Feb 12th Meeting Recap

The RIH BOE meeting on February 12 was relatively short.

The highlights from the meeting included:

The BOE approved the $2.4 million dollar project to build a two story concession stand at Indian Hills. There was a bit of board discussion, with board members not pleased with the significant cost, but the motion passed unanimously. Some board comments indicated that they think this type of investment in Indian Hills will help reduce the disparity between the two high schools.

Other noteworthy items from the meeting:

The Interim BA announced that the 2024-2025 budget will come in with a less than 2% increase. This is noteworthy as a significant portion of the budget is made up of staff salaries and benefits, the teacher contract expires in June 2024 so next year’s staff increase is currently unknown, and benefit increases, such as health care costs, almost certainly will be over 2%. This likely indicates cuts in other areas of the budget. The adoption of the tentative budget will be done at the March 11 meeting (this date, announced by Ms. Zeno, is a change from the published calendar date of March 25), with the Public Budget Hearing on April 29.

The Interim BA announced a shift to invest excess cash on hand, which will reportedly generate $500K in interest income. The Board was earning 2.25% on excess funds, as of February 1 that will increase to 4.3%. Additionally some money was moved to an investment product for local governments called NJ ARM, which the Interim BA said will earn 5.3%. The interest income earned on capital funds can only be used for capital projects, and the interest income earned on general funds can be used for operating expenses. No split was available for the $500K projection (it will be reflected in the 2024-2025 budget).

The new Education Committee chair Audrey Souders said there will be “a focus on education’ and that there are no immediate plans to explore late start times or block scheduling (note these items also had potential to improve education, yielding positive results in other high performing districts).

I did not hear any update on the Superintendent Search, but there was a closed door meeting scheduled for February 13, so I assume a public update will be given next meeting.