6.73%

11.23%

19.23%

1.75%

4.54%

12.97%

100.00%

5

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