Special Meeting with Verona Board of Education - March 25, 2025

In late March the Verona Town Council and the Verona Board of Education had a joint meeting, the first one in years.

On the agenda was a discussion on our shared service agreement, communication improvements, the new Verona Flats development, and PILOTS. It is very important to note that no documents were provided to the Town Council as part of this meeting. The Council provided the Board of Education with a copy of our Shared Service agreement. What I have recounted here are some of the highlights of my written notes.

Shared Service Agreement

• Verona Township provides a very long list of services for the Board of Education, most of which are centered around DPW (snow removal, trash pickup, field maintenance, and grass cutting) and police and first responder services (officers for school events). The Board of Education provides the Township use of their facilities for recreation activities (basketball, summer camp, etc).

• As part of this meeting, we discussed an expansion of the agreement. This would include allowing the BOE access to our grant writing services, so that they can apply for some safety grants.

Communications

• The Board of Education indicated that they would like to improve communications with our Recreation department on the use of their facilities. The use of shared calendars was discussed.

• They would like access to our communication tools (newsletters, social media) to help spread the word on preschool and kindergarten registration.

Verona Flats

• Our new affordable housing development has generated 20 new students, with more expected. The BOE experienced some challenges working with the developer, Conifer, to provide school registration information with all of the leases.

• Prior to the Verona Flats opening, the Verona Public Schools were getting close to being at capacity at three of the four elementary schools.

PILOT Funds

• The Board of Education discussed that their financials are very tight. This year, they had to cut $1.5 million in expenses to get to their cap.

• They asked us to provide them with 65% of funds we receive under our current PILOT (payment in lieu of taxes) agreements, which totals $1.1 million dollars. This represents nearly 4% of the Township's budget.

• The Board of Education would also like a seat at the table if any future agreements are discussed.

• The Board of Education told us that this was basically the last good financial year that they will have. After this year, the BOE will be faced with a lot of difficult decisions. They will need to consider redistricting, cutting sports programs and the music program just to maintain class sizes and be able to provide special services under the mandatory 2% budget cap.

• The Township Council explained that no PILOT agreements are currently being considered. The last PILOT agreement was Annin. The PILOT fees associated with 1 Sunset are meant to offset taxpayer costs to develop the Verona Flats project, since $7 million in land was purchased and donated to the developer to make that project happen. The Sunset PILOT won't start paying out until that project is completed, which will likely not be until 2029/2030.

Teenage alcohol and drug use:

• The Township will try to look for grant funds to help fund a position at the high school to address these issues

• Our VMAC committee was discussed, which helps to address drug and alcohol use. Sports betting was an issue added as a potential focus in the future.

In conclusion - as a parent and a taxpayer, I was very troubled by this meeting. The discussion by the BOE on the school board budget is a major alarm that is being raised about school financials. When the Superintendent is talking about cutting sports and music programs in the next few years, everyone should be concerned. Very concerned. This is all before potential cuts from federal government funding, which are being actively discussed.

From my perspective, there is currently a big gap in understanding from the two governing bodies on how our respective budgets operate, and this meeting was not structured to proactively close that gap. As elected officials, we are all called to work together for the best interest of the community. We will need to get creative on how we can mutually do the right thing for taxpayers and for students.

I have faith that we can begin a new chapter of working together, starting with understanding the urgency and direness of our respective financial situations and building innovative solutions from there.

Any comments should be sent to the entire Township Council by using the following form here: https://www.veronanj.org/councilcontactform. You can reach the Board of Education by emailing them here: https://www.veronaschools.org/domain/33.