[Music] thank you [Music] thank you [Music] let's go [Music] [Applause] [Music] chocolate day [Music] foreign [Music] thank you [Music] the NM Union High School District Board of Trustees meeting of February 16th 2023 is called to order at 3 15 PM the following members are present Anna El Percy Catherine H Smith Ann Marie Trejo Jessica Aguero and Brian O'Neill staff has requested the following amendments to the agenda exhibit I replaced page one exhibit and replace page three exhibit BB replace pages one and two everybody have all that okay to have a motion to adopt the summit second we have a motion and a second for the amended agenda all in favor say aye aye opposed thank you very much public comments sing no comments that come that can come forward we're going to move to closed session thank you one
foreign ER at 609. the board met in closed session and no action was taken I do have a couple announcements before we start can you hear me back there okay before we start our meeting um trustee Lee is joining us remotely this evening utilizing the option ab2449 under just cause relating to child care or caregiving need to pop a child parent grandparent grandchild sibling spouse or domestic partner under the requirements of ab2449 I do need to ask press delete do you have anyone over the age of 18 present with you for no individuals 18 years of age are older present in the room at the remote location with me and it is my intention to participate in today's meeting through both audio and visual technology thank you for your statement I'm just a reminder to the board members that people are having a problem hearing us so just speaking to your mics and then another little announcement due to the two-minute delay and to ensure that all board members have the opportunity to speak I will make a practice to recognize each board member individually when it comes to time for comment or discussion on an agenda item this will also help trustee Lee who has experienced the two-minute delay virtually at this moment we'll jump into sorry I'm not experiencing a delay thank you for your comment flexible and I have not requested any accommodation for any delay as you stated I thank you on flake salute in recognition of free speech we welcome all and would like to note that saying the Pledge of Allegiance is not a requirement if you do not say the Pledge you are most welcome here as an equal participant of the business of this board please stand for the flag I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all thank you adoption of the agenda do I have a motion to approve the adoption of the agenda also move thank you Mr Bruno do I have a second thank you trustee Anderson Roll Call vote trustee Valley apologies uh maybe it was a delay but I'd like to pull um item number one from the consent agenda item number one okay okay any other items that anybody wishes to pull okay can do I have a motion to approve the agenda as amended I will so move thank you do I have a second I'll second thank you real call vote trustee Ballard aye uh representative hi thank you Riley trustee Lee I trustee ballen Bruno hi the Anderson I and chair votes I will now go to consent agenda number right now we'll go to organizational reports hi hello good evening uh today it was my pleasure to chair the site rep meeting that we had um here at the center High campus we discussed all the exciting events going on around the district from the Sacramento Library visiting Dudley campus FBI fundraisers at Spinelli for St baldrick's PBIS challenges at multiple School sites a special ed field trip to a special ed field day trip to Natomas High School a touch of understanding a bite of reality all of the spring Sports and so many more invents that include all students on our beautiful campuses here around the district I have nothing else to report thank you very much any questions no questions do you have a report from Miss Naisha Harris oh yeah Miss Harris did let me know she did not have a report tonight so I'm happy to do her report for her she does not have a report thank you very much committee updates now we'll hear from Mr Mike Jordan peripheralum instruction and special education director nice shirt thank you good evening uh so just in a couple of things real quick we did meet all the administrators and reviewed all of our I ready data uh last week we got together as a group they went through uh disaggregating their data for their specific site and then looking at developing their plans and then we shared those plans together between the school sites to kind of glean ideas off of each other and they'll be implementing those plans at their school sites uh this week um the second thing I'd like to talk about that the state over the last few years an assembly bill went through to look at an alternative pathway for special ed students to earn a standard diploma so we are looking at that there were some changes on that from the CDE last week however we met as a group at the center high school today looking at uh an alternative path that we could have not only for our students who we would say are in the SDC type situation before our students in with the intellectual disabilities so they have a pathway that leads to a diploma so in the coming months I'm going to be bringing a uh a policy to you and hopefully you will see that the value as we do that that this is great for kids and we'll be looking at another pathway that leads to a standard performance amazing thank you is there any questions thank you Mr Jordan I appreciate it facilities update by Mr Putnam good evening everyone uh since the weather has slowed down things have gotten a little bit easier for us getting storm damage caught up we're doing that we're working on some upgrades to the baseball stadium the backstop redoing a lot of work there tackling other stuff for the spring Sports coming up moving along nicely with our Rex Fortune build and our CTE project and uh just looking forward to some good weather to help move things along and that is all we have for right now very nice thank you Mr Putnam thank you thank you thank you comments from audience regarding items not on the agenda and right now I will ask for Laura Everett hi Laura I don't think you're next time thank you all right well hello first of all I'd like to thank the board for the opportunity to speak to you all tonight I'm coming on behalf of the Jessup University student government Association I would like to inform you that we are going to be sponsoring a local high school leadership conference on Friday April 14 2023 from 1 pm to 4 pm this is going to be workshop and lecture based it'll be covering the topics of leadership principles effective communication team building and small group dynamics our keynote speakers will include the chair of our Public Policy Department Pete constant senior and our Student Government Association student body president Peter constant Jr it's going to provide a great opportunity for Learning and networking with other local high school leaders we would like to invite all students from McClellan and Center high schools to come if you guys would like to come you can go ahead and email SGA jessup.edu I do have some flyers am I allowed to give these to you guys absolutely okay yeah and I'd go um go ahead and ask me any questions you'd like I'd love to answer any to the best of my abilities and if you guys want to reach out with any other questions afterwards again our email is SGA jessup.edu is that on the documentation you'll be handing out it is yes okay and April 14th right April 14th so it's going to be a Friday from 1 pm to 4 P.M make sure I get one of those for sure then I can also get it to our two high schools so thank you for being here thank you very much thank you very much Kat Brooks from okl PTA somebody right now hello thanks for letting me um allow me to speak um my name is our PTA and we are having our pasta night and bingo fundraiser at Oak Hill Elementary cafeteria on Friday March 3rd and we invite the community and the board members to please come the link for our tickets is on our Facebook page and we would love for the community to come and we thank our Oak Hill Center um it's not okay sorry Center High School seniors for volunteering you guys do a great job thank you Kat uh yes what um I'm sorry uh the third what time it's going to be six o'clock to eight o'clock and tickets on your Facebook page yes we just posted them tonight so we're ready to go awesome Yep and we're going to it's going to be co-sponsored by the antelope Lions Club very nice thank you thank you any questions for Miss Brook thank you moving right along consent agenda do I have a motion to approve the consent agenda as amended so moved thank you do I have a second I'll second thank you Mr Bruno do you have a roll call vote Mr ballen aye uh advisory vote Mr Riley Mason hi trustee Lee hi trustee bat Bruno hi Krusty Anderson aye chair votes hi Miss Pope can I interrupt just I know we just approved some appointments and different things related to Personnel but I did want to take a quick note we did just approve the resignation which is actually the retirement of Mr David Grimes Mr David Grimes has been with the district over 30 years uh some of you in the audience may not realize there was a school that I was actually called Center Elementary Mr Grimes taught at Center Elementary was a teacher at Oak Hill vice principal at Oak Hill principal at Oak Hill and ended up being director of HR and we wish him great happiness and joy as he moves into this next phase of his life [Applause] we thank you for everything you've done and we you're a great time we're all jealous that's okay congratulations Mr Grimes you will be missed okay continuing on to consent agenda number one do I have a motion to bring it to the floor for discussion okay thank you trustee Lee do I have a second I'll second the motion do I have a roll call okay trustee Lee you have the floor um yes there were several Corrections that need to be made um and this has been an ongoing problem uh with accuracy of our meeting uh minutes um and it's just been persistent um this wanting this to present a certain Narrative of what took place and an inaccurate and incomplete Narrative of what took place um I just want to note several changes that need to be made and that I'm requesting be made uh to our agenda notes are our meeting notes from the uh January 18 2023 meeting so first the header on every page is incorrect uh it should State there that uh the date is one slash 18 forward slash 2022 2023 it says now that it was 2022 so that's one thing um where was that she corrected it okay um it's in the packet it's incorrect um and then uh moving on to the actual uh notations of what took place um I just have several highlights uh the first is on page three um where summaries are provided of the public comments from the audience regarding items not on the agenda um first and foremost um only one person's comments are detailed in in detail Angelina Hughes um and then the other public comment that was extensive from a Community member regarding her concerns about Dudley Elementary and the administration Administration there are not accurately captured it just says an anonymous person shared her concerns in regards to her child in our school district and not nearly as much detail that was given by that speaker is recorded in our meeting notes so someone might have a perspective that only one person made substantive comments so that's one thing that I will ask that not only can my constituents and members of the public but our board secretary go back and review the recording of the meeting and accurately capture those comments that were made by the second speaker and give it the same respect that was given to the first Speaker who said opinions that aligned with the board majority and that's why they were captured so effusively um the next one excuse me point of order I think it's really improper to be casting aspersions about the motivations behind this assuming that there was ill intent rather than simply an attempt to summarize that may not agree with the wording that you would like to see um frankly that's just in poor taste attacking somebody yeah thank you for your opinion um the next correction excuse me excuse me he stated a validation and I would like to approve that validation so thank you very much for staying stating that point of order he stated he stayed at a point of order he did and he stated the validation and I approved the validation as president when somebody brings up a point of order there's a validation and the president approves and I just approved it so you can continue thank you thanks so much uh the second thing is business item a and the reporting on that item uh once again it is not purely uh capturing everything that was stated um it's inaccurate and it presents a Mis um it misrepresents what actually took place specifically mm cave and the statements that that parent made and I encourage people again to go back and watch the recording um she stated what problem does this board have with a statement of inclusion and she stated her perception that this was a statement of inclusion and not a disclaimer and that's not captured here in in the online public comments once again and then also regarding Item B um discussion regarding signage displayed on the board's table that same public commenters comments are again misrepresented in the meeting notes because Mr ballen did answer this parent and or this commenter and he stated that this was in relation to my statement of um seated in solidarity in that he had brought this item to the board due to that so the notes need to reflect what actually happened and what folks actually said um the final one is item c um once again where my statements were not captured it just says trustee Lee was given the opportunity to explain her actions I didn't just merely refer the public to my November 2022 statement I elaborated at Lynn about the bullying that I've experienced from this board about all of the things that have happened to me in this board and in this body and that's not captured here and I would like for it to be captured in the note because these are records of what took place and the record needs to be stated and it needs to be full and it needs to fully represent what folks said and I also note um the comments that are attributed to TJ student at CHS are not accurate and the video will show that and finally kamiyah Jackson the student she stated that she thought this was a waste of time because she wanted to hear more about HBC use and that she felt that while people are entitled to their opinions the students were disrespectful towards the trustee member so that's not reflected here and I would really like to see this updated and to accurately reflect what actually took place may I Mrs Pope are you done trustee please yes the minutes is not meant to be verbatim for anybody all it is is a a highlight of what took place during the meeting it's not a total verbatim of anybody thank you trustee Anderson trustee Bruno I was actually going to make a very similar comment if you notice um in regards to business Item B it says there was board discussion the minutes are designed to be a brief summary of what happened it is not intended to be the official record in fact the videos would be the official record it's not intended to be a transcript that being said I don't necessarily have a problem with the suggestions being made except that I would disagree with the statement that this is supposed to capture everything that happened it's supposed to be a brief summary and so thank you Mr Brown thank you I think it's very unfair that she attacked Carol Carol's doing the best she can do anything for me there was no attack on Carol I concur with trustee Bruno and Anderson the uh having attended more meetings than I care to even count uh minutes are nothing more than a snapshot of what took place during that particular meeting the amount of amount of detail is is subject to the organization and personally I think the current minutes accurately reflects the the meaning of which transpired thank you student representative Mr Mason do you have a comment um I agree with Lee I think at least on the packet I have it does seem some are more detailed than others just consistency consistency um I do have a question thank you Mr Riley um trustee Lee did you happen to communicate with a superintendent secretary Mrs hunt in regards to these Corrections you know that's been an ongoing issue too um including this agenda for for today um as it was put out it was put out less than 24 hours before it was made public uh so there wasn't time to communicate anything including Corrections that needed to be made to various agenda items and the ways that they're titled which are again biased misrepresentations um and there wasn't that time provided and I've noted that both times under your leadership trustee uh Pope or president Pope um the agenda has not come out in a timely manner and we simply haven't had time to be able to comment on it before it goes public and that's something that's been very concerning for me as well this one went out to us less than 24 hours before it was published uh onto the um the Board website point of clarification on this agenda was posted Thursday afternoon at approximately what time Carol is sent to the board so so the the agenda is legally required to be posted 72 hours prior to the meeting the agenda was posted Friday right before most recently the board has asked hey can we see the draft prior to there's no legal obligation to do that right this would be the appropriate forum for someone to bring up concerns as as it's being brought up if there's concerns about labeling we we don't send it out it is done in public we cannot do behind the scenes agendas the president works with the staff to create the agenda um there was no Miss intent or mal intent with it right um so Mrs hunt does send the board Wednesdays or Thursdays prior to the Distribution on Friday for review and that was done correct on Friday we get the backup scenario please don't interrupt I'm sorry sorry at 120 so at that time you could have contacted Mrs hunt though I don't know if she could have changed it at that time because it was already posted on Friday correct what I was I'm sorry um there has in the in the past because this has been an ongoing issue of some of us feeling surprised by items that come up on on on our agendas we have began the practice under president Bruno of this going out of our agendas going out for all of us to take a look at along with the meeting notes well before it was going to be um published and so at this time for this agenda it went out Thursday I think in the afternoon and then it was published Friday uh so there wasn't that time that we've had in the past under other presidents leadership and that's been our practice for over a year of getting it out earlier so that we could all take a look and provide input and so that it was more inclusive of all of us um yes I don't understand I'd like to ask for a bit of clarification when I was President wasn't the the draft sent out on Thursday also the draft we try to send it out Wednesday afternoon at the end okay but it did sometimes go into Thursday morning okay so there's no change but I also would like to state that um this was only ever intended to be kind of giving us a heads up not um something that we would then provide feedback on and go back and forth and and make changes to it frankly as latest that is in the process of building the agenda it would be an unrealistic burden to ask Carol to rewrite the whole thing at that point and that was never the intent okay we're going to close discussion do I have a motion to approve business item eight uh meeting minutes for January 18th 2023 do I have a motion to prove motion to approve with the suggested Corrections I would like to make a friendly amendment to that motion I would like to motion that we asked for the corrections to be made and have it brought back at next month's meeting I'll second that motion um do we have a roll call vote trusty Ballard aye um advisory vote and we're doing uh Bruno's is that yes yes that's no thank you okay um trustee Lee hi thank you um trustee Bruno aye trustee Anderson aye chair votes I and just to clarify we will revise the minutes and have them brought back at the max board meeting okay Carol okay business item a flag salute disclaimer do I have a motion to bring it to the floor for discussion point of um clarification uh Madam president this uh topic is named in a misleading way um and I'd like to the clarification about what we're talking about trusty Lee excuse me I'm sorry I'm still making my points excuse me we need to bring it to the floor for discussion before we talk about the disclaimer but I'm talking about the naming of this item in the inappropriateness of it uh trustee Pope and we don't have a flat salute disclaimer we have a flat salute inclusion statement and this point was made by me and others at our previous meeting and so it's very offensive to once again see it called the straw man argument that Mr ballen has set up the flag salute disclaimer it's not a disclaimer it's an inclusion statement and it always has been so we need to call it what it is do I have a motion to the floor to bring the flag salute disclaimer to the board for discussion so moved thank you do I have a second I will second it thank you um in regards to the naming of the flag salute disclaimer we use that terminology last month and there was no objection to it um so in fact there was I objected to it last week so did members of the public about the naming of the item that was not brought up last month I I did so and mention it and I clarified to Mr ballen that it was not a disclaimer as he was presenting it as a straw man argument that he's presented About It by naming a disclaimer and saying a salute doesn't need a disclaimer it actually is quite offensive because it's not a disclaimer it's an inclusion statement and it's about being inclusive of all of our members of our community that's what it always has been it never has been a disclaimer well we'll look it up okay um we talked in length about this item last month and I hope if anybody has anything new to add they can add it at this time trustee Anderson you brought this to the floor would you like to add anything new I don't have anything new um I just feel very strongly that it's insulting I also need to get public comments on is there any public comment on this item I apologize thank you I'm Mr ballen do you have a any new comments on this item um well the only comment I have is based on this conversation this evening I'm sorry is the conversation this evening um just moments ago um as you stated president Pope uh this was called as as it was presented to me many many times as a disclaimer um so I I stand on that because that's that's what was presented to me when I campaigned to the people that expressed um their opinion as to this particular practice and I if you want to call on an exclusion I I don't see where that where that's stated anywhere so I I would have to stand by the fact that this is a disclaimer that people do not have to abide by standing and and saluting and pledging okay thank you student representative Mr Mason do you have any comments um I just feel we should keep the statement that the kids or the public doesn't want to stand they have First Amendment to do so okay trustee Lee do you have any new comments on this item uh my new comments uh remain the same as what I what I stated previously that this is not a disclaimer it is an inclusion statement and um I strongly urge my colleagues to not walk back inclusion um this was a small step that we all made towards greater inclusion in the in this body and the fact that it's um being brought up uh you know twice now that we shouldn't have a statement of inclusion uh around this item is is deeply concerning to me um and uh I hope that uh we'll we'll be aware of that of the fact that it is not a disclaimer about the flag salute it's simply a inclusion statement uh welcoming all to participate in the business of this board in on equal footing or just a point of clarification business item a flake salute disclaimer is actually an actionider action item to determine if the disclaimer is going to be stated and placed on the agenda or removed so to clarify it's either going to be on the agenda one number two would be on the agenda and read as and then three were removed that is what this item is going to be is the action of this item do I have a motion to approve this item I haven't had a chance to speak yet oh yes Mr Bruno I'm sorry that's okay um first of all personally it's a statement under the flag salute business item well not the flight item on the agenda um whether we call it a disclaimer inclusion statement or any other name matters not a lot to me personally however now that I have a better understanding of Mr ballen uh I'm sorry trustee ballon trustee Anderson's point of view on this that I gained the last meeting I've put a lot of thought into this and um different or presidents have different styles and when I was board president I would read when we were doing the comments from the audience I read that little paragraph that was included there and I read this statement and that that was just my personal style um some of it is that I'm uncomfortable speaking publicly and that gave me some comfort um I do definitely believe that we need to have this printed in the agenda um last month trustee Anderson stated that before we started doing this um students almost always stood for the Pledge of Allegiance and now they aren't uh standing as often and to me that indicates that maybe they weren't comfortable remain seated previously and this gives them the Comfort to do that um that being said I I personally think it's a good thing to read it but just like earlier tonight president pope did not read the description of people's rights under um comments from the audience I think we could leap up to the president whether to read it or not depending on their personal style but I definitely believe that we should keep it in printed on the agendas so is that your motion um that's just my opinion um you know what let's make an emotion why not okay can you clarify the motion uh the motion is that we will keep it in writing in the agenda but leave it up to the discretion of the president whether they read it or not just as we do with the comments from the audience very good do you have a second I'll second that motion let's do a roll call vote Krusty ballon advisory vote hi thank you trustee Lane this is a tough one I just don't see the problem with someone stating um making a statement of inclusion and why that's so problematic but I'll go ahead and say I okay I would like to offer a second which is I would like to to motion that we leave the written statement on the agenda but not say it every time we have a meeting that's exactly what trustee wrote it is but he left it up to the president and I think it should be a policy or a standard I don't think the President should have anything any say I think it should be just routine otherwise you get into politics with who's president or I would suggest a political issue there is emotion on the floor and it's been voted by a couple members I think you need to finish that and then if you want I I think it would be hard to go back Midstream and switch the motion so I'd like to cast my vote and I will vote I okay they don't know three to two motion path you passed or did it did yes so so just clarify that means you voted I ever did I okay thank you okay business Item B proposed reoccurring governance calendar do I have a motion to bring this to the floor for a discussion I'll make that motion thank you very much do I have a second all second so thank you trustee label take trustee Leah's a second um and I will start conversation and discussion with this item since I did bring it to the floor I'm looking to develop a more efficient and focused system for agenda development in order to keep our board members on track and in line with the established priorities a comprehensive Board calendar is a great tool to achieve this goal to create an effective Board calendar we should start with identifying the reoccurring items that need to be addressed throughout the year once we have these items established we can start adding other agenda items that align with the board priorities and goals in addition to using the board calendar to stay on track it is also important to communicate with our superintendent's office and cabinet to make sure that their time is being used effectively by identifying which topics they will be presenting at that month and make sure that additional agenda items align with those topics we can ensure that everyone's time is being used effectively overall creating a comprehensive Board calendar is a great way to stay focused on our board priorities and to ensure that our meetings are efficient and effective by using this tool we can keep everyone on track and make sure that our board is making progress towards its goals now including to the board packet there's a backup of a draft that Mr Lair and the cabinet along with Mrs hunt provided for us so if you had a chance to to Gander at that Mr Lair did you have anything additional to say no just just that these are items that routinely do come up and then we have some proposed ones over the last couple years with Panorama our iready getting those on the calendar so then staff is aware and we can prepare to have those but otherwise most of these items on here typically they have to come up at that time lcap comes up at that time but having in one document and then the idea would be is if I'm a Community member I could go to this and then we can start linking the documents to this so once the board covers I'm gonna pick on lcap once we cover lcap we then can do a link to our lcaps so it's one nice place under the board website page that then could could be linked out if there are any supporting materials uh Miss Coronado goes over different times you'll see first interim we can link that to that document so it's just one place that would try to contain and if I I don't know if this is exactly perfect there might be things we realize oh we need to add more or or less but it's the starting point and we can change it every year if we need right um the reason why I also thought this was important is there was one month I think it was October that myself asked Mr Jordan to present um the in the pre or in the next month and then another trustee wanted Mr Jordan to give another report and those are very detailed reports that took a lot of time and I thought well we should just figure out when these are occurring and just create this calendar so we don't have to ask and and have them prepare on such short notice again time efficiency and effectiveness any comments Mr Valen do you have any additional comments oh sorry public comment on this side there's none dude I have no comment thank you uh advisory do you have a comment no comment thank you Mr Bruno I would just like to comment that I think this is a wonderful idea and I wish we had thought of it sooner thank you good job okay thank you do I have a motion to bring this item to the no do I have a motion to approve this item thank you Mrs Anderson do you have a second I'll second thank you roll call vote trustee ballen aye advisory vote Mr Mason aye trustee Anderson or trustee Lee I'm sorry can I uh ask for a point of information um does this still make space for members of the public or other items that aren't outlined in that calendar to be brought forth to the board in a timely manner or will this make it less um easy for a member of the public stay to place an item on the on on on an upcoming agenda um every opportunity to add something to the agenda my whole design thank you Mr Bruno aye thank you trustee and chair votes I thank you motion passes this is item C 2023 csba delegate Assembly Election sub region 6B do I have a motion to bring this to the floor for discussion also move thank you do I have a second I'll second thank you Mr Bruno um Mr Lair do you have anything to say on this uh I I would suggest on this if if the board does not have any delegates that they would wish to nominate I know before we had trustee Kelly was a member and was I would that let it fall to the floor and just table the item um unless there's someone that someone you guys want to vote for then we can record that but these do come up with csba every once in a while and if um the board so wishes we could absolutely take your vote we'll submit it for you but my thought would be is unless you know the folks I don't know if you want to vote blindly does anybody have any nominations no so I would suggest tabling this item okay the item is tabled we will continue now to board item e-board policy 7310 naming of facilities we were on D resolution number 13 2022 resolution to initiate provisional appointment process to fill trustee position due to vacancy do I have a motion to bring it to the floor for discussion so moved do I have a second oh second thank you um Mr Larry did you want to see something uh just just that uh trustee Lee has resigned from her position effective February 28th uh we were notified on February 1st uh the county uh superintendent of schools received that resignation uh this is the first process because of the timing it would fall into a provisional appointment to fulfill the remainder of the term and so this would just kick off that process by saying yes we're going to do this and then additionally we would ask for two of you to be on a member once the window is open for candidates two of you to meet with me uh to certify that the individuals meet the requirements we do not review the Apple applications we just make sure they're they're complete and eligible and then that comes back for a full board consideration at that later time two board members or two public members two two board members would be present so the first item would be seeking uh approval of the resolution and then secondly it would be the um two members I will say one of the things we are working on is is getting this broader and wider I think uh we've had to do a few of these in the past we're trying to extend that window for application there is strict timelines but if we can open that window up and then also we're working with our our marketing and PR consultant to help us get the word out as broadly as we can to hopefully seek more individuals to to come before and and see if they would want to take part in this so a couple different strategies we're going to use will be not only to do our own student body or student population but also uh broader than that into our own Community thank you um will the paperwork be online that they can submit or do they have stopped by the office to pick up the paper we would make sure we could get it either way I think having it as convenient as possible and easily accessible so you can pick it up we can email it to people or or we could set it up so it could be downloaded I could just work with Eugene and Tech or Lauren back there probably help me too awesome okay um Mr Bellin do you have any do you want to go over the requirements so people know I don't have a right in front of me but it there would be the requirements you need to leave live within the district you would also need to be uh basically you need to be able to vote within the district would be the registered voter within the district 18 not convicted felons yeah Mr Bowen do you have any comments or discussion the only thing is uh reference uh the marketing um perhaps uh dedicate a page on this District site outlying um the minimum qualification or the qualifications I should say and how they may go about applying thank you for Mason do you have any comments no comment thank you um trustee Lee do you have a comment on this item yes I do especially since it concerns my resignation and I hope that as I make my comment I'm given the same respect that other board members were given in our January meeting uh particularly when um trustee ballen spoke over seven minutes on one of the agenda topics that were related to me directly so I would like to share the reasons for my resignation so that my constituents and the public know I ask that this be included in the board packet and superintendent Lair declined to include it as an informational item so I would like to share that now because the public has a right to know and they have a right to hear why a board member has resigned excuse me trustee lead this is not actually in regards to your resignation this topic is to be approved for the vacancy and to fill the vacancy only and I and I'm providing information because my resignation was mentioned in the resolution is the first paragraph of it so I would like an opportunity to share my reasons for my resignation since it was declined to include my letter in the board packet and there's also a QR code here that folks can click into and download it but it is directly related to it this this vacancy is open because of my resignation and my constituents and members of the public deserve to know why I am resigning from this board and why there is now a opening on this board I agree with you I have a point of order that I'd like to bring up um I have read the letter of resignation and it contains unsubstantiated accusations about people it does not follow the district's uniform complaint process to uh Levy uh complaints against staff members and uh frankly I consider it to be slanderous and since it was printed libless and this is really not the appropriate place for such accusations not only that but the last two people who resigned because they moved didn't read their letters in front of the public so why are you special um just a second I'm very special and I'll save my comments for my board report where I will read my letter of resignation because the Publishers we are at a point of order right now and so um listening to Mr Bruno's comment I did not think about the Williams complaint so I have to approve your point of order based on that information um and also maybe the policy regarding board conduct additionally if uh this were to be included in a in a board report later I would make the same objection there and I would oppose that objection because it's not related to a Williams complaint it is my letter of resignation so that my constituents know why I've resigned and and the conditions of that resignation it's important for people to know what has taken place here we have enough for public comments as well I just want to point out if it did not contain allegations against other board members from your perspective that's your opinion so Everyone's entitled to an opinion so you can't you can't just say your opinion and say that that's why isn't that exactly what you're doing but I'm not trying to limit your freedom of speech you're trying to limit mine freedom and I think has limits including slams stop stop trusty pill stop what I would suggest is we have an item in front of us yes we do please I have two things that we need one would be the resolution for approval yes we do and second I would like if I could have two members of the board be willing to be on a committee with me to look at the applications upon receipt yes that is the action that will be taken is there any public comment on this item we will go to um we're just going to go for a vote do I have a motion to approve resolution business Item B resolution number 13 slash 2022-23 resolution to initiate provisional appointment process to fill a trustee position due to vacancy Mr ballen I'll I'll second the motion thank you trustee ballen I've I motioned first Carol all right um advisory vote hi Christy Lee I trustee Bruno aye trustee Anderson aye and chair votes I business item D I'm Sorry Miss Pope yes I'm sorry oh yes to volunteers they would be willing to it'll be in Midnight volunteer okay uh Mrs Anderson said she would volunteer and um as board president I would unless unless one of you two would like to um I I unfortunately have too many time commitments at the moment so I will pass you know just to clarify just so we know all it is is receiving them making sure they're complete if there's no other information the board will get all the same information on each each proposed candidate so it's really just certifying to bring back support policy I have no objection to uh volunteering if you would like okay if anyone lets you rap you should at the experienced very good it's not like we're rejecting anybody that's borrowed item e board policy number 73 10 naming up facilities do I have a motion to bring this to the floor for a discussion I will make such a motion thank you do I have a second I'll second thank you um trustee Bruno you brought this to the floor so I have long discussed that I am generally speaking uncomfortable with naming facilities after individuals because sometimes information later comes out about that individual or they are not seen in the same light as they once were however our current board policy really gives us very few options as far as name um another nearby School District recently approved a modification to their board policy and so I brought that forward so that we could look at that and this is a version of the policy that would give us more options as far as naming the facility and I do have more comments to make but I'm just going to get this going very good um Mr ballen do you have any comments is there any public comments on this item there is no public comment trustee ballen well as I had previously um requested for discussion the naming of the new CTE buildings um I have I have no objections to discussion of this Quest um as long as is my belief that falls in line with uh the direction of of this District both past and current um and to ensure that uh that is not too so restrictive that you know that we can't allow for some of the things that we've done in the past that is deemed to be honorable very well um student representative no comment thank you trustee Lee do you have any comments no comment thank you ma'am um Mrs Anderson do you have any comments um apparently we're not going to get into naming the buildings tonight no that's not on the agenda yet yeah but I would like to at least preserve the idea of being able to name them after people who have served this District um well okay there are several that have passed on that should be recognized I think okay I do not have a comment Mr Bruno go ahead so just to clarify the new policy would allow us as presented here would allow us to name it after individuals who have been deceased for one year or more and there's some further details about that geographical area Landmark cultural relevance or historical event Flora and Fauna of significant importance to the region and has some other criteria there however one change that I would like to make from this um unfortunately um it it was recently announced that Dr Rex Fortune after whom our new elementary school is named recently passed away and in the sac B article it mentioned how happy he was seeing the school being named after him to honor the contributions he made to this District um therefore I would actually like to change the part to actually just remove the part where it says who have been deceased for one year or more that's a great idea because frankly I think being able to have done that for him was a good thing and so I wanted to present this as the other District approved it and then proposed to change uh but we could make to it that I think fits our district better so that that is the the uh the change that I would like to see made to the policy that was presented in the packet is I would like to remove the criteria that the individual must have been deceased for one year or more yeah yes Mrs Anderson I was thinking that as if say you wanted to name something after Bill Gates and you waited till he was gone before you did it he wouldn't know that that was being done he wouldn't get the personal satisfaction of it and he wouldn't be able to leave you a whole bunch of money to set his scholarships you know I mean if you really have to stop and think about those things in this day and age that if he knew that he had a school named after him you don't think that he would take care of the students that were going to benefit from that school of course he would he he donates to education constantly but those are the things you're kind of cutting out if you wait until after that person is gone because they never know what happened that's my thought so yes comments on this item we didn't ask for public comments again yeah I did for the naming of facility yes yes oh I did I guess I missed it I didn't hear it yes yes um was there any other comments yeah I actually have some I have some questions because um there there are parts of both that I like and there are parts of that our current policy uh 7310 and the one uh that from my understanding um says it came from the Sacramento City Unified School District so what is the what what is the proposed process for which we would approve a new policy uh as it relates to language the policy this is what this is this is the actual proposed language yeah we're right now it says the Sacramento City Unified School District yeah this is first reading this is an example so what Mr Bruno said is he would like to take this policy and tweak it to our own so we would change of course the naming and then eliminate the item in regards to the um the portion of being deceased for one year and that's what we're doing now that's the process we talk about the policy this is basically the first reading so of course we're not going to use Sac City Unified it would be Center Joint Unified let's see the one thing I'm I have not had it I've read them both and I've looked at them and I didn't know what the process was going to be so I didn't prepare for to present uh I know there's some there's some differences and as I stated earlier there's some things I like in one and don't like in the other and vice versa but as an example in the Sacramento version there is no um Then I then I can then I that I'm seeing here uh as an example um there were some other things but um in our current policy we have markers uh for and plaques for and benches and dedicure and dedicatory items uh uh for students faculty staff board members Etc so um that I don't see that that language in there and I I think that to me should be in there because I like that and I think it's important so that we have a policy that is it does not have any vagueness in it and as and that is specific um so I would like to see that language in there so you're talking about the first paragraph um talking about the first paragraph exactly under comparative commemorative markers and structures um so uh Trust Depot yes sir my intention and I'll I'll admit that I did not make this very clear would be that um the slightly edited version of the Sacramento City Unified policy would replace only the first portion of our um above the commemorative markers so yes I my intention was not to remove that and I did not make that very clear and I apologize for that but this was only to address the naming of the facility so one of the things I I would suggest because if we are going to make a a change on a first reading only I think it needs to be Crystal Clear what I think I'm hearing right now is not no no Clarity I agree I would suggest is that um maybe trusty Bruno if you would mind taking what you're recommending we can help you craft into one policy that then the board could come back and consider sorry something's going on TV Lauren sorry um we could then consider as a whole document instead of sitting here trying to parse it I think people would feel better Community would feel better if they saw exactly what it was that we were approving versus trying to piecemeal it sometimes it's easier if you could say oh we accept this as it is but I I think there's some lack of clarity around it so I I would recommend that we have one document that the board could look at and consider it sounds like you're on a similar page or wavelength so it should be pretty pretty straightforward I I would agree with that um if I may suggest for those that wish to do so take it one step further and any person such as myself who who would like to you know put together what they feel it would be the appropriate policy and submit it and then it can be you know it could be incorporated into that into that draft and I would say too if if let and just hypothetically Mr balance submits something and Mr Bruno you submit something you we can bring back options and look at those and then you could swap things I just with with the way the previous policy was and stuff I just think it'd be for for clarity purposes it could be a good option so that works for me so what I what I would what I'm hearing then is I will put a placeholder to bring this item back I I would look for some crafted suggested language from maybe one maybe two of you we can include those as options in the packet and if if one of those or a combination is meet the board's approval you could approve it at that point that makes sense so do we approve the first reading or if there is no I would not just table I would just I would let it go with the idea that you need to bring this item back okay for further clarification and discussion okay so we'll table this item and tell next board meeting that's good sound good okay very good well there's there's one issue that's associated with that now and it goes back to the last meeting where I brought up uh uh any sir any ceremony any commendative uh action that's going to be taken as it relates to the new CTE building so now we're this is February so now we're going to push this out to March and then it's going to be April and May and we may we may not have the time to have a discussion let alone an action item around the naming of the CTE buildings which is why I asked at the last meaning if we could do this consec concurrently so that um you know we can have it fall online and I think that's what we discussed with the new policy so that we can if we choose to name and what we wouldn't choose to name after uh the new buildings can be done so in a timely manner so the board currently has a policy in place so there is no reason that you we this does not need to be delayed I I would suggest and we've had conversations that was that's contrary to trustee Bruno asked well I'm just but if if an item was proposed brought forward for the naming of the facility we do have a current policy in place that we could follow that you could follow and then you guys could make amendments to that I don't I I think our current policy would allow for the naming of all of facilities of individuals I think the both policies would get at that in my in my mind um so it kind of addresses both both items my feeling on this is where we are in the discussion on this one this would include everything that our current policy does plus more so um the original copy that I submitted did not include everything so but the changes we discussed would so I would be okay with doing it concurrently from this point because I think we're close enough that okay okay that we could fair enough okay um at this moment I would like to take a 10 minute recess if we would please um just 10 minutes and I would like to speak to Mr Lair we call back to order at 7 27.
there's a process for adding books to our library can we get clarification from staff on yes we do have a process it is a 1998 process that currently we are reviewing for the very reason that I think you're bringing up to make sure that we have diversity within our libraries could you when when you or as soon as you come up with something probably within the next month or so maybe you can give a one or two minute account a future meeting yeah we're meeting with the district Librarians say elementary junior high and the high school has each has a librarian we're meeting with them on February 28th to revise the 1998 policy we're looking at other District policies that have them that are more updated than ones we have and we'll be look we'll be bringing something back to the board when that gets revised just out of curiosity does the um does the old policy not allow for I mean how would somebody go about adding a book under that policy yeah it's up to the Librarians right now um cases would be where teachers would make recommendations popular books that would um get kids to read one example was Harry Potter books when when I was a principal at Marsh became very popular so they were implemented into our libraries also we have a lot of our schools use the AR Accelerated Reader and so we use their list also for for books um so usually it's a teacher that comes to the Librarians to see if they want to add books that kids would read so do you for the board about the progress on that policy change yeah probably not until gosh I would say April okay thank you and it would come back to the board because it's a policy okay well um I mean I still would like that book added so I have a couple okay that's the problem okay well I move that we have a discussion I don't know that should need to be a special board item but I guess it does uh because I'm just not hearing the assurances that I want that this book is going to be added to our libraries um I'm sure it would be donated tomorrow if if there was interest but I would like to put this on the agenda for adding this book to our libraries so I'll make that as a motion is there a second the motion fails are there any other requests to agenda as items you asked for a second and there is none that's what I just said I'm asking if there's any other board members who would like to request no okay um all right then we will move on to um adjournment is there a motion to adjourn so I moved we are adjourned
yeah okay there we go Mr tennis uh moves the motion I second all these seconds the board was the board was on a short recess and we'll continue with the regular meeting agenda um the next item is items from the floor so this is an opportunity for public comment on any particular items that were not on the agenda this evening we had no additional speaker cards presented okay thank you and then number 12 is a board member request to agenda as an item are there any board members who would like to make a motion to agenda as an item for a future agenda and just as a reminder this is an item that would be on a feature agenda item and is not on this item or on this agenda therefore we cannot have discussion on this topic I have one um I don't know how you would want to approach this if you would want to approach this but um some people made a reference to a book that to a book that will be considered controversial it
We're going to change the appropriation to general general funds for a million dollars. Um, no increase in fees. Off-site inspections must be at final container drop off location and within 24 hours or in a non-active harbor area at the director's discretion. Contraband will be under the jurisdiction of law enforcement. And we're going to add in language. Any person who tampers with secure container seals shall be sub date to July 1st, 2015. Senator Fukad, I was just mentioning the amendments to the fireworks bill that we heard last week. Yeah. The ones regarding container inspections.
also to clarify complex based Behavior Health Specialists rather than school-based Specialists with Behavior Health Specialists three specified services to States rural schools on page 2 line 16 and page 3 line 7 and 13. number four to request appropriation will be for 861 thousand dollars and also there are Technical and non-substantive Pleasures so for Senate Bill members of other questions Senate Bill 1044 recommendation of the chair is to pass with these amendments recommendation for Senate Bill 1044 passed with Amendment Sheriff Woodside Vice chair of Woodside Senator Clintonville aye Senator Richards Senator Favela all right Vice manager your recognitions adopted thank you and for our 305 PM agenda okay sorry uh yes we're Senate Bill 283 it's also Edition decision making only no public testimony recommendation of the chair for Senate Bill 283 relating to Public Charter School per pupil funding uh the recommendation is to pass as is charitable time okay 283 pass as is cheerful Time by sharehold side Senator Richards with reservations okay Senator Favela hi uh bye in um FYI is one reservation but just about this thank you and for our 306 PM agenda also decision making only is Senate Bill 481 relating to education this is requiring the Board of Education to develop a Hawaiian language medium education kindergarten entry assessment to be administered by the Department of Education beginning with the 26.7 school year requires a state public charter commission to adopt the assessment requires a kindergarten entry assessment be administered within 90 days of a child's admission to kindergarten provided that the child has not received any other kindergarten assessment within the past 180 days recommendation of the chair is to pass with amendments we are repealing section 302a-1165 also we are adding Department shell submit annual report to the legislature to begin with the 2024 session also affecting effective date shall take effect on July 1 3000.
so does that make sense to everybody okay so um I forgot the procedures on how to do this I think I just call a vote and say the vote will be uh whether we will um vote on uh the number of limiting the number of stalls uh that are available for annual vendors or limiting the number of annual vendors is the first vote can't we just do a b or c in terms of options because I think that might be over complicating so because then it would trigger a secondary vote instead of just the overall vote does that make sense it all could work I mean it's just a matter of how we wanted I think we'd say what if we did it this way we could do it too in a different way we could do it we could we could have a b and c we could all vote for just one or we could potentially vote for two and then the one that wins gets the gets the thing so that would be kind of a like a rank Choice yeah like a ranked Choice exactly exactly this is that way we won't get extremes we'll get somewhere in between yeah whatever y'all want to do I just was clarifying for myself like what what do people think in terms of how that do you want to do a just why do all all three of them and we'll have one vote per person or do you want to have you can vote for up to two but not three I say one vote per person it seems blessed but it is simpler it is simpler okay great thank you all very much all right so let's call a vote um I would like and we'll just do uh the positive votes we won't have the negative votes um so um those people in favor of uh the number limiting the number of stalls to 18 please raise your hand I'm seeing three four votes for that all right and then uh limiting the number of Artisans to 12.
like in January of 2013 or 14 we got 31 public advisory opinions just like and we had this massive you know growth of advisory of things so they will issue them when they have great impact okay so if you happen to have violated the ACT what are the punishments what does the SEC authorize to recommend they can recommend a reprimand and a reprimanders is a letter to you that says you shouldn't have done this please do not engage in this conduct again they can issue a requirement you be centered and that requires that the board read at a public meeting the center letter that says you're being punished in by having this read in a public meeting and posted you know um in the district and it's a formal adoption of the resolution of sections they can suspend you they can remove you from a finite period of time 30 days 60 days 90 days they've done that as well and ultimately they have the authority to remove you from the board for the remainder of your term if they so chose choose to do so that has been done as well um again the SEC once they hear a case and make a decision they gets turned over to the commissioner who reviews the decision and then issues a final decision from the commissioner of Education if you wish to appeal that decision by the commissioner it goes to the Appellate Division in the state of New Jersey to an appeal school just a curiosity I said I don't anticipate being removed but you said until the end of your term let's say your term expires when you run again can you read around you can now there was a case where a board member was suspended for a period of time but before that suspension went into effect determined it he re-ran and when he re-ran and he won he was sworn in and then he had to sit for his suspension I could not be as old active board member until he had served his suspension and I believe it was like 90 days is my recollection so they they do have that authority to do that so it can carry over it could carry over to your next turn I mean I think he took a break of three years before he ran again for three years and 30 and 90 days he was sworn in because he was still re-elected by the public you know it's not a criminal perceiving so it's a little different um and I've already covered this you know it's an 18812-33 um again um just to be aware that one in your first year got two in your second year of three in your third year and go four in the first year of any term um even if you're anticipating not continuing your board service please make sure you complete your mandatory training in the year in which it's required because you will lose two set points if you haven't done that and I have fourth members who say well um it's my third year I'm not running for re-election so I'm not going to do it and then they're out of compliance and it shows up with the matter compliance letter for the board and it just generates problems so please please for the sake of your board not for me or maybe not for you it may be like I'm never doing this again you know they said two meetings a month were done quickly no problem they lie um and you may think okay I'm done um please just do it what happens though so yeah if the person that left the board and has a solution that is left on bad terms and this the board is out of compliance is there are other complaints to this individual takes that you have to you have to do it by the end of the calendar year and I believe the number of calls I get around December 31st about how do I register I can't get on please help me get on I'm trying to do this and my answer is we will do every you know we do everything we can because I want you to be able to be anything if you refuse mandatory training and you're out of compliance and you're in the middle of a term we'll get to the new penalties for that because they have now laid out they just passed new regulations for the school effort submission they reviewed them they updated them all of the professional associations including the church's reports weighed in on the potential new regulations and added comments which is typically what we do as an association but also the superintendents did it as how the business administrators did it everyone weighed in on these new regulations and they finally adopted them by the state board and they just went into effect so I really wrote this you know they were proposed but now I apologize no no I I'm it's always a good question you can ask um always keep in mind too that we offer these trainings in a myriad of in a myriad of ways you can take the in person and if you're a brand new board member there's a new board member orientation weekend but 12th um it is a wonderful opportunity there's no cost to the district we have a dead Foundation that helps to underwrite the cost we're finally back in person they can offer the weekends again which is so exciting from our perspective but as new board members it is a wonderful opportunity not only to meet other staff from New Jersey school boards Association learn lots of information but also to network with board members who are also new from all across the state and it's very helpful it gives you greater perspective than you can have by just serving in your District um and that's a benefit of going to a number of different kinds of trainings but the in-person is particularly important we provide what is called live virtual which is sort of a hybrid and then we also have a self-paced online course um I of course no surprise um would encourage you to go in person whenever possible I do understand you all are busy or volunteers but there's no one to ask a question that's like you have a question today you want to ask me right here I can answer it there's no one to ask if you're doing the online self-paced course or there's no one to say you know what you misinterpreted that that's not what happened let me correct that let me help you um and so that's why we're so supportive of the in-person trade is there another in person after March there will be I suspect it in May or June um because of this new 90 day of Regulation around board members the new board members being trained we will have some new folks there are many districts I think less than 12 at this point could have April elections although some boards have moved their elections back from November back to April um there aren't a whole lot of folks that will need it but they're also we only can accommodate 100 Folks at either of our weekends so that's only 200 board members out of the four or 500 roughly in a given year that are elected Accords across the state there are 500 of our pools so you multiply that by three typically sometimes more if there are you know unanticipated vacancies like you had this year um it could be more than that new board members so I'm sure we will be offering other in-person opportunities okay this is closure statements I've already talked about this a little bit 30 days you have from today that you were sworn in to fill yours out the rest of you have until April 30th um you shall should get a notification that comes directly from the state to you fill it out online so it's quick um so you don't have to in the old days we used to have to fill it out by paper two copies two original signatures now you can just do it online and send it off um and it's not terribly open it's a question for you yes many of us are Educators by trade so you Deans do a separate disclosure for the initially working and then if you're required to do one for your District yes you should do one for the district I don't know that the systems shocking shocking isn't it so what is the penalty process someone was asking that a little earlier um if you fail to do your mandatory training within that first year um and you get a just cause letter from the SEC which is what will happen it says you're out of compliance right um and that happens if you take it before the sqc acts on you're out of compliance you're fine nothing will happen except that you will be centered okay if the SEC reaches the decision finding you out of compliance but before the commissioner finalizes the penalty he will only face suspension so they've laid this out there tightening up okay this year in December we had something like 400 folks out of compliance so yeah um if you do nothing they will remove you okay so just just be aware of that you don't want to find yourself in that piece those 400 folks didn't ultimately end up all some of it was they were duplicately entered in two different districts they completed it okay if you want to send receive forward but you have the South Bound Brook so they had done it they filled it out southbound Brook and taken care of it but it didn't register here or vice versa and I'm not picking that you were saying that happens here but that was a lot of it um some of it was Charter School folks they have different deadlines so that was a part of it um and you know the year before we didn't have that many I routinely just called up um every one of the va's that I had on a Friday before December 31st and said let's get it registered let's get them done so that no one's out of complaint again so my question was um how do you know you will get a letter um and if you've taken it and you know you've taken it um if you take it online we sent you an email that says you've completed it so that you're aware that you've completed it and this is for every year not just for the new board member year one year two and year three of your first term one office and then for year four if you run for re-election and win and then you're done but the disclosure statements are everything the disclosure statements are annually required okay it will not take you a great deal of time to fill those out all right here's the actual code of ethics you're required to uphold and enforce all laws regulations in the State Board the court order okay so again you know you're required to support and if you just turn it tonight um when this gentleman took his oath of office right all of the laws and regulations of the state of New Jersey the constitution of New Jersey the Constitution of the United sometimes Board of Education members may not like all of the rules or the regulations or the State Board of Education decisions but you are required to abide by those and you need to know that as publicly elected you're required to make all decisions in the best interest educational interests of all children regardless of who they are okay um regardless of sex gender race ability color religion all of that every child you're responsible for New Jersey's Constitution says You must provide a thorough and efficient education for every child in the state of Interest and finding your board action to policy making planning and appraisal and and Consulting with those people who will be impacted by the policies that are created typically that that consultation is done through your Administration in terms of policies around District items educational pieces and so forth it's not as though we're saying you have to hold a hearing with the public every time you adopt the policy but again you know your job is to see that the district is well run it is not to run the day-to-day operations of the school district your responsibilities lie in the area of policy development ensuring that there's a quality educational curriculum put into place communicating with your community as well as providing monitoring and oversight of things like the budget doing the superintendent's annual evaluation in terms of the monitoring piece you have one employee in the school district the support of Education that's the superintendent superintendent holds all other staff accountable for their performance you hold the superintendent accountable for is in delegating to others and ensuring that the district is well done yeah there is that we will carry out your responsibility with your colleagues to see that the schools are well run but do not run which means you're not making the day-to-day operational decisions um that govern the school district recognizing that Authority arrests from the full Board of Education the Board of Education operates by majority rule um that means that as an individual you have no authority to direct staff to direct students to direct anyone in the school district to act it also means that as an individual board member you don't have the authority to have the superintendent act either only a majority of the full board of education has the authority to direct the superintendent to act um so just keep in mind what that means is if the nine of you all wanted for example a different report that was in depth you wanted a report on the gifted and talented and you wanted a report on the interpretation of the expansion of the preschool program and you wanted to look at the co-curricular program and how many students are participating and what that looks like the superintendent would be doing nothing but pulling around your little red wagons right you're there for all students if a majority of the board decided it was really important to look at what you wanted you would have to make that motion to the board a second would have to be given the board would discuss it in the majority of the board said you know what we need this report we're directing you to do it the superintendent would do that however that being said you have District goals those District goals Drive the work of the school district and every request of the board for things such apart it's separate from those items take time away from focusing around the district goals and make a crowded play even more proudly so just keep in mind about that okay all right here's a big one this is one we're seeing a lot of taking you will take no personal action or make promises or take private action that may compromise the Board of Education we're seeing that a lot in terms of social media um that is fun adjudicated unfortunately you have to refuse to surrender your independent judgment to special interest groups or partisan political groups or to use the school for personal gain or the game of your friends um simply put you're required to be objective you're required to make decisions in the best interests of all students even if you're a parent of a football player or the parents of a magical singer or you know anything you have to make decisions that are in the best interests of all students that means you need to avoid involving yourself with partisan political groups as well separated apart from having a Personal Agenda you know doing what's good for my childhood you have to do what's good for all children and sometimes when you do that it may think well that's not really that great for my child you have to be able to set aside and take off your parent hat at times and say best for all children and it may not be great for my child but on the other hand [Music] in the district who has an obligation to get holding confidential in all matters that it's needless if we're disclosed with needlessly injured perhaps students or staff or the district things that are discussed in executive session are only those items that are laid out as exceptions to the open public meetings law that you can discuss in the tech and they need to be maintained as confidential that means you can't tell your spouse your significant other your child you know maybe you can talk tell your dog or cat they don't talk back my dog knows a lot she can't speak but nonetheless I'm being funny but you really have to remember that but sometimes it can be very difficult sometimes it can be upsetting but at the same time you have to hold confidential students and staff have an absolute right to have their confidentiality maintained unless they themselves or their parents determine to make something public that is a private school matter just seeing that happen in the schools I have ever seen that this book in the school district in the southern part of the state kind of sad so you're required to vote to appoint the best possible Personnel after considering the recommendation of your new school officer you are not required to vote Yes on every Personnel appointment that the superintendent recommends to the board however that being said your educational leader is only going to recruit bring you the very best folks because we know from research right that the quality of instruction is the largest single determinant of student achievement so having the very best that you can have in the classroom only benefits the entire School District at every child you can both know as long contributions are not arbitrary and capricious and you should have a sound rationale for your cannot support a recommendation as a courtesy I always suggest to recommend you that your president know as well as the superintendent you never want a potential staff member sitting in the audience wanting to be appointed it would be embarrassing to you it's embarrassing you have to support and protect School Personnel in the proper performance of their duties you know even if you sat on the sidelines two days ago um to a basketball game and criticize the basketball coach after you've been sworn in a support member you can't do that okay well sometimes that's a really hard thing for board members to understand and curse says the other team's coach yeah okay as long as you don't well that's what you've seen but yes technically you could um but again that's what we mean by supporting School person if you have a question or a concern the words Roland Personnel is pretty Limited in terms of all of your responsibility so if you're hearing something out in the community or you personally know of something that is setting or concerning the best thing you can do is let your superintendent know it goes to the first rule of effective for governance no surprises board does not surprise the superintendent and the superintendent does not surprise you so that is the best thing to do yes so situations like that is at best sometimes I understand the perception of being sometimes uh any singing um I think the importance you are always your child's first and best Advocate always however you need to make it very clear that when you're talking to a staff member it is only about your individual child so it's either your child's teacher or your child's coach um because they know you're a board member okay and sometimes someone might be tempted to say well since you're here and we're talking about little Johnny I just need you to know that you know this room that he's in this room just doesn't work as well as it should I I think you had that happen right and so your response needs to be okay well you know what you need to take that up with your principle that's what I say right because you can't again you can't direct staff and staff knows if they have a chain of command that they can follow to get their concerns addressed you know whether it's the principle I mean depending on the issue you know it's the same thing board members always need to know what that chain of command is and sometimes teachers just are tempted because maybe they put in a work order and they feel like nobody's got back to them and you need to say you know I'm really sorry but the board has nothing to do with the day-to-day operation of the district you need to speak to your parents and direct them back in that direction and then you've got your superintendent knows because the staff notice that that's not an appropriate thing for them to really be doing it but I am not saying in any way I actually when my children were little up I used to send my husband it was it was just it was easier right I didn't have to say I'm here Shannon's Mom I'm here as Britney's mom right yeah I'm not here as an important education number I had one circumstance where a board member and by then they were in high school and we were at um impasse in the ghost associations and in my district you had to make an appointment to the guidance office to speak to the to the teacher and I did that and it was a circumstance was a popular course and I shouldn't say this as an educator but it really matters she was not very good at math and it's development like I didn't pass on a lot of math games to this job she was concerned about College admission and so forth as the teachers had wanted to work to rule which meant they stopped giving extra help and she needed the extra help and the extra credit that was offered prior to them going towards so I wanted to have a conversation the guidance counselves okay well it's been fun thank you very much I left my daughter left my daughter of course wouldn't talk to me for about a week over that but I did what I could which was to let the superintendent knows and then I hired it too it was one of those costs unfortunately it was not professional on behalf of a staff member at all here my daughter to talk about Calculus BC contract well I will tell you it'll almost ever occurred once and it never occurred again but it was infuriating and sometimes it could happen it's very rare which is our professional and they care about you this is with someone who was very young and perhaps thought it was necessary to do that I don't know um I'm really a lovely person you guys know me I'm not terrifying but but at the same time I could appreciate that so it was easier to send my husband churches some people don't have that option right they isn't available to advocate um and there's no one like a mama bear to Advocate as opposed sorry about that um and so you know it happened but anyways moving on um you're required to refer all complaints to the chief School administrator your job is not to invest right you are not investigators if someone comes to you with a concern or complaint you need to let the superintendent know and it will be taken from there you know I've had board members who have filed rep followed buses around um you know checking on bus stops and that kind of thing and coming back and saying you know late that's not your job we're not qualified Administration we do not investigate those kinds of things um are there any questions on any of the um yeah oh okay moving on conflict of interest you should recuse yourself uh again be aware of public perception you're voting to give the soccer association you set the field and you're waiting the cost of a janitorial service to that in the maintenance claim for that and they know you're a soccer parent just don't vote as the queue should be aware of public perception it's not a legal conflict but again just because you can doesn't mean we should um you know you cannot take any kids from favor um anything that would give you financial aid you should avoid um against the the rising line is this that you should not have an advantage that would not accrue to any other person thank you sometimes I'm asked I have a fourth grader the fourth grader to take my field trip could I vote on it is your child is not getting a benefit that is greater than every other fourth grader and that's enough to keep in mind am I being in the benefits here that is greater than any other person relationship definitions um okay they are expanding immediate family members to now include this broader definition spouse civil union partner domestic partner dependent child decided in the state household so what they have done is to expand the definitions around relatives because ethics law is written prior to the writings of the um it's a form of legal definition right it could take childish induction as a relative I'm not going to read all of these folks who are related almost anybody you know primary Personnel I can't hire a relative of a board member or a relatively you have a relative that's already currently employed in the school district I'm a board member of your grandfather vote on any contract with the motion or anything else in terms of collective bargaining this chart is in there again always check with your board attorneys please um [Music] my only considerations the SEC will try to review miles um yep um you're now a public official and animal um it's not to say that you give up all of your first amendment rights to free speech but it is bounded by um expectations these are some of the commissioner decisions again um thank you um right here okay excuse me everybody we have just a couple of more minutes just keep it quiet for a few minutes I'm doing it really quickly I know you're always trust me okay volunteering in school there are certain prohibitions around volunteering in schools if you're a board of education number you mostly have to do get your amount of time to your spending in the district that you cannot direct students or staff and you should not be enough in the building one-time events whether it's food Across America whether it's chaperoning a field trip um all of those kinds of things are permissible but you should not be you know public as always being in the school building who are directing Things They said That's not accept Board of Education remember if you have any questions before an attorney can advise you of that um and let you know you should not be handling District funds either no that's on one on the other hand you could be a PTO office because that was a much earlier decision to be a PTO officer but again I would encourage you not to be handling to observe and witness them but not a place they've also issued separate advice people says we discourage word Learners from doing that so sometimes they sort of come down on both sides of an issue they've also said board members may not participate foreign um social media again you don't give up all of your rights but you need to be mindful when the number of reasonable member the public would presume that what you were writing and speaking on behalf of the board and so they have recommended and we strongly recommend that anything you posted includes this disclaimer's word for word College statements are made in my capacity as a private citizen and not in my capacity these statements are awesome members and solely represent my own personal experience so if you're going to post anything please include this disclaimer because the SEC has said absent depth disclaimer the public can perceived and myself additionally they have said that even if you have this disclaimer and the content of what you post could lead the public to proceed through a preponderance of what we have said that you're discussing for business in a post the disclaimer doesn't cover you and it can still be a potential ethics violation that is an important piece for you all right our content matters because even with that disclaimer violated this um the SEC said the public works variegates in the mission of aborted Edge serve no purpose would be unnecessary hostility and animosity and ultimately have the greatest detrimental impact on the very people have to served institutions so while they acknowledge the sanctity of the First Amendment there are also questions around hosting um so don't tweet about the word business the weather your family your dogs your kids exactly to publicize they're here tonight they will see you conduct history that's where your discussion um not on Facebook Okay um again it doesn't matter what you know what platform you can see wrote a letter to The Courier News this was true when I was a board member the board members used to write a letter between editors same thing is true social media that's pretty much it in a lecture I thank you for your attention I didn't mean to go fast but I don't like people with these students if you have any questions yes we'll see you again soon thank you thank you very much foreign thank you all right you are unmuted and you can okay um thank you everyone for waiting um we were just wrapping up the training over there she saw our annual ethics training we are for those of you with the agenda we are all down to item 1.7 which is President's comments I am not the president but I'm going to make comments anyway because I only get to do it about once a year um first I want to thank everybody for coming there it's amazing to see this many people here we've had empty roads so this is this is great for us please continue to come out and see you know what business you know we're undertaking here because um we are working for you so so we'd like to see as many people here as possible um this is for no particular reason but it Bears saying every single month I want to thank all of our staff and all of our Administration for the wonderful job that you guys are doing um nothing particular has happened other than you guys work hard every single day I think [Applause] so like thank you definitely for that um and last for the board uh this is not as much for the public other than a warning um we got an announcement that the Dodge World Tournament is coming up and I expect a better showing than we had last year we actually have a student member on our borders welcome to join our team he's definitely more athletic than some of us so to all of you who beat us last year which was a lot of you um maybe we'll have a little better showing this year I hope um and that's about all I have for Christmas comments and over to you sir okay good evening everyone you can do better than that good evening everyone I'm very happy to have you here tonight in our February meeting we are so excited to recognize a bunch of students uh our esteemed teachers of the year and colleagues uh well we're happy to have you and we hope tonight we show you the Titan attention and type of recognition that you deserve every day because we really appreciate everything that you do so the agenda says that we would start with our teachers of the year however a teacher of the year stopped me today and said Dr Freeman I think we should start with uh with the people that are the reason we're here and that is the students of the month so I would like to call yes [Music] [Applause] so I'd like to call up doctor that's why I Lemont students of the month yeah good evening congratulations to Emma Perez Emma currently attends Lemont school she's in the pre-k program her teacher is Mrs Kilgore Emma has an older sister named Chloe Emma's favorite thing is her letters and the letter sounds Emma loves to dance she would like to become a teacher when she grows up congratulations Emma [Applause] congratulations to Samantha Valverde currently in kindergarten and Mrs Lewis class Samantha has one sister named Grace Samantha's favorite subject in school is math Samantha likes playing with her friends and helping them she also enjoys drawing doing puzzles and going to school with Samantha grows up she wants to be a doctor a police officer congratulations Samantha thank you um towards this nice picture of it say cheese for the camera and then I thank you congratulations [Music] okay next up we have Lafayette [Music] hello everyone the first student of the month from Lafayette is Dylan Lozano and Dylan's siblings are Jaden and Misa and his favorite subject is Matt I was a math teacher yeah Dylan's favorite hobbies are playing video games and when you grow up you want to be a scientist excellent job [Applause] our next student of the month from Lafayette is Annelise lensich and annelise's teacher is Miss Nelson annalisa's siblings are Houston and Vivian and her favorite subjects are math and writing anneliese's favorite hobbies are gymnastics and karate and when Annelise grows up she wants to be and this is a first for me a contortionist foreign [Music] [Applause] our first student of the month is Julie truce jaylie Cruz is in third grade and in Mrs petrovsky's class Mrs petrovsky says that she really wishes that she could have been here today because she is actually excited that you guys do the other month she has two brothers Gianni and Jaden her favorite school subjects are science because you get to do a lot of activities that's why everybody loves science favorite hobbies are fast soccer and gymnastics and her career plans that daily would like to be either a meteorologist or an actress congratulations Haley foreign [Applause] yes Emily and Isabella his favorite school subject is Jim his hobbies are soccer football and playing outside and well if he's good enough he wants to be a professional soccer player [Applause] Freddie Reyes he is in this mids tennis shoes and Miss Hellman's class he has two sisters one is younger and one is older his favorite stuff is English language arts and he likes to play with his toys like his Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and he also wants to be a professional soccer player when he grows up and win the World Cup pretty Reyes please and then our sixth grade student is farida and she is in Mrs Orsi's and Miss Esposito's class she has two sisters again one's younger and one is older her favorite subject is math she likes to play video games and her favorite game is Roblox and she wants to be a video game designer or a lawyer when she grows up for Rita a week ago thank you and next up on Community School Dr Center hello again I'm only in one school I promise [Music] so our first representative student of the month from the Community Middle School and let me see there it is Omar Flores Omar where are you Miss Ganda and has two older siblings named Oscar and Amelia uh P favorite subject I don't blame you that was mine as well uh and favorite hobbies they're watching movies playing with the dog fluffy PS5 Oculus which I wish I knew that what that was and VR headset there we go and a member of the middle school band which I think is awesome and Omar when grows up wants to be mechanic or scientist a few words just from Miss Ganda Omar was chosen for student of the month due to his leadership in the classroom and that is something to be very proud of is engaged in answering questions helping peers when needed and participates in discussions and always can be counted on to share his views and his answers Omar has shown tremendous progress since the beginning of the school year and is a pleasure to have in class he's a highly participating member and helps his peers each day Omar congratulations [Applause] foreign [Applause] of the month for the Community Middle School is Julian Stella naranjo Julian was recommended by his teacher Mr thine Julian has two siblings Diana and Daniel and his favorite subject is language arts math and gym Julian enjoys reading playing video games and playing with his Shih Tzu I imagine this not here tonight I think I've seen it come to school quite often right and career plans are to be an interior designer or a book illustrator Mr Stein also wrote a couple nice words and said Julian is an incredibly polite student who always tries his best during class he genuinely cares about education and classmates displaying his thorough love for Education through his actions even when struggling Julian does not give up or complain and asks his teachers for assistance he's an exemplary student and serves as a role model to his peers congratulations foreign [Applause] [Laughter] all right good evening I would like to take a moment to congratulate our Crusader citizens of the month uh for those of you that do not know this award is a recognition of students demonstrating positive Crusaders citizenship traits such as responsibility respect kindness Integrity cooperation tolerance and or perseverance our first recipient is Tiffany Brown okay Tiffany has four siblings two older brothers a little brother and a little sister her favorite subject is geometry her favorite hobbies include going out with friends watching Netflix and reading After High School she would like to go to college or university to further her education she's undecided what she would like to do for her [Applause] foreign next recipient could not be with us this evening as well oh Tiffany is here [Applause] okay our next recipient is Jenna Cabral um Jenna has one sister Maria Angelou Cabral her favorite subject is math AP Calculus in particular which gives me anxiety um her favorite hobbies include playing volleyball and she would like to take electrical engineering at a four-year University in the future [Applause] our next recipient Jessica Garcia Jessica has two siblings uh Melissa and Shirley Garcia your favorite subjects are math and English favorite hobbies include cleaning singing bike riding and photography Jessica hopes to become a software engineer hoping to attend MIT and working at Google [Applause] thank you congratulations [Applause] but certainly not least we have our final recipient Carrie napartita uh Kerry has uh one sibling Rosie now partida and his favorite subjects include mathematics and lunch favorite hobbies include reading playing uh badminton and playing video games Harry hopes to further his education in hopes of becoming a psychologist in the future exactly [Applause] because [Applause] we're going to go with our support staff of the month Davis congratulations to Mrs brimage Mrs brimage regularly goes above and beyond to staff students and parents she's always does it with his smile the effort Mrs brimmage puts in to help our families doesn't go unnoticed she helps families navigate The Genesis Parent Portal when needed and is always available to answer questions about lunch the calendar registration Etc she's even taken a course to learn basic Spanish words so she can better communicate with us with our families Mrs brimage always goes out of her way to check in with staff make sure they have everything they need to succeed she assists with arrival dismissal bus Duty Etc she's excellent at multitasking and helps ensure the building is running as smooth as possible this is vermint is a true team player in Array of sunshine we are lucky to have her part of her team congratulations [Music] good morning I think all right next up our educator out of one educational specialist of the one from Lafayette schools this American Landing Madelia [Applause] yes you can be here with us this evening okay at this time we have very special guests those esteemed teachers of the Year from each School around [Music] [Applause] yeah to represent their school as teachers of the year so we will begin with Lamont Annex teacher of the year kindergarten teacher is Christina Perkins [Applause] absolutely congratulations to Mrs Clementine Mrs Pemberton grew up in Bound Brook she attended Somali school and graduated from Brown Brook House High School Mrs Pemberton is currently teaching kindergarten and uses her Dynamic personality to make a massive impact on the students staff and families she interacts with she's always going above and beyond to make sure her students have all of the tools they need to be successful if a student needs a coat or some school supplies Mrs Summerton tested so all of her school resources to provide the needed items she actively collaborates with families to sure they've kept up to date with their child's progress and are informed of what's happening in the class she also has an open door policy so parents can ask questions or schedule meetings regarding their children as needed Mrs Pemberton is a natural leader and a team player at school she plays a key role in helping the kindergarten team put together events such as a Thanksgiving celebration the moving up celebration and more classes inventor to new staff and provides him with support as needed Mrs Pemberton is natural at her job and her passion for early childhood education shines through in her work she's an exceptional and talented teacher and we are very lucky to have her part of our team congratulations foreign [Music] [Applause] questions and next up our educational suspectives of the Year from the line and it's this Christian Martinez [Applause] Martinez as a speech therapist Mrs Martinez takes a very Hands-On collaborative approach to her work and level of care Mrs Martinez goes above and beyond to assist the needs of its students and communicates effectively with students staff and families to ensure the best possible outcomes this is Martinez uses her years of expertise in the field to access assess students needs and create structure plans for families and staff to implement she regularly attends meetings and provides suggestions to help students going as far as breaking down the therapy she provides to students to help staff and parents understand the process she works closely with our party so that the therapy she provides her carry over to the student's classroom or home she also sends home daily communication logs so the parents are aware what skills their child is working on in therapy Mrs Martinez Mrs Martinez is a true team player Bianca role is a speech therapist she's always going to house with any tasks needed in the building we are lucky to have her as part of our team congratulations thank you [Applause] coming up [Music] over the course of our 23 years in education Mrs Amy zarama has not only shaped the lives of the children she encounters on a daily basis but has created a learning environment where her students can flourish while having a sense of belonging a bunch of Elementary education with a specific emphasis on language acquisition has allowed her to support her students in a way that ensures they are afforded the best opportunities to master skills necessary to be successful individuals both inside and outside the classroom Mrs arama's support and understanding of her families who are new to this country is a key component to the relationships we build to aim at our community Mrs arama has served as a mentor to many new teachers providing the absolute best support as they navigate their new role in education passing on her strong belief in supporting her students and families by any means necessary this is seen by her peers as she was stated in a narrative given by a fellow employee who nominated Mrs zarama for governor educator of the Year quote she not only creates strong relationships with her students but she's consistently advocating for their needs Mrs arama continues to build strong relationships with families of her students to better support their needs Mrs Rama congratulations [Music] next up from Smalling school we have Mrs Maryland [Applause] has been a teaching Bound Brook School District for over 10 years but we were always supposed to be together we were always supposed to work together because Mrs Mallard actually worked at my elementary school and I missed having her as my third grade teacher that she was on maternity leave so we were always destined to work together but I am so thankful to have you at Smalley school she has started in the district as an academic support instruction teacher or an ASI teacher in the fifth grade at Lafayette school and it's currently part of the sixth grade as an ASI teacher at Smalley School Mrs Mallard primarily works with helping students become better readers during her 10 years in Bound Brook this development actively been a member of a number of school committees including the k-6 curriculum committee school-wide Title One committee and language arts Review Committee she has worked with student teachers Mentor teachers new to the district and has been an instructor for both our extended learning academy and our summer school programs Mrs Mallon has developed curriculum and works with the Middle Earth program after school and during the summer she has said that each day she hope she can positively influence her students to become better readers and love learning she's able to do what she loves everything with the love and support of her colleagues the ASI team the sixth grade team members of Smalley staff and her wonderful family Mike Richard Jacqueline and Alexandra congratulations [Applause] hello and from our Community Middle School [Music] [Applause] so ladies and gentlemen I'm going to let you in on a little something from this week at our principal's meeting my colleagues were quick to point out how I could be long-winded at times no no so I've cut this down about 25 minutes so everyone the community the Community Middle School is proud to recognize seventh grade social studies teacher Mr Andy Heiser as it's 22.
thank you do I have a motion to bring item business item F first reading of policies regulations and Exhibits to the floor for discussion I will make that solution thank you trustee Lee thank you um Mr President can um I would lie to pull one so would this be the appropriate time yes I would like to pull uh board policy uh campus campus security Lauren can you hear me okay I just um I would is it the board policy the regulation no just well just the board policy because I believe um unless we want to pull the associated regulator I I don't think we could pull the associated regulation because that's not not us that's that's the uh that's the uh County right I think there's two things there's the board policy which outlines kind of the general overview and then admin regs is the same so those are those are our policies okay cannot change you're right we cannot change the regulations associated with it but as far as our ad so there's um you know uh in fact I I've not had a chance to review all the material but within the agenda I'm not sure if it's a misprint or as as an example um 2022 um is stipulated to both as an assembly Bill and a Senate bill I think it's uh I I don't believe that would that having the same numerical assembly bill number associated at this within the same time frame I I I've never seen that happen I I do legislation at times so I'd like to review the the these laws as a as it relates to um some of the the things that I've been talking about and learned recently at the security security Symposium that we attended the district attended in uh end of December I believe it was in San Mateo okay so you want to pull policy just I think just for the board policy 3515 is adequate okay um can we do that Scott can we pull it and bring it back yeah it's just for clarification so when you see the 2022 after that's just the year that that Paul that Senate bill or that assembly bill came forward so it's like a senate field 906-2022 oh okay it's referencing the year of it but but here here is what I would suggest sorry I was researching that at the same time is if if this is just the first reading if if the board wants to make uh any adjustments we could certainly do that so it would give you a whole other month and then what I would ask is just for our purposes if you would get any recommendations to us and then we can flag this policy when we come back I can separate it out of the batch so that way when you look at it you'll recognize it's not just in there and you guys could have a approve the rest if that's your your choice and then you can look at that just like you would with the um consent the well no just like you would with the um naming positions okay okay is there any others are there a point of clarification are we discussing the first readings of all the policies yet or where are we at um in this in business item now yes we are we're just going actually we're we're bringing it to the floor bringing it to the floor we're not discussing it just yet okay yes because because uh trustee Lee said that uh she wanted to bring it to the floor uh trustee ballen said that he would like to make essentially a friendly amendment to that by pulling 35-15 and then we never did we ever get a second on bringing well I can go ahead I can go ahead I can go ahead and withdraw no no you're good you're good we had a second not to hit quite all right but transfer done this item and I see none and yes we are in discussion now miss trustee Lee okay um I didn't know if the other um policy was we were finished with that one but I I have um some questions and comments about multiple items that are on this agenda um board policy 41 18 41 19.1 and so forth 42 18 in administrative regulation 41 18.
Members, any discussion on the suggested amendments? If not, Senator Elephant, I vote yes. Okay. Chair's recommendation is to pass SB 498 with amendments. Chair votes I. Vice Chair votes I. Senator Fukunaga. I. Senator McKelie is excused. Senator Owen, no. Mr. Chair, the measure passes with amendments. We're going to this public hearing and Thank you for your patience. We're convening the joint committees on public safety, intergovernmental and military affairs and our good friends from the committee on higher education. We are currently in room 225. It's about 3:00 on this February 15th. We have three items on this joint agenda. The first being Senate Bill 710 relating to incarcerated women. First on our testifier's list is Tommy Johnson from Department of Public Safety. Uh hello chair, vice chair, committee members. Um Mr. Johnson apologizes he couldn't be here today. A family matter he tend to. Um Michael Hoffman um the acting deputy director for corrections at this time.
and for Technical and non-substantive amendments did I get them off okay so again recommendation of the chair is to pass Senate Bill 481 with these amendments turbo designs [Music] Senator Richards all right Senator Favela aye bye guys [Music] just a note that this measure will have to go public hearings yes that's correct it does go too it always means okay members for foreign so okay for the next item on the agenda is Senate bill one two four recess [Music]
please raise your hand or say I sorry I that would be my vote okay and then um I think there are no votes for raising the number of Artisans to 13. yep all right the eight teams have it a four to one um majority great um so Stephanie this language will need to go to to um through all the channels again send it along all right well thank you congratulations we finished another item on our checklist after many months I know it took a long time but it was good to have the conversations about it too definitely definitely needed for sure all right so the next item under the rule updates is uh the bylaws updates yes and I wasn't sure I know the last time the homework had been that Peter had given you his notes asked for folks to look back over the bylaws I'm not sure um we'll head add an opportunity to do that or not or how you wanted to take it I just figured it needed to be an agenda item um yeah I appreciate yeah let's let's keep it going with that and I think that's the way I just wanted to check into with people to see if people did have a chance to read through it and if there are any additional comments or things that you saw that might be worth further exploration or things that you saw that might be problematic or thoughts that you had that if you if you had them I know that Lisa sent me some other Notes too that so but if the rest of you guys have any other comments speak or let me know and then I can incorporate those in yeah and the the email that I sent to me Peter about 15 minutes before the meeting was I just found the bylaws update for the park advisory commission and so thought it would be easy for us to take some language from that to help update um the pmac bylaws yeah into that super helpful because that was in 2019 and so it's fairly recent and it also reflects some of the kind of changing landscape of how these things are operating and how they go um with that so I'll look through that I haven't had a chance to go through it much I haven't had much time um but I'll get that uh look through the other thing too that the the kind of from my read of this and just kind of thinking through it the really the two things that are that seem like worth digging into which I'll start digging into is the annual disclosure of conflicts of interests that's in there it makes sense it's a good thing to do um and in fact the pack thing had a slight modification to it of making sure that they're relevant conflicts of interest or relevant outside interests it's not anything it might be a conflict um but so developing a procedure for how that is and digging through the other committees and seeing what they do um and so figuring out how we can Implement that so that's that's one of the things that I've got that on on my list the other one is really working out the mechanics of these non-voting working meetings um that there are that that's that is kind of an important function of this body that could be and there are certain things that we might want to take on and just I think just having that in our lexicon in our toolkit is better than we do right now um so trying to get some procedure around that and it's it's in the bylaws so it's in there it's more that it's just part that we don't use very much um so making sure that we get some clarity on that and if it does I don't know that it will necessarily require a modification to the bylaw but it's more of a clarification or again this kind of handbook so I'm going to track down with other other committees and see kind of what some best practices are and then I can report back and see if there's some way I can we can get us jump started in doing that yeah the Parks Commission may have uh some good things on that because they have some standing committees instead of just the um special committees or ad hoc committees exactly I think they have one for the skate park and so that's and so that's a nice little mini example of how those operates I think that's a good template to kind of expand off of them for us too so thank you that's super helpful yeah the conflicts of interest there I was just looking at the application and it is there's a statement on the application to say if you have any conflicts as you're applying for a position on the commission too so and maybe it is just that simple in terms of we have that just making sure we have a mechanism of what the form is who sends it out who receives it what do we do with it because if someone reports a conflict then we should know who should know is it that just the market manager knows that we all know is it that I you know I'm not sure right it seems it could make sense in both cases um so uh getting kind of getting that a little bit more clarified for how that works and then Stephanie do you have any idea on the city website how they determine um the start and end of of people's terms because they're so variable on the website I think it's just based off of the bylaws right that there has to be sort of the Staggering and I think it's on registrar that there's a record where it has everyone's yeah so I'm not sure that the public can actually view that that's something that I can see when I'm logged in I'm not sure that's something that's publicly available or if it is I just don't know where to to find that yeah I'll send you a follow-up email because my reading of the bylaws was our our positions were supposed to be three years and then it says something about the initial start of the commission there'd be the one two and three years but that was only I think my reading was that was only when the commission was starting to stagger right but then there's also the complication of people leaving early so the short terms that people have to finish out that full three year and then that three year starts again so but yes and I agree I saw that in the uh packed stuff too that they took out a lot of the language that was there kind of for startup of it like it shall be established when it's established they'll have staggered terms and things like that but once it's been going it is it you know because if we as people move out and we point you in we don't so that that might be another point of update too to kind of make it for an operating committee versus a starting committee yeah and the other question there too is there's no term limits right it the way that it's currently written you could sort of be here in an infinite amount of time and I don't know if that's something that you all want to have because that of course constrains the ability for certain people um to participate if they would want to um of course people can step down whenever they want but in terms of getting new people in that's that's something to think about yeah I would definitely be in favor of term limits um I think yeah I think it's good to give chance for the council to rotate and for other people to also have chances to serve um so I would definitely be a beaver something like that great I think those are all good things that we can we can discuss all right uh great so the next um item on the agenda is the producer only subcommittee yes and there's a question mark there because I wasn't sure um what this current status is um I well we have an agenda um so that's step one and pretty much it's pretty simple I don't feel like it Dives too deep into any one thing it's more just to get a sense of like what are people's major concerns um and like how do we want to Define producer only um and then like how do we feel about uh the definition of producer only and then also how do we feel about our current inspection process um and are there some things that can be done to improve that as well um but that's about as far as it dives into the issue I didn't want to um you know have the meeting go too long or get too into the weeds and so um I think that you know next step is putting a call out um and just setting a time to hopefully have a zoom conversation um for anyone who would want to participate in that um to get the recommendations great thank you very much Stephanie and I'm assuming you probably want to have this meeting before everybody gets knee-deep into the planting season uh yeah I think maybe those who are planning to be on it like myself Jeff um and Stephanie and Alex and if any of you as well want to participate um we can email and figure out a time that we're all available um and then just post it publicly um one and hopefully yes this spring within the next month or so is what I was thinking yeah that sounds great and I just wanted to point out that concurrently we're also investigating and looking into our inspection process um and how it's being done and the current sort of short term is that means Alex is going to get a lot more very local folks it's also going to get a lot more greenhouses and produce Farms which he has a lot of personal experience with so we're hoping um that will help to address some of the prior concerns as well as we move into this process of the subcommittee great anything else on the the sort of general rules update category or should we move on to new business nanogen items okay so the only thing that I wanted to mention is um once again asking for the possibility of of um somebody from city parks uh Josh landefeld or possibly Hillary um to come talk to us to to think about how we we move forward on the infrastructure project on the winterization project since they had mentioned it at a pack meeting about the possibility of coming yes I had reached out a couple months back I have not heard back yet I might need to Circle back now that you know holiday times are no longer occurring um I will also be presenting about the market to pack in May um so if there's anything people want to share from this commission to that commission let me know it should be I believe it's May 16th uh is the meeting for that and what were you planning on presenting Stephanie I'm not sure asked me to present about the market um as it gets closer I'm sure there'll be more information forthcoming about what the format could look like um but he's wanting all parks facilities to present to them okay um I notified Stephanie this I think is going to be my last um meeting uh serving on pmac um so going to open it up for another a daily vendor to be able to come and advise on the commission so if everyone wants to spread the word um you know find someone else who is going to dig a job of um talking about advising the market that would be great so yeah it's been really good serving on the commission I just need to focus on the season and the two little kiddos now instead of one um things are just getting a little busy so um yeah thank you all by the way thank you yeah it's been great to have your your perspective absolutely and luckily you're not going far you're just going to be at Market so if anyone wants to yeah I will be around but yes we'll miss you I know uh Dean cell did express interest um in the position he I did share with him the application beyond that it was just he was there at Bruce upston's Funeral so I happened to mention it because I had heard through the grapevine who was interested but yes please reach out to any daily status vendors if you're not sure who was a daily vendor um I could share that list as well or anyone listening out there as long for the work all right so the next um the last item I guess is uh the second public comment all right are there any members of the public that would like to comment if so please virtually raise your hand I'm not seeing any hands we'll give it maybe 20 more seconds in case there's a lag there it is see I knew I knew I had to wait just a slight bit more all right go ahead Charlie hello hi it's me again um the reason why I'm comment um I was asked to bring a concern from at least one of the vendors Debbie marks that she would like to start seeing some in-person meetings because she can't participate when they are on Zoom um so as as you're looking at maybe defining producer only that might be a time to have a public hearing or something at least one meeting where people who feel like they can't participate otherwise could come just a suggestion all right and just to clarify it's not my or our call um that the meetings are virtual that is actually the city's tall but I hear you okay yeah and I'm I'm just thinking like a special committee meeting or whatever um I find it strange that in this you know at this time that they're still mandating that um so if we need to take the concern to wherever else it would be received or um let us know um do we know if special committee meetings also have to be is that required to be online as well or are those it doesn't matter I don't think it matters but I think the only catch is like it can't be in city council chambers because they're really having very limited Staffing and that's partly why they're limiting which commissions can be in there specifically just the vital ones like city council but the vast majority of commissions that are like us like the green belt for example has been virtual um this whole time as well so if we wanted to like do um a zoom meeting and also holds a possibility for like in-person comments for that discussion we could do both of those yeah I believe so okay I believe so as long as you know it's a location that is not in city council chambers okay as far as I know and Peter corrected me if I'm wrong I seem to remember that there has to be some short-term public notice or something like that maybe um there is yeah and within the bylaws I think it's it's actually really short it's like 24 or 48 hours I think is what the notice for it is and we'd be better off doing substantially more than that but I think that's the bare minimum foreign if it's just a working meeting versus a voting thinking so that's something also to keep in mind all right is that all you had for us Carlene at this time yes that's what I had for now so I guess you know anything that could be done to calm the troops um to you know try to help out wherever where possible would be appreciated sure yep all right Carlene all right so I think that was the last item on the agenda right okay it is um so I guess we will adjourn the meeting it is now 6 14.
thank you for years Mr Heiser has been inspiring students capturing their imagination engaging their minds and challenging their intellect most students leave middle school with stories about their favorite teacher and at the center of their experience is the notion about how much Mr Heiser cares about them as individuals over the years Mr Heiser has coached High School football and basketball chaperone the seventh grade trip the Rutgers day trip the rvcc Holocaust trip the eighth grade trip to Washington DC and many others he's worked on multiple building-based initiatives I probably added you to something today initiatives and basically anything that comes to the table including serving as a mentor each year for new teachers in the district Mr Heiser is the heart and soul of the middle school and is an excellent role model for all in the teaching profession thank you yeah okay congratulations [Music] [Applause] y'all kind of stole my uh stick here because uh you know like a long version and the bridge version so I'm going to make a comment about you know how I feel about Mr casperson as a professional and a friend um there's not enough words for me to even describe it but I'll do my best in a short little paragraph of a role model and an advocate of children is a rapturous love for America and its ideals and an infectious enthusiasm for teaching social studies he effectively engages students by treating teaching and learning as a collaborative process by showing his students that their thoughts and opinions are valued he is fully committed to creating a learning environment that is safe and secure cultivated by a culture of trust and collaboration essentially Mr casperson demonstrates High ethical standards which is apparent through his relationships within the school community due to his hard-working nature and flexible attitude he makes Bound Brook High School a more effective and efficient environment to work learn and grow his dedication and passion in making Bound Brook High School a better place has been commendable in conjunction with his work ethic and professionalism moreover Mr casperson enthusiastically contributes to extracurricular activities and demonstrates leadership in these activities as well for example his role as the assistant boys soccer coach and spring track coach co-advisor of the National Honor Society facilitator of the summer college readiness now program and an avid elective teacher all of which are important components of the entire educational program since they are necessary for successful learning outside of the classroom and are as are as the same as other learning experiences please join me congratulating Mr casperson for being named the recipient of the Bound Brook High School teacher of the year award a recognition that he is most deserving [Applause] thank you okay all of our teachers of the year one last round [Applause] okay we can have all of the teachers up in here come on stage they're going to do a big shot on stage I see some faces that you don't want to come but tonight you have no choice you might be recognize thank you okay foreign yeah there's a lot of pictures in these meetings foreign [Applause] okay where are we looking I'm gonna do with my hands all right okay I'm good all right congratulations [Applause] foreign together um [Music] thank you my son take your time [Music] bro [Applause] there you go do whatever [Laughter] foreign notifications thank you foreign thank you all right you're unmuted okay we're gonna get back to the meeting with a presentation for Mr Mormon when you're ready sir board members didn't see from there yes welcome to come down if you can this is also on your agenda if you want to look there there's a digital copy so I'm only gonna highlight about uh about five or so slides um you guys have this presentation we'll also put it on the um on the website tomorrow for for you to look for you to look at um this presentation is on our results from the start strong Administration which was in October of 2022.
I'm just curious about who is placing this on our agenda I understand that Kennedy versus bremenson school district is something it was a Supreme Court decision that was highly celebrated by the far right conservative Christians in our nation but it wasn't something that was celebrated by everyone especially those of us who work towards greater inclusion especially around religion um and and dominance of certain religions and and the establishment pause and respect for that um so I'm just curious why that Court decision is mentioned so many times in each of those items when it has nothing to do with the proposed um uh updates to the policy um we're not talking about our hiring practices we're talking about freedom of speech in these proposed updates there are already freedom of speech policies and I just wonder and I have deep concern uh that perhaps you know um I hope this isn't the case but the reason why Kennedy versus Bremerton School District has mentioned so many times uh maybe that someone has designs to bring prayer into the school board meetings are something of that nature um and I'm just deeply concerned about that I don't understand why that Supreme Court decision is referenced so many times and what is the intention of that yeah so uh the the batch of policies comes from the csba the language that is used from there they perform uh sample policies for boards to consider when new laws new regulations new mandates come out this is just referencing that Court decision that then would um make that recommendation to us as a board so this recommendation this wording came from California School Board Association the same group that continually provides our our policy maintenance program so just to expand on that um my take on this is mentioning that Court decision is similar to mentioning the new laws in other uh policies it just gives the basis for why the revision is being suggested because of a change in the legal climate just not I'm not I guess maybe the question is how is it different how are these suggested updates any different than the protections on freedom of speech and press that are currently in place and and how is uh the Kennedy versus Bremerton School District decision being conflated with these other issues that we're updating our policy to State I I truly don't understand that maintenance so I could I can get a reference from from legal and okay so do you have marked all the items that she was well the policies that she had was referring to each policy that referenced in the synopsis there that referenced in the Bremerton case so we can reference this to see why we can reach the csba first and then block the legal counsel as well okay thank you trustee Lee is there any other discussion Mr Bruno do you have any discussion no no um Mr Mason do you have any discussion on no okay I do not have any discussion so I'm asking to approve the consented or excuse me uh business item F first reading policies procedures and Exhibits eliminating and pulling the item Mr ballen had policy 3515 and the ones that Dr Lee has requested to pull I don't have all of them we need to make sure that we reference those and pull them into the final thing so so they would be pulled for separate explanation okay and then we we would then give more explanation and then we can bring back with either this the next batch or or however okay so do I have a motion to approve as amended um just to clarify when you say to approve that's just the first reading and it is not actually changing the policy at this time correct okay thank you I'll make the motion thank you do I have a second oh second thank you roll call vote Mr ballen aye advisory vote uh thank you trustee Lee hi thank you Mr ballen or Mr Bruno aye and chair votesai and Mrs Anderson was absent at that time we were just going over the policies we will now move to as I find my place business item G resolution number 15 2022-23 resolution for emergency Declaration of approval of contract award without competitive bidding do I have a motion to bring this to the floor for discussion ISO move thank you do I have a second I'll second thank you uh Mr Lair would you like to give a discussion so we typically do not use this or request this emergency declaration this uh has come into play in my time maybe twice what it does is allows for some of the competitive bidding regulations to be waived because of the sense of emergency uh we did it one time when our gymnasium was flooded it's a classroom space this would be worked to to address the theater flooding our our intent would be to get that up and running we have a play coming up we have ceremonies that are are in that facility and so at this time we would seek the board's approval to grant that emergency Authority so we can move forward with with getting a Contractor on board it would save us almost two months of time so we can then do that again this is not something we typically ask secondarily to that we this is all in in coordination with our insurance carrier who is also um will be paying the bills so they understand what we're doing and have worked with the company we will be looking for very good um Mr Bellin do you have any discussion uh public comments I do not have a comment on this item thank you no comment Mr no comment student representative Jesse do you have any comment no comment thank you Mr Bruno um actually I would like to clarify a couple uh points here first of all um because this is something covered by insurance whether we were able to find a lower estimate or not um would not affect the amount that we as a district pay is that correct that is correct we have our deductible and that would be the the amount that we pay okay and um the insurance carriers schools Insurance Authority they're comfortable going with this we've coordinated with them and they actually have them work with the the provider that we're looking to seek approval in the next item um and so yes okay and if we didn't uh approve this how long would that um what would be your estimate of how long that would delay the process it would be six to eight weeks just from the from the bidding process and then depending on how our board meetings fall it could push it to a further time thank you that's all okay Mrs Anderson do you have any discussion on this item I do not thank you um do I have a motion to approve business item G resolution number 15 20 22 23.
Um, for the sake of brevity, we'll stand on our testimony. However, we're here and if you have any questions, I have brought also our theme on education. Thank you, Mr. H. You're welcome. Candace Park from the Attorney General's office. time members of the committees just want to point out that um oh we made corrections uh we recommended corrections to the appropriation language and also if the bill is intended to authorize the university to administer grants then the you would need to include standards for those grants. Thank you Helen SE from can be ca a principal committee school for adults. We stand on our testimony as submitted and are available for questions if you have thanks for joining us. So um um Kamo Hali from the Winward Community College Sorry, your first name has 25 letters. I didn't want to butcher it. Welcome. 27. It's okay, good.
foreign strong assessment is uh this is the best live um it produce information um that eventually will be used by our teachers in the classrooms to to evaluate each student they were administered quickly some as short as 45 minutes and provide immediate results uh but be careful not to compare start strong to the njsla because they measured different things okay the main item on this slide says that the start strong um reports on prior year uh academic standards okay so the start strong in October tests on the year of pride thank you as I said um 45 to 60 minutes okay the next four slides just demonstrate that that each specific start strong assessment measures prior year standards in all areas Ela math and science again the state wants us to warn against comparing start strong with njsla data they're two different assets nor are the start Strong's predictors of performance on the njso okay start strong provides data points in these areas District level curriculum planning and revisiting prerequisite Concepts and skills evaluating scoped sequence providing professional learning supports and using each student's individual student reports for conversations between parents and Educators on where the child may need support in the upcoming school year start from uh assessment is one part of a portfolio of data which should which should be used to analyze student performance okay and that takes us to bound Brooks results so in ela we tested grades four through ten uh unlike the the results from the njsla and even the NJ GPA which were much more uh concise and specific start strong just has three areas um more support needed some support needed and less support needed so the students who perform the best fell into the less support category on down to more support me to those those students need the most report most support so here in ela the great that performed the best according to this is ours is our grade six who had the highest percentage of less support needed moving on to math [Music] so math is a little different when you get to the high school there's no great uh assessment for math it's broken down by you offer algebra geometry and algebra two foreign so the area where the where the where the the best area of less support needed actually was at the high school in geometry only three grades test in science and start strong grade 6 9 and 12.
I so move thank you do I have a second I will second thank you roll call vote Mr ballen aye advisory vote Mr Mason aye trustee Lee all right thank you trustee Bruno aye trustee Anderson aye chair of outside business item G agreement between Center Joint Unified School District and restoration management company do I have a motion to bring it to the floor for discussion I'll move thank you do I have a second oh second thank you um Mr Lair I I kind of took the Thunder out of my second one but this this is the company we would recommend that we would utilize we've consulted with our consultant CPM we've looked at um talked to our insurance carrier and we feel this would be the best approach they also did the remediation so they're very familiar with the work that needs to be done so for we'll be in good shape with them thank you Mr ballen do you have any discussion I do not student representative Mr Mason do you have any discussion um I just had a question are we just replacing it or are we improving what we existed we had in insurance will allow us to to put it back to the same step same state so obviously I think it's almost 15 maybe 20 years old so obviously things will be newer uh so newer but not we're not improving it because it's not allowed through the insurance is there any public comment I hear no public comment thank you trustee Lee do you have any discussion no comment thank you Mr Bruno no comment okay Mrs Anderson and I have no comment do I have a motion to approve business item h uh also move thank you do I have a second oh second thank you roll call vote Mr ballen aye um advisory about Mr Mason aye trustee Lee fine thank you trustee Bruno aye trustee Anderson aye chair of outside student board reports I'm Riley Mason so in the past month Mr Mason thank you in the past month we've had a lot going on uh we had our girls and boys basketball senior night as well as our wrestling our dance team um and then our girls and boys soccer senior night um and then we're introducing speaking of sports we're introducing a brand new team we have boys uh volleyball coming to the spring coached by Miss cadero um on the second we had our Lunar New Year celebration as we welcome in the year of the rabbit uh boys soccer went to playoffs uh yesterday won in a close game in overtime uh and the next gay game is tomorrow at Weston Ranch this week we have our spirit week Tuesday we had wear red or pink for Valentine's Day as well as heart health awareness today we had dresses of your type tomorrow we have zoom IRL and then Friday we have where white or glow in the dark clothes for our glow in blacklight rally we have next Monday off as the rest of the district does um on the 23rd we have our CHS talent show hosted by the class of 25.
I'm glad I did try to welcome. Um, sorry, it's my first time. I'm super nervous. Um, so chair, um, vice chancellor, chair, and members of the committee. As a representative of women community college and trio student support services at WCC, we actively support um SB710. You folks have my written statement, but I would just like to speak from my heart right now. As a former incarcerated woman at Women's Community Correctional Center, I did not have a chance to have tutors or anyone to help me with my GED. I did it all on my own and it was very hard. um with this program that they have now. I understand they were able to help a lot of women. I was the only one that graduated in year 2019 and they had 20 women graduate prior. So I truly submit this bill to help the women in there like myself to come out and continue um your educational career.
and there are the results as I mentioned start strong the state didn't give us nearly as much data as the previous two presentations these are the subgroups for ELA as compared to District totals math and then finally in science okay this takes us to our strategies for intervention what are we doing to help our students across the district in each subject area tested Math Science and Ela our supervisors administrators and teachers are reviewing the results to identify patterns of need and to modify uh pacing to bet to better support students there's different professional development ongoing there's collaboration to share strategies to support our English Learners and math and we're using a universal screener key three in grades five through eight to monitor student progress and to provide adequate interventions okay Ela there's professional development on Gordon Gillingham for teachers in pre-k through five this focuses on phonemic and morphemic awareness of Words Their roots and affixes and again we're looking at specific subfoot populations what their needs are and we're collaborating to provide better instruction includes a small one-to-one instruction where needed okay in science we're focusing on English Learners how we could help support their vocabulary development all teachers will be sheltered English instruction certified in the area science we're going to implement we are implementing more project-based learning opportunities that reflect real world problems and connected better online with testing performance expectations and we're doing these things to better prepare for uh the upcoming njsla in men okay overall all subjects what are we doing we have an upcoming summer program we're going to have these new schedules new bell schedules at the middle school and the high school our response to an intervention program for the three tiers district-wide students will be at are identified Elementary teachers will push in and get support from educational specialists they'll be a Wilson Reading Program for tier three students in the Elementary grades as well as a mentoring program for a middle and high school students so the district is doing a great job of looking at student data sharing that information learned with the teachers so we could specifically look at the needs of individual students some students are close they need a little bump we're we're going over with the teachers how to provide that bump to help the students move up okay the students that are doing well we're discussing what are we going to do to keep students at that level so we're trying to break it down more uh individually um the administrators and I enjoyed a good uh session with our with our link it um advisor who not only shared results but shared ways that we could help individual students that's it thank you everybody [Music] on the scheduling for the middle school and high school how how does that affect it like the changing schedule um why is that and what are we changing the two to help improvements okay I don't know how much they want me to get into what the change is going to be what [Music] one way is additional uh instructional time the way um the way the schedule is being changed I know at the high school specifically is there's going to be less passing time it's going to be a more efficient schedule so over the course of the year we're going to have close to 10 percent more actual instructional time with our students that that's the that's the big way you'll see we're going to have two support teachers who are going into remediation based on so students who are certain level will receive basically another class of extra help in that particular area I have a question I don't know if you'll have the answer I'm just curious I believe this is the second year starts from yes right and from what I was told this was was initially because we wanted to see kind of even though everyone hates the term learning loss due to covid it do you know if there are plans to continue this test Beyond this year everything we hear is that it's it's here to stay yeah I do love more testing okay one quick question um you know this is all through you know the state because I do this uh can you see how life districts perform and how you know things like that data that we don't get it's I think it's it's going to be we're going to put it ours is public right now you know it's on our it's on our board agenda so I I think it's possible to do that um but probably a better way is just to look at uh the state report cards that that the state provides for each that's going to give you a more um comprehensive view rather than the quick snapshot that start strong gives you yeah and five years ago 10 years ago how these numbers reflect what we did five years ago six seven ten years well that's the issue start Strong's only in its second year so we only have data for two years and the state wants to make it clear that you can't compare the start strong assessment with any other it's a very unique assessment another another assessment sure sixth grade what they do in math five years ago versus what they've done this past year on on start strong that didn't that didn't exist five years ago five years ago sixth graders were at 42 percent and now they're 43 I mean is there any way that we can engage whether we're making progress not this test not with this particular assessment assessments have changed since five or six years ago but when we'll show you data which shows how students have progressed at a committed a common committee meeting in terms of how they've progressed over the last couple of years that we've had this same test yeah foreign all right thanks everybody thank you thank you Mr chairman correct an agenda Mission I recommend to amend the board agenda to get item 2.6 which is the presentation of the June 30 2022 annual comprehensive financial report Auditor's management report and the corrective action plan by Ms Valerie Dolan CTA from Mississippi company CPAs absolutely do we need to emotions can I get a motion thank you second thank you Miss High all in favor all right can you post thank you well it's my pleasure to introduce Miss Valerie from this podcast thank you questions I want to present to you I can I can usually hear me and hopefully everyone can hear me um once again thank you for moving me up a little bit on the agenda I appreciate that um just to give you a little bit of information um we've completed our audit I know it's a much later time frame than you've normally seen on audit um the state has delayed us some information fortunately that information did not be was not received until the end of January with a deadline of an audit being December 5th obviously that data really did hold us up but as soon as we got through the information that was received from the state we tried to expedite this report to get it to you as early as we could in February because there is critical information that you need for your budget that you're building um just to give you a little bit of a refresher there are two audit documents that you have been given the first one is our annual um comprehensive report that is the larger bigger audit that is actually made up of four sections it is an introductory section a financial section a statistical section question and a single audit section the introductory section just really gives you an overview of the district the financial section really walks you through all the financials finances the district the various receives expenditures things of that nature statistical section is the J section that's actually a very informative section it's 10 years comparative data it's 10 years comparative data on Bound Brook itself it's on County of Somerset and on the state so there's a lot of data for you to look in there and then there's the single audit section which is your compliance with grants and on the assorted Grant funds that being said it's a lot and then there's additionally a small management report which is my report to the board there is a when we go through this whole report it's a very large report I really do Focus everybody on One Financial that's the most important in this book which is the audit schedule C1 if you have if you want it what it does is it walks you through your budget and it takes you from all of your budgets it shows you all of where the revenues came in it walks you through all of your expenses where the transfers and gives you how did we land at the end of the year at the end of the day because that's the most important thing um the district ended their year with a little over 11.3 million dollars in what we call fund balance that fund balance is then broken into various buckets of funding um a large portion of that is 5.7 million dollars which is in your capital reserve that is money you've set aside from various sources that have will be used to support future Capital that needs to be done you have an additional just under a million dollars at 950 000 in a maintenance Reserve that money will be used to fund any type of Maintenance costs that overrun from your budget or need to be brought into your budget um you have 250 000 which is in an emergency Reserve that money is the sitting there in case there was an emergency similar to the pandemic we were you were districts were allowed to utilize those funds if need be um there's about 300 000 in unemployment compensation there is six about 600 conferences what those encumberences are is that money makes uh purchases that were incurred by the district but not completed by my audit date therefore they're still carried and then lastly it leaves you with the two big numbers the first one is an unassigned fund balance which is at a little over 1.8 million dollars that is representing as of June 30th um four percent of your budget expense and that's the state mandate and amount that you're allowed to hold starting with the audits dated June 30th of 23 that money reverts back to the two percent that the state used to only allow you they bump gave you a two-year bump due to the pandemic and they're bringing you back down and then that's leaving you what we refer to as the true excess as we would call surplus of the district that money is actually 1.5 ninety that is the money that will be required to be you recycled into your budget for you which is why I really wanted to get here that's your critical piece of information you will need to use that number within your budget to help support operations um of another couple of few financial highlights the district actually received and expended a little state and local grants um there was a large influx of federal funds due to the pandemic the Esser funds the sr-2s sr3s they've seen a lot of money flow through the districts Additionally you have a surplus so um you have fun balance of a little over 1.2 million dollars in your lunch program that's actually direct result of a federal program called SSO and that was too fun to every lunch so they were funding the federal government was funding your lunch program for the last two years that program ended and is now back to the old formula program so we expect to see fund balances in the lunch programs and this is common across every District coming back down again to where they've been normally looking at the management report I do have two I have three recommendations that will require corrective action um the first one is on the area of preschool education there's a small transfer form most of these are all tiny housekeeping items first of all is a transfer form that was not filled out properly needs to be filled out corrective action is we're going to fill out the form um Student Activities this one catches a lot of districts here to purchasing and um following the guidelines the biggest thing comes in most of the time we see this in that the school the advisors are trying to do what's right in in their heads they're thinking I'm going to hold on to the money and I'm gonna keep it until I have every student's funds and then I'm going to bring it over it really needs to come over quickly and all purchase orders need to have all the proper support and documentation just to make sure that things are getting done in the same Student Activities that's all the same rules as the school district and then lastly is in the area of fixed assets um the fixed asset report has not been updated by The District in a few years um I think it's time to have on have a new appraisal done just to make sure that you have every asset to report um lastly my my report also gives you some suggestions to management these are nothing that the board has to take action on they're just more of informational purposes for board and the district first one is obviously as I said there was a large influx of federal funding coming into the district when there's money the Money Follows Auditors Auditors will be could be potentially in District issue when they come is not only in some say once they're in they can look at everything in your federal grants or in the last couple years especially with these asker funds we've seen them just selected they because obviously there are so much in every work they can't be everywhere to audit everybody's funds so it's just to be aware that they can be out um Additionally the other area is a state comptroller's office has been consistently coming out and looking at what we call compensated absences which is your accrued liability for time off the sick leave time that occurs please make sure you check with labor and make sure that your policies and your procedures are in accordance with the rules and the regulations the State Comptroller loves to come and look at things currently they are focused on the municipal side when they're finished with the municipals we're kind of thinking they're going to start coming towards the schools they were in the schools initially and then lastly um special Revenue funds one all of those grants are all drawdown after you expend the funds so we just want districts to stay diligent drawing down as much money as you can when you can do it um you can draw them down the moment you've spent when you've spent those funds so if you were to ask one of the federal otters who might come in they'll tell you you should be drawing down anyone who works in a business office to tell you that's going to take me forever so we're suggesting at least due quarterly drawdowns just to make sure that you're not funding your own funds and then having large receivables from the federal government at the end of the year and like I said it was a pleasure to work with the just transition to your new business administrator May audit go very smoothly so I just like to take opportunity to say thank you thank you thank you thank you if anyone has any questions I'd be glad to answer I wonder thank you have a great evening everyone thank you for the stolen's funded presentation that there's a new Administration that started with Dr Freeman and in July and myself in September and last year if my memory serves me we had six audit recommendations this year we improved the three our goal is to eradicate all recommendations next year to come in at zero I call all of the items that you mentioned in the correct production plan are already under implementation and we would like to thank you Miss Dolan and your team for all of your hard work thank you very much thank you okay and with that we are open to the public for agenda items only Tom you're gonna have to tell us we have anyone online do you want to do the committee reports oh I'm sorry yes we didn't you know we got thrown off but we did not well while Tom's there you can tell us but we do have to do committee reports foreign tool we use in math and language arts to figure out how the kids are doing throughout the year The District's administrators and teachers have been doing a lot of work looking at that data trying to measure uh in many areas we're going in the right direction and seeing a lot of growth of kids thanks to you know good work from our school leaders and our teachers in other areas we are still trying to figure out you know what the best next steps are a couple notable things about this assessment is for the first time many of the students who primarily speak Spanish as primary language were tested in Spanish which is a a good development to let us know how that is progressing and really the district's engaged in a lot of work to try to make the best use of the data to drive instructional decisions so we had a good conversation about that data and that segued into us getting a little bit of an update about some curricular work that's going on just looking at a new language arts program essentially for the fall and evaluating different options and uh you never want to you know look at the results of one assessment and make a decision off of that there's a lot of different considerations and needs that the district teachers and administration are considering to try to choose curricular models professional development future planning based on what our kids are showing right now and what we think they might benefit from so it's a good discussion and that's education any questions for education okay we'll move on to governance next meet um pretty short this month actually we had a bunch of policies that we had to review many of them are mandatory changes that we have no say over there were a few that we did have a small amount to decide one of which was I believe voting for President and Vice President of the board that you now have a choice whether we want to continue with our verbal roll call or do it by paper ballot we decided to stay with her because it's more transparent for the public to see it we've heard things in other districts don't go so well when they do it on paper and anything or not it just doesn't look as good for the for the public um another thing was on that same policy we could choose between a majority of board members 10 or a majority of board members present and we're recommending that we stay the way we are now which is board members present which clearly will just make it easier to pass things through um next we had oh not that we think this will ever happen in our district but there is a policy now that that we it's offered to us that we're recommending that the superintendent can now call a board meeting a special meaning if the board fails to meet in two months I don't see that that would happen but if that ever happens Dr Freeman now has the right to call a meaning and lastly and this one did happen once last year we were not able to use it so it's a change that could happen again we are able to waive the 48-hour requirement to alert the public in the case of an emergency which happened for some of us may remember it happened fairly recently and we wanted to have a meeting and we weren't able to because of the 48-hour um their requirements so we are able to waive that now so those are the policy changes there's also one about lice but that was the doctor's recommendation officially the board stands on that is it's gross okay um also the most exciting part of that meeting was that we talked a little bit about our path towards board certification and I have been speaking to Gwen a little bit about that as obviously she was here training us tonight and I asked her to find out for us exactly what we needed to become certified the requirement is 16 hours over a four year period the fourth year prior drops off each year so you have to keep it current but to our surprise we have actually before tonight accrued 12 and a half hours so we are now at 13 and a half hours meaning we only need anybody two and a half more there you go um we next month we'll have one back for a training on self I'm not sure which one we're doing or if we're doing them together but we definitely are being trained on board evaluation self-evaluation as well as superintendent evaluation most of us on the board haven't been here for process so it's a really good thing to have before the school year ends and we actually have to go through those processes um let's see and the other thing that Gwen did touch on to stay or to become certified is that all of our members have to make sure they complete both very first four-year trainings so if you're in your first four years make sure you're on top of that if you need any help with that where to find it let Rich or myself know or when if you have her contact information if not I can get it to you and we can show you exactly where to find that it's actually right there on the njsba website you can find it there and let me see um and we oh there were some other minor requirements uh NJ SBA wants to see some things like our contract with um the union and some other things and we've already been in contact with them to make sure they have or what will have when they wanted all the documents that they need so we are very much on track to become a fully certified board and get our plan or document or whatever it is that we get so we can proudly display it very soon and that is governance any questions I have a question the 48 hours notification does it are you Limited so how many you do in the year I don't believe that was in the policy I don't think so but it does say only in case of an emergency and in our I've been here now five years and there's totally come up one time so I would not imagine us abusing that in any way I wouldn't think it's gonna it's gonna come up often if at all and the 16 hours as a board so they only count if we have seven members president we have to have seven out of 10 of us there for the hours yes any other questions okay so next would be human resources Miss Musson isn't here is anyone hear from Human Resources able to talk about what was discussed or should be laid on that until next month I don't see anyone raising their hand I'm excited to talk about it um I'm on the I'm on the human resources but um um I will have to do next month okay not a problem yeah I know that that was kind of throw I don't want to put anybody on the spot and I know you don't have your notes ready just just you know just in case someone's ready operations we did know earlier in the day that Mr Suffolk wasn't coming so I believe Mr gorski's going to give that report yes sir thank you yeah unless there's no's behalf I would just like to introduce the operations committee report which occurred on Monday February 7th from 5 30 to 6 p.m the first agenda item for the operations community meeting was the demographic report presentation from Dr Ross Haber from Ross Haber and Associates I introduced to the committee Mr paper from Ross Haber Associates who was approved by the Bound Brook Board of Education your demographic study to predict student enrollment growth over the next five to ten years compare the enrollment growth to current facilities and recommend improved School building utilization Dr Haber presented to the committee via zone is updated demographic report dated February 2023.