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Yes. I don't believe it's going to be a chunk. But this this God bless you. This 225 is just related to the staffing changes on this page. It's not for the overall right. So Sure. Sure. All right. Ken, you just I agree. You just made a statement about grant funding. I know ELC here I would imagine all the positions are grant funded, right? I'm sorry. Say that again. All of the ELC positions here in the school is grant funded or No, no. The program is grant funded or no? We we receive uh in the preschool grant and I'm just going to think off the top of my head about $450,000 a year is what we receive for the preschool for all grant. I believe we also have some preschool money in our IDA grant. I'm looking at Miss Perkins right now who's rumbling through the papers right now.
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And while she's looking at that, what positions are grant funded? 45,000. So there's an additional 45,000. So it's about $500,000 that we get in grant money for the ELC program. So the preschool teachers are grant funded. Some are not all of them. Some are. So if you look on page two, there's little footnotes there. Four through nine. If you look on the right side, perfect vision. Four through nine are grant funed. Okay. Yes. Okay. So, positions four through eight or footnotes four through eight funded positions. I got it. Okay. All right. Which those about $177,000, Mr. Brown, in addition to grants, we spend we have local budgets of about Don't hold me to this, but I think it's about $1.2 million in additional local budget money that we spend in the ELC program. uh teachers supplies blah blah blah all that so off hand I I don't expect you to know this but I'm going to ask you anyway our fund balance at this point and we borrow quite a I don't know I'll have to borrow we borrow working cash we borrow working cash to replenish our fund balance we not to add on to that and technically that is not sustainable income once you use it has gone.
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It erodess, right? The fund balance, the working cash. Yes. So, right now we have a balanced budget, we have a surplus. And again, God forbid we do not get this tiff expirement from University Park, we can be kind of going down without coming up anytime soon. Right. Right. Okay. So again, a lot of this and with our negotiating that's going on is going to be predicated on getting that tiff. I think I think a lot of it will be I I think there's a lot of programs. I'm not just talking about, you know, as I shared with the board, you know, that tiff money has a lot of I mean, you know, I say this tongue and cheek, a lot of value in what it can do for this district. That is sustainable income. You know, that is sustainable income. And again, it can help pay for salaries.
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It can help pay for maintenance program that the buildings need. And it can help pay for new athletic facilities that are needed. I mean, but all that's future. Yeah. No, I I I understand that, but I but you know, the future is getting close and and so but again, I'm just saying that, you know, there there's a value to that. And so, you know, um you know, we just had a we just had an issue from one of our schools and it's not a life safety issue, but those were some of the that occurred at one of our schools a week this past week. Yes. That we're going to have to look at those things to make big capital investments on. Right. And and again, that that's part of our facility assessment plan that we have moving forward with preventative maintenance. That's all part of it too that you know we need the funds in order to do that.
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I don't think that's a preventable maintenance at this point. We need preventive maintenance. That is a that is a these are some it's a capital needs assessment. It is it is you know so those are things that we're going to have to look at is I think I think we're getting a little far field from staffing here so let's let's get back on track. No we're talking about money. Yeah I know but that's the thing. So the item on the agenda is around staffing. So um any others questions on staffing? Okay, next up, teaching and learning presentation of the calendar for 22 23 24. Thank you. How how do we how do we calendar to have Valentine's Day on board a board meeting on Valentine? Thank you. Go. Okay. Good evening again to the board, Dr. Cara, staff, and our family at home. Um, each year, OTL presents a calendar to the board um for approval.
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This is a proposal of what the calendar committee worked on, which includes uh administration uh CMEA members and ACME members. And so I will ask for a recommendation for approval at next week's board meeting. Uh in the packet you will see the uh committee members. We met three times this year to deliver this 2324 school calendar. And when we are meeting, we try to look at balancing our trimesters um for our elementary buildings. Um because we are still um don't have full air conditioning at the elementary buildings. Uh we put in some construction concerns starting as late in August as we possibly can. professional development days, orientation, institute days, um taking into consideration with the high school, uh trying to get them to finish their um quarter so trimester by I'm sorry, semester by the uh before we go on winter break. Um the start of grade levels uh K through nine on that first day of school.
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uh as well as assessments that we put into the calendar and graduation dates. Uh we also look at the state holidays that we have um and uh think about our our families in terms of being consistent with the days that we have off for school improvement where we have our early early dismissal. And so you have this open a copy of what that calendar is uh that we will ask to be approved next week.
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Do you have any questions and then this will be posted on the website once approved. We don't put the prom on uh the calendar. Okay. The high school chooses that date once they work with their um the vendor where they will hold it. Make sure it's not. But we did hear uh from our families that they would like to know graduation dates ahead of time. So we did start adding that to the calendar. Yeah. Not to have Valentine's Day on board. So So by starting the 24th of August, is that why um they're going till June 5th and 6th? Correct. And next year for the calendar committee because we will have air conditioning in all buildings, we can move that date up. And June 6th is the with the emergency days though, right? So wouldn't it be No, that goes that is without any emergency.
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That's not making up any days because we have the e-learning plan, right? And that would be only if we did not use our e-learning days, which we can use in lie of um trying to make up those days. I don't really have a question, but what does it mean that the state holiday is non-attendance unless a public hearing is held? That's if you want to have school on that day, you have to have a public hearing. Yes, we have to have a public hearing and then we have to um have a curriculum in place of not being in school on those days. Okay. Seems to be a going long into the year that we are in the school. I've ever seen school end in June. Maybe that's what it is. Seniors get out at their graduation. They they finish right at the I thought it was only the Chicago schools get out in June.
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No, they're uh late too. Yeah, they're It looks like they're a week behind and I think they accommodated the construction. Correct. Yeah. Okay. Because I think the seniors are getting out a little the graduation's about a week later. It's usually before Memorial Day and this and this year it'll be after. Yes. So I what we used to call Columbus Day. So that's actually officially indigenous people's day. Yes. So in Chicago it's called Columbus Day. Wow. Okay. Recommendation about three or four years ago. Okay. Now, Veterans Day, officially the day is the 11th, right? And why why are we celebrating on a Friday as opposed to a Monday? I think that's the the day that's marked um Saturday. I think that's the federal holiday. I think they do Friday and if you have it on a Sunday, they do it on Monday. Okay. So, that's the rationale for there.
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That makes sense. Okay. So, this will be on the agenda for approval next week. It will. Thank you very much. I didn't see my birthday. Okay. Um, is there any old business? Yes. Yeah. Um, the only one I have is I know last week we had an issue over at Creed Elementary. Um, I guess where we at on that? And I guess the frustration I which I think I sent in my email was more or less that it took a teacher to bring it up where I think three of the previous administration brought it up. So work orders I I would assume and and Ken, correct me if I'm wrong. I know we have a system for it, but obviously if a teacher or administrator or someone in the building comes to somebody or files work order at 2:00 or 3:00 or 4:00 or 5:00, every morning somebody's got to be logging in and figuring out what's priority and goes to the top of the list because water on the floor is safety hazard, right?
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So just wondering what came about that is it fixed and then moving forward how are we who's monitoring and work like who's sure um two separate issues so let me share both of them I believe we've had the roofing contract behind and that and the result of that was anything Okay. All right. So, it is a roof issue over there. Um, there are I'm walking lightly on this one, so bear with me. There there are some issues I I believe internally with how these are looked at in that um that I have become involved in and we'll take care of that. Um I think um you know I always as I've shared with the board I always systems and how our system is, you know, um and usually where there's fault is because the system is not being used properly. So, uh I have uh gotten involved with that and we'll stay on top of that.
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Keith and I have already had a few discussions about this and we'll be having I I equate it to a fast food drive-thru. So they're on point is we have so many seconds that when an order is placed to get it out whether it's going to be satisfactory or not to corporate. It's kind of the same thing here. Our staff I think um teachers uh even maintenance and custodial uh but definitely our students if they slip and fall and hit their head right it's a problem. So I just need to make sure that I think we talked months ago that you can prioritize the work order. So obviously you have um something in here that needs to be rehung could let's say a level four but water on the floor should be a level one and I think that's where we need to make sure because we don't want any issues of someone getting hurt then they go to the doctor or work with comp now it's a whole different thing let alone a student getting hurt right yeah you know and one of the things I think I shared with the board when I responded to this was you know a lack of communication you know and that and you know And this is where again I look at a system, you know, the system will do the work for you.
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If when you go to respond, if somebody's looking at those work orders and now delegates it to somebody else and I change the status of a work order from being, let's just say I'll just make from being entered to now I passed it to somebody. it will automatically communicate back to the person that sent it saying here's where the status of your work order is. So the system will do that for you. It's just that you have to work the system the right way and you have to have the proper people in place to do right and and so and so that's what I'm saying. So this is you know operating the system properly and make sure it's done on consistent proper basis. The same thing when either the maintenance person goes out um or uh we have a contractor go out that work order has to be updated.
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The status needs to be changed. So it goes back again to the person that submitted that and said, "Hey, I've had the person out there and then we put notes and all that. So, so those are things that need to uh be corrected and will be corrected." So the person that sent us the email, have they been at least contacted? And Keith personally contacted them to let them know the status of everything. Yes. And that it's taken care of. That that person did not submit a work order. No, not the one that not the one that sent us the email, but at that point there were other ones that it was the fourth one. I think it was very redundant at that point. Yes. Yes. So yes. Okay. So if you don't mind if you can if it's not it's February now. Maybe by April give us an update.
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I I sure would on that how that system's functioning by next month. A report would be kind of like the bus incident we used to have where we would get a monthly report of how many incidents we have and miraculously they all went away. So if we have a find outstanding ones, how long do they take? I'd like to know how long a work order actually takes. Yep. I guess what my question is is last month or the month from the floor, Mr. Swallish asked you how an update on work orders. Were we taking care of them in a timely fashion? Blah blah blah. So this was looked at recent.
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Thank you for joining us in this committee on public safety, intergovernmental and military affairs. Uh we have we're in room 225 on this Wednesday, February 15th. Um, this meeting is being streamed live on YouTube. In the unlikely event that we have any kind of technical difficulties, uh, we will post a notice and let you know when we will reconvene. Um, those who have, uh, indicated they want to testify, we're going to limit all testifiers, both Zoom as well as live, to two minutes. Um, and we're going to first actually take care of a decision making for a bill that we heard uh last week. And this is Senate Bill 498 relating to fireworks. U members, you may recall we had a really good hearing, but there were some issues that had to be kind of cleared up and uh Vice Chair Elephante did a fantastic bangup job, you could say, on this fireworks bill and we are going to pass it with these amendments.
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foreign and welcome to the Joint senate committee on labor and technology and education today is Wednesday February 15th at three o'clock P.M we are in conference room 229 I'm Sharon moriwaki chair of the committee uh and with me Senator kizani the chair of the education committee um before proceeding with the hearing I'd like and her commitment and before proceeding I'd like to uh make a few housekeeping announcements the series being streamed live on YouTube you can find links to viewing options for all Senate meetings on live and on-demand video page of the legislature's website uh we are oh I don't have all the rest of it we are in this deferred decision making uh on Senate Bill 718 originally heard on Monday February 13th uh Senate Bill 718 relates to public employees it clarifies the teachers and other Personnel the state public charter schools are members of the same Collective bargain unit as the Department of Education counterparts uh in the in the last day I met with both the uh Chief negotiator and um the Attorney General's office and they have language that um that the uh Charter School Public Charter School teachers and members are a part of bargain unit five so with that the chair's recommendation is to defer and with that I will adjourn the labor committee and Technology foreign calling to order the committee on education it is Wednesday February 15 3 o'clock in room 229 welcome to the committee on education this meeting including the audio and video of remote participants that's being streamed live on YouTube you will find links to viewing options for all Senate meetings on the live and on-demand video page of the legislature's website this soon meeting and your YouTube live stream event will include the one o'clock agenda for committee on education the three o'clock agenda for committee on education and the unlikely event that we must abruptly end this hearing due to Major technical difficulties committee will reconvene to discuss any outstanding business on Friday February 26 I'm sorry February 17 2023 at 3 pm and this room 229 any public notice will be posted on the legislature's website I'd like to take this time to remind our testifiers that due to time restrictions on our hearings we will be limiting testimony to one minute per testifier per bill for people participating remotely please remain muted and video disabled until shortly before it is your turn to testify when I call your name unmute yourself and your time will begin after your minute is completed staff will mute you so that we can move this hearing along in an orderly and efficient manner foreign this is decision making only so there is no public testimony for Senate Bill 718 relating to public employees um the labor chair has deferred this measure so uh education uh committee is also deferring this measure next item also for decision making only Senate Bill 1044 relating to mental health appropriate money to higher school-based youth Mental Health Specialists for Hawaii department of education schools recommendation of the chair will be to pass with amendments and we are going to clarify that behavior health specialists instead of mental abuse mental health specialists on page 2 line 15 and page 3 Lines 6 and 12.
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this is the public market advisory Commission meeting it is um February 16th and it is 5 32 so can you do the roll call Stephanie or a commissional commissioner Farrell president hi hello welcome back thanks commissioner Willette here commissioner wolf you're commissioner young here and Jeff is currently not present but that may change as we go through okay then our first order of business is the approval of the agenda does anyone have any additions or changes to the agenda see Peter shaking his head okay um hearing none can I get a motion to approve the agenda I moved to approve and a second great Eric raised his hand a second um all in favor say aye erase your hand I great and so that's unanimous all right next order of business is the first public comment all right um would any members of the public like to participate go ahead and virtually raise your hand if I can see you we've got one person on the phone that I can see oh yes I see a hand there it was a little bit of a lag I'm going to allow you to talk go right ahead hello this is Carlene Gates hello um this is Carlene and I am wanting to um just give a comment relating to rule updates uh section three um the um the final language for how many artists installs and I just think that um considering the number of vendors that are Growers of produce that would be fruits vegetables and flowers or plants um that we should consider uh not increasing that up to 18 but allow make some way for some of the Growers who are there currently to earn four staff thank you thanks Carly all right so moving on okay so next we have approval of the minutes from the January meeting which Stephanie emailed to all of us are there any um changes additions anything like that to the minutes all righty great hearing none could I get a motion to approve the minutes I'd move to approve thanks in about a second anybody great thank you um everybody who um approves the minutes please raise your hand or say I I Perfect all right unanimous so the minutes from the January meeting are approved um so the next order of business is the regular business the agenda items and the first one is a general update all right so we're getting close to our March 1st Annual deadline for people to return uh their applications to us we've gotten a bunch already there's always people that are right down to the wire um and you know we're anticipating most people that haven't told us otherwise we'll be returning um but you know it will also kind of confirm some retirements and things that we had anticipated but haven't gotten the final confirmation yet so that's what we are working on now um Alex and I are processing them updating people's files accordingly um and once we receive all of those March 1st we'll be able to um sort of update the seniority lists reflective of any retirements um and then with that as well uh we'll be sending invoicing out to both annual and daily vendors once we receive all of our final information for that and then folks payment deadline is not until June 30th for that that's just a reiteration of the same thing we've been doing for a while but that's where we're at currently um we are in the process too of bringing on or excuse me accepting new vendors for the coming season we've gotten I want to say about five or six applications so far just over the last couple weeks um a few of those are farms we actually did have a new Farm join us last Saturday they are primarily uh livestock but they also will be doing produce in the main season um and I believe they have some sort of cottage food baked goods and things like that too um so yeah they just started their brand new uh we have about I want to say maybe two more out of the cerso new applicants that are farms uh the rest are a mixed bag in terms of we have one that's a shrub not the plant but the drink um company that is applied and and I think we have another um gluten-free baked good as well so we're in the process of assessing that um we're also sort of mulling whether or not this is a year we need to do a little bit more active recruitment because we're usually in the situation where we just have so much interest we really don't need to recruit um but this year you know we're thinking about maybe trying to reach out um to Vegetable Farms just for a long-term planning thing but and again it's not necessarily that we really need more people per se um it's the the right type of people specifically but I know a lot of people um are concerned thinking that we're so so uh so empty that there's all these open spaces available that's not actually correct um we're still at about 115 vendors it's just we're trying to plan for the long term and I'm curious yeah go ahead can you speak about how you do that Outreach what's what does that entail or what would that entail sure um well the very first thing we've done is just talk to current vendors and saying hey you know do you know of any farms or New farmers or people looking for other stuff so we've started there and then it would you know may basically just be sharing our website and stuff like that because it does say on our website already what specific classes of the vendors we are looking for um but you know it doesn't say anything about we want baked goods but we get like 90 because which again is fine it's just a question of um really trying to capture the Farms of course this is part of a broader conversation that we've been having and is in the annual report as well of sort of just the decline of Michigan farms in general um and the fact that you know we already have 60 Farms currently who are vendors at the market you know how many more that have the volume that they would need to be at our Market have we not captured so that's the other question is like I think we've done a pretty good job of covering our bases um but that's why we're reaching out to the vendors that may have networks that we're not connected with if that helps answer your question all right and then the last item I have on this is special events we have decided to bring back the CSA Day this year it's really just a regular Market day um that encourages our CSA Farms to have information available for customers or prospective customers and that's going to be on Saturday April 1st during regular Market hours um we're seeing you know if there's a possibility for music or other programming for that event um the next event that will be in the series coming up after that is Flower Day will be again the Sunday of Memorial Day weekend similar to before we're going to combine forces with the Sunday Artisan Market um and then another fun thing that we're bringing back for this year is we are partnering with edible wow again on a series of cooking demos so these are going to be on Wednesdays during the Wednesday Market um we're partnering with them to bring you know local chefs and to feature seasonal produce that will then be able to be purchased at the market and that's going to be either the first or second Wednesday depending on which month it falls in and that's going to be or excuse me June through September and then if there's the other series of events is the food truck rallies which are coming back same time as last year we thought that third one the third Wednesday evening worked really well um we've gotten a ton of Interest both between our returning folks and I actually did put the information out um to a much broader Network although I try to cast a wide that always um but this year we seem to have gotten a lot of traction from new to US Trucks and carts all over the place um so we're looking forward to you know expanding our rallies a little bit but again you know we already have an average of 14 or 15 trucks and carts so you know we don't have a ton of space to expand but I think we could do 20 um trucks we have a lot more space for carts as well so that's in the works um and really just overall trying to rejuvenate our events calendar getting closer and closer to what it was like uh pre-pandemic and that that's where we're at great thank you and then you have um I was wondering if flower day was going to be open to outside vendors or is it just the Farmer's Market vendors that will be participating um last year we had opened it and that was mostly because we had open spaces available so I think that's open to conversation from folks for example last year the only real native plant Cellar we had was one of the outside people that we brought on which was um the Toledo Zoo um and yeah we had the Michigan Growers Cooperative as well which some of vendors are a member of so that was kind of you know a half and half one but we're open to input but you know I don't see any problem with recruiting other people if we have space obviously priority is given to vendors um but after that if their space is still available you know I think it's in everyone's best interest to have market look as full as possible okay cool yeah I agree if there is space um I I like the idea of bringing on others just also because they think that flower day is nice as an event in itself and I think more people and customers are likely to come if it's different and unique from like a regular Farmers Market day and so pulling in some other people if there's room helps Right add to that you know as well for sure and I know that you know the Artisan Market absolutely loved the event so you know I think they're definitely going to want it to continue to and I know they had probably their biggest turnout ever on a Sunday Artisan market during Flower Day of last year so it really impacts them positively that's awesome I like that event um my other comment or question was thinking long term about the cooking demos I wonder if there is any possibility of ever bringing them in-house maybe in future years um or I mean I I always thought maybe that could also be something that like Alex might fall under his um capacity uh or as you're working with edible wow you know maybe you'll find it's really worth it to strengthen the partnership in that way um but you know also thinking about the possibility of doing in-house cooking done with could be helpful to the market too yeah definitely I mean that's a good idea especially from a funding perspective because it does cost money for us to partner with edible wow we are getting a good deal from them because we already have an advertising relationship but you're right it's something we could definitely explore um for a few future years certainly great thank you um so there was a staffing update too Stephanie yes so we are sad to announce that Macy has left us we just had far too much work between grad school and her other work she loved working at the market she lives around the corner so she'll still certainly be a customer um but she felt like you know she just could not juggle everything and her other job actually matched her wage at the market um so good for her that's fantastic but we will miss her um so we are now hiring for her position which was the assistant manager which is the third in command behind myself and Alex uh and the job posting for that went live yesterday we've already gotten six applicants and we're hoping to reach out to a multiplicity of people I've reached out to Seas um already to see if they could share it with their students um we have a contact that we met with today about actually trying to do translation to our Mandarin speaking Community they said they might share it um at their church so there's a lot of you know Avenues we have again we're holding out hope against hope that we might get someone who's bilingual in English and Mandarin but you know we'll see we'll see how how it shakes out but we are currently hiring for that position and you can find it on both the website as well as our social media if you would like to share it with your Networks Stephanie when would that position start as soon as the hiring process goes through okay which could take potentially a few weeks because there's background checks and multiple interviews and things of this nature I'm hoping to get them in at some point excuse me in March but timing realistically might be March 15th thank you yep glad there's so much interest yes yes and that's all that I had on that one all right great um so the next item is the board officer election results all right well it was unanimous congratulations Lisa and Peter you have been elected as chair and vice chair respectively um for the next year so congratulations are in order and thank you again for uh volunteering your extra time great happy to help out thank you um so the next item is the rules update all right so rule a is really just a very quick uh relay okay uh is really just a quick quick update um everything is gone through the city lawyers they've signed off on everything all we're doing right now is we're waiting for the community services administrator to do the final signature the good news is they were they clarified when we went through the lawyer processes this actually does not have to go through city council it just has to go through you all through legal to the administrator and once he signs it it is as good as in effect um so we're just waiting on that it should be in the next couple weeks um and then that's pretty much all that I had um in that bullet a so just to recap and people are wondering what that is that's the changes in the sign-in process that's the allowing annual Artisans to have two stalls and that's the transfer seniority adding 30 days to each category of application um for folks applying to transfer their seniority to a new person great thank you and then the next one is the um to have the vote on uh The Artisan uh issue about the number of Artisans or the number of stalls correct yes and just to recap for folks the options are keep it at 12 what it was before make it 13 which what it is what it has been in practice or keep it at 18 total stalls which would be enough for the current annual Artisans to have all of their permanent stalls be owned by them all right so before I call a vote on this do um we want to have any more conversation about about this that's been going going on for a long time sure I know Eric probably missed a couple of those conversations um but but yeah so the three I don't know I guess to summarize the benefits of all of them the benefit of having the full number of stalls is that it covers everyone who has it now it doesn't lead to this situation where it's a question mark in the future or people may feel like they may lose their stalls so that was the reason we came up with this that we made it based on the number of cells instead of the number of Artisans so that it would be inclusive of everybody who's currently an annual artisan 13 that came about the last time um because there was two vendors who got their seniority at the exact same time or started rather at the same time um so the idea was the number was supposed to be 12 but there was a magical 13 that got introduced so that it could make it more even and equal for those people that had gotten their seniority at the same time the 12 was just the standard what it had been prior um to any of these changes so I don't know if that's helpful at all Eric okay I guess one thing too it's like I'm for me at least I'm kind of all of them seem acceptable in a variety of ways and the kind of the way I keep thinking about it is with the 12 that there could be between 12 and 24 stalls associated with ours and with a 13 there could be 13 to 26 uh stalls for Artisans and with the 18 there are 18 for the right Artisans and so that that's at least if we put it all on a stall basis um that that's that seems to be more apples to apples very appropriate for a farmer's market comparison um so yeah yeah yep so and yeah go ahead all right so as far as like the 13 goes we're not talking 13 stalls we're talking 13 Artisans correct exactly okay but but when we're talking the 18 we're talking 18 total stalls we're not talking Asian Artisans got it correct okay automatically no totally so mathematically like this 18 is actually the lower number if we're talking about specifically this idea that everybody could potentially have two um the 18 is just saying what we have now is what it is okay yeah good question so I've been trying to figure out how to call this vote and I think one of the first things we need to do is just maybe group things so there are two choices um so one would be voting on whether we should go with the number of stalls and then um or going with the number of vendors as the main issue and then if the number of vendors wins out then we vote on whether it's 12 or 13.
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I I just wanted to make sure you are right okay you guys are alive let me just check the audio I was doing I was going off probably equipment can somebody say something okay we're good okay you ready good all right we're calling to order oh I don't have my microphone we're calling to order this meeting tonight um we do have a quorum present so we are going to get started and we'll have Gwen presenting shortly first I'm going to read the public meeting statement the New Jersey open public meetings law was enacted to ensure the right of the public to have advanced notice of and to attend the meetings of public bodies at which time any business affecting their interest is discussed and acted upon the provisions of this act and Board of Education policy zero one six two the Board of Education of the borough of Bound Brook has caused notice of this meeting to be posted in the board office and at Bound Brook High School and mail to mailed or faxed to The Courier News Bound Brook mayoral clerk southbound Brook Board of Education and any person who has requested individual notice and paid the required fee we please stand for the pledge allegiance of the United States okay we're moving right to swearing in our new board member I believe that is U.S divorci thank you Mr Bell accordion good evening sir as board Secretary of Bound Brook Board of Education it's my privilege to swear you in as a new board member duly elected in the November election so please repeat after me sure I I Donald Vollmer do solemnly swear or affirm do solemnly swear or a firm or a firm that I will support the Constitution of the United States and I will support the Constitution of the United States and the constitution of the state of New Jersey state of New Jersey and I will bear true faith and Allegiance and I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same to the same and to the governments and to the governments established in the United States established in the United States and this state and this state under the authority of the people under the authority of the people so help me God so help me God I I Donald Vollmer you solemnly swear or affirm your solemnly swear or affirm that I possess the qualifications prescribed by law that I've processor qualifications for prescribed by law to the office of member of a board of education for the office of member of the Board of Education and that I am not disqualified as a voter and that I'm not disqualified as a voter pursuant to RS 19 colon 4-1 Persona RS 19 colon 4-1 nor disqualified due to conviction of a crime nor disqualified due to a conviction of a crime or offense or offense listed in njs 18a Colon 12-1 listed in njs 18a Colon 12-1 and that I will faithfully and that I will faithfully impartially and partially and justly and justly perform all the duties of that office perform all the duties of that office according to the best of my abilities so help me go according to the best of my ability so help me God congratulations thank you [Applause] okay and I would also like to note in the minutes that Mr filma has also been provided with the board member code of ethics um which we give to all board members thank you Mr Bell uh you're up again with a roll call please Mr Bell here Mr Dawson here miss Casino yeah Miss Lima here Mr zubko Miss moosen Mr mint house miss high here Mr Balmer here Mr Januzzi Mr uh board vice president you have a quorum president this evening thank you okay we are all yours Miss Norton where would you like us how would you like to well we can't see very well from up there so if you want to come down that's it okay I can do it from there if you don't feel the need to see the size okay where you are okay I would like to sit in the caution row uh you are more than welcome to or you could sit over there I mean I've learned you don't sit with caution yes well that was your just to block off traffic and so and I'll be able to see was unpresenting because I'm going to have to try we don't have a clicker so where do you where would you like this you want us here sure whatever's best for you you're here for you know and it's always a party anyway s thank you for having me back congratulations thank you welcome to board service as I said I I think it is a really interesting wonderful piece um for your community for you I've learned a lot as a brand new board member and as a long-serving board member so it is a pleasure to see all of you so this is your annual ethics training um we added this claimer because of course we don't provide legal advice that's up to your board attorney we can provide information and that's what this evening is about um and the code of ethics is required to evolve the Board of Education members it's something that I was always very proud of as a board member that at one point we voluntarily ascribed to the code events statutory it actually came out of a delegate assembly of New Jersey school boards Association and was a recommendation of school districts to have board members um ascribe to a code event two are the largest group of volunteer public efficiency to abide by the code of ethics I often say I'm waiting for folks under the golden dome to come to that piece but it hasn't happened I'm not hoping my breath after 30 years of being involved in education in New Jersey for that to happen but what's important is not only that you abide by the code but also be aware of the actual letter of the code but also to be aware of the public perception um that you are applied inside the code of ethics it's not merely a behavior that would be perhaps prohibited but it's also giving your public confidence in that word is ensuring that it's remaining truthful and faithful to that it holds the respect and the confidence of the people which as you know is entirely appropriate and important you want to avoid conductivist violation of the code itself work it gives the public the justifiable impression that there is a violation of the code okay so who does it apply to it applies to all school officials um and it covers conflicts of interest disclosure statements that you will be required to complete if you're a seated board member by April 30th if you're brand new you have 30 days to complete that it will be sent to you if it has to be sent already and it includes the code of ethics as well as the mandatory training requirements that were added to the law several years back New Jersey school board members are some of the most well-educated board members in the nation you're required to take new board member orientation in the first year of your trainings for brand new folks that's been changed for those who were elected after April at the April election this year and moving forward for everybody else middle of next November you will only have 90 days within which to take Newport liberal orientation it's based on the notion that it is important for new board members to be trained early on it remains a yearly requirement for years two and three of your first term and you'll have a year to take Gulf four the four is taken in the first year of any term subsequent to your first term and it really is around legal updates and changes that have been made to the law yes a question a board member who leaves and returns but has already done the training three years there's a break in service that is longer than three years they would have to retake new board member orientation it used to be 10 years they've slimmed that down to three um and so yes if you have a breaking service and you come back and we always welcome folks back who haven't shared obviously you're going to have a shorter window that you can have a break before having to retake it and you get to see all of us again exactly what would we work on great so the school ethics act established the school ethics commission the SEC that's not the Securities Exchange Commission I thought that's what it was I used to teach American government from high school level and when somebody said the SEC I said oh the Security's Exchange Commission and then I became a board member in the state of New Jersey and they said no no but it's the school ethics Commission it outlines potential conflicts of interest that you must avoid it talks again about them those mandatory training requirements that I just recounted to you um and of course your financial disclosure statements that are required of all school officials I've been filling them out now for 30 years as a staff member on at a SBA we fill those out as well as well as abided by the code of actors okay so who's on that code investment it's a nine-member board um five non-school officials two superintendents and two Board of Education members um they serve for for uh three years or at the pleasure of the governor who sometimes doesn't replace them so they continue to serve after their three-year term um so that is an important piece um they're doing much better at having a fuller ethics commission now than they did um several years back okay what is their jurisdiction what is it that they can do they have two primary functions they hear ethics complaints when an Ethics complaint has been filed against a board member and they also will invite issue advisory opinions we commonly call them AOS for sure AOS are sought by board members around prospective Behavior around prospective participation in areas where they might anticipate a potential conflict let me give you an example I have a board member that was elected in a district who is currently employed by a vendor that provides the food service in the district where she works okay and so she just recently sought an AO an advisory opinion to see if it was permissible for her to work in the school district where she serves now on the board of education they came back they said nope sorry we have a choice you can either be on the board or you can keep your job in this District they weren't gonna not continue to employer they gave me the option of going to another school district it's a big vendor you know that serves a lot of school districts across the state she said nope it's too far I don't want to travel even though it's in the same county and it's not really far so she resigned from the board but she sought that ahead of participating or boating on anything once she was elected even before she was sworn in the word superintendent the current board president and myself had sat with the new folks doing an onboarding and it came up and their attorney advised her to seek his opportunity because it would be a conflict because she would be enmeshed in the building she was in the building every day she had access to staff every day she could be guiding you need direction to students who are taking directions from staff which is violative of the volunteer piece under certain opinions that they've issued around a board members volunteering in the school district so that was an area where she sought it ahead of potentially voting on something and then having it be a problem so they will issue advisories only on prospective Behavior not on Behavior not after I've already voted now you tell me I can't vote only on perspective okay I think they won't they won't issue one if there's a pending that in another in another jurisdiction no I mean if there's a board member for school official conduct has now been subject of playing I don't think they're gonna no they won't issue an advisor that's what it well then it wouldn't have been perspective Behavior right it would have been something that a board might remember had already done on an issue or participate in something where they did that there could be a potential conflict so it's very helpful and they will turn it around pretty quickly if you all you have to do is write it doesn't require an attorney you just have to lay out the facts as they exist send it off to the ethics commission and they will get back to the board member now typically speaking most advisory opinions are specific only to an individual board my set of circumstances I'm acquiring about if the ethics commission believed that it has been widespread impact potentially they will make an advisory opinion public they will scrub it of all identifying factors the district the person's name make that advisory of public advisory decision and there's an expectation that board members will be aware of public advisory opinions when they're made such meaning if you violate one of the advisories they're going to say you wish us to know what that is we routinely publish all public advisory and recent ethics decision and School Board notes which you should be receiving electronically you should be receiving more information now for example um so there is an expectation that board members will keep up to date with those latest decisions and avoid conduct that they've already moved on okay any member of the public can file an Ethics charge against the Board of Education number and so on average they hear about 85 different complaints um and they issue roughly 35 advisory opinions again that's an average we went several years without any public advisories because when there weren't at least six board members on the SEC they could not release any advice or opinion as public and so I think it was 2013.
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