Um so Erin, do you want to speak to what you're why you wanted to talk about it separately. Yeah, I mean I just I think it's important to get policies through and not have one hang it up and send them all back. So, um this policy in particular um is legally required. Um what's the number again? 6162511. And we've been, you know, this has been going on since October. And I'll never forget you telling me that it's some of them are, you know, six to eight months and here we are. Um but um I made quite a few calls um after our policy committee meeting trying to you know um better understand um invasive physical exam. I just you know we have a bunch of parents that have spoken about it. Um by medical definition you know it's incision insertion or injection. Um so in that context um you're thinking the worst, right?
Um and that is from the auditors. Um but we have our third party is preparing the disclosures for all of the um pension plans and the OPED plans and that involves the roll up of your non-pension and your nondb um rate um sorry your nonDC and your non-teer um retirement plan employees. Okay. So we are in from what you said much much better position currently to give back where we are than we were when we first started this semester at 23. Yes. But we still do have some um some adjustments to go. Right. We're still working on on things like capital assets uh depreciation items that I would consider to be off books um even for the general fund. Um for 24 as a result of what we went through um we do a complete review of the expenditures um to make sure that everything was placed in the correct year before it goes to the audit team um so that we have less less findings.
So, I'd like to bring up and honor Gina Petreski as the educator of the year for Somali school. [Music] And this is why we are so proud to recognize Miss Petruski as Small Elementary School's Governor Educator of the Year. Dedication and heart. Miss Petruski brings STEM to life through engaging hands-on lessons that spark curiosity and excitement. Her inclusive steam schedule invites all students to explore and grow, not just those in gifted and talented program, ensuring every child feels capable and inspired. A valued collaborator, she partners with colleagues to design high impact lessons that elevate learning for all. Her classroom is vi is a vibrant space where ideas flourish and students are eager to share what they've learned. Beyond the classroom, Miss Petruski brings meaningful connections, greeting students warmly each morning and guiding them as the newspaper club adviser where they find their voice and share their stories.
But but I also couple So a couple things. One, and I don't want to get too much into discussion about what should happen, right? But I think you know the the group needs to come back together, right? I think if Makita is willing to be our liaison. The other thing that was brought up is rather than doing a historic district, you do historic properties, right? That's been done, right? You go to and and you work with the business owners who own those historic buildings and say, "Okay, we'd like to put a historic restriction on your building. Will you work with us?" So those are, you know, so that's you know I just wanted to say that you know we I did attend the public hearing for this and also communicated um a little bit with them. So um and with some of these concerns so I'm grateful that you want to step up and do that.
Or, you know, vaccines or, you know, whatever it is. Um, I think, um, the PP policy was developed, right? So, parents were made aware. Um, I just struggle with the invasive physical exam um, being part of that. Um, so I'm still trying to better understand why it needs to be there. I did speak to um I I had to actually call I had to call all over the place, but I actually had to call the White House today to get them to reroute me to the Department of Education because you can't get a hold of them. And and then somebody did call me back from um PP um hotline um to try and talk us through it. So um I'm still, you know, trying to figure it out and digest it. Um, and um, I just I'm having a hard time with a parent um, logging in for the first time, right?
We minimize our findings. We can't go through the entire year's worth of stuff. And um the adjustments to the general fund were very minimal um for 24. They also were very minimal for 23. So, um, so the team is doing an excellent job in getting your expenditures into, um, the reporting year that they need to be in. And let me ask you this. The in in your experience in working with with Mike, I'm sure, and collaborating with him. What can you tell us about some of the I'm going to say findings, material findings or the deficiencies that you've you've come across in in doing the the the cleanup work that perhaps we could improve on going forward or some recommendations that might bring, you know, it might incorporate right in in going forward. I I can state them, but um I will tell you if you have an expert here, um he has about as much almost as much financial background as as I do.
Miss Petruski, your positivity, your creativity, and your unwavering commitment leave a lasting impact on our school community. Congratulations. We are so proud to celebrate you. So, we're going to come over here and take a quick picture. Okay, Miss Mson, right over there. Oh, I'm not You're not finished yet. Go ahead. Do the other one. Do you want to take them both down? Yeah, you can bring them both out. That was my mistake. Okay. And additionally, we are so proud to celebrate our service professional of the year, Mrs. Lee Eaton. We are so proud to celebrate you tonight. A well-deserved honor that reflects your deep impact on our students, staff, and school community. Mrs. Eaton is at is the heart of compassionate Smallley. Through her counseling, she creates safe, supportive spaces where students feel seen, heard, and valued. She's a trusted adult students turn to for guidance, reassurance, and hope, helping them build confidence, and resilience.
Um but they it wasn't that and they did come before us and it wasn't that we were totally ignoring them. I made some actually some suggestions about No, no. I I mean I think you know and and you know as chair this was one of the times where I was like I am not going to make us vote as a board one way or the other to support it. I really wanted it to go to town meeting so that the residents could say yes or no. Um sometimes I feel like as a board I you know it's better to say okay we because I think we all have different feelings about this about the different programs. So I think it was best. So but now I I think we wanted to come forward in some other iteration. So Makita, if you're willing to be that liaison and bring stuff back and and you know as Claudia went I went to at least one of their hearings and I didn't go to you know I mean and I was hearing from some of the members about some of the input that was not being listened to.
Or registering your student so you can find out who your kids's teachers are and you are racing through that to get on to the next kid because it's going to shut down, right? Are parents clicking boxes, right? I know I've done it, okay? You know, you're clicking boxes to get the information. A parent giving consent right at the beginning of the school year to get a child's schedule or a bus list is different than a parent giving informed consent. So, I'm I'm struggling with how to best get this information to parents so they understand what they're signing. Um, so with that being said, I just think that we might need some more time or I know I need more time to figure out. I think that we owe it to, you know, our students and we owe it to our parents um to let them make informed decisions and know what they're signing for, right?
Um all of his uh recommendations that he on his own is putting into place as exactly what I would have recommended. Um it starts with a um just a checklist. Um we are very fortunate the state is now putting out you know guidelines and and checklists and suggested um things that you can do and how often to reconcile certain accounts right so we know the recommendation is that cash would be reconciled on a monthly basis um so back on track with that but currently using CLA as the consultant um to assist us pretty heavily with that right now um the goal is to get transitioned from that to the team here um at DPS um preparing those wrecks and um clearing any wreck items. Um right now um my opinion is they have a separation of duties issue. Um the team is very small. Um so that's going to take Mike getting I think at least one additional person and then um moving some staff work um around so that he can meet those those goals of um independency.
A dedicated teammate, Mrs. Eaton collaborates closely with staff to support students in need, developing action plans that lead to meaningful growth. Her care also extends beyond the school, providing families with essential support through programs like the Backpack Program. Mrs. Eaton sees the good in every child. Her kindness, creativity, and belief in each student makes her an irreplaceable part of our school. Congratulations, Mrs. Eaton. We are so grateful for you and proud to celebrate you this [Applause] evening. Congratulations. And next up from Community Middle School, we have Dr. Santa Surma. It's an honor and a privilege to present Mrs. Kim Credatis as the community middle school representative for Somerset County Teacher of the Year. [Applause] For the past 11 years, Mrs. Cordatus has inspired countless students to believe in themselves and achieve their academic goals. With expertise in special education, science, and math, Mrs. Cordatus brings diverse teaching strategies to the classroom and is able to address a wide array of students needs.
So, well, I think I think part of the problem, my my personal perspective was that by the time they got to the public hearing part and by the time they came to us, it was fully baked, right? And this was we had the bylaw like it was drafted. So, it's hard to have the discussion about what is the best approach and is the businesses all on board with it and getting all that to happen. if it's already kind of baked in. And I get I get where they're they were coming from the process though, right? We sort of said to them, "Okay, go ahead and do this, right? We could have stepped in sooner if we didn't." Yeah. So, I think I think like having having a kind of a a you know, a different like kind of not starting from scratch, but starting like from a from a like okay, what can we do to make this a better process?
So, when we were talking about pesticides, I'm like, "Okay, well, we're going to let somebody know, right? We're going to alert them before we apply pesticides, but we're only going to let a parent know at the beginning of the school year that their child may be subject to invasive physical exam." So, that's like where I'm struggling. Yeah. And so the the in talking to legal um I want to make sure I give you you know the explanation as to why this is included in this policy. So um John has given us this information previously uh but there was some outstanding questions about the nuances of it and basically this policy that Shipman and Goodwin has written is based on federal law. In the statute it lists each area of this policy needing to be in compliance. And so if it doesn't apply to your district, it doesn't apply.
And that basically means with cash control, you don't want the same person either paying, approving, reconciling, right? You can see where that would be an issue, right? We do that at home with our own checkbooks, right? Um I have a bill to pay. I I pay it. I reconcile it. Right? There's there's no issues there. It's it's my personal account. Um but for this money right you want to make sure that you have very clearly um you have controls in place so that it's not even um questioned that um somebody could be right doing both paying and approving right um that kind of kind of thing. Thank you Christie. Um I'm sorry if I can say one more because I think this was um a huge improvement. Um Angela going to put Angela on the spot here. um student activity funds um have been a point of discussion over the years.
Outside the classroom, Mrs. Credatus plays a key role in developing and maintaining a positive climate and culture at the community middle school. Mrs. Cordatus is the Sunshine Club chair and makes sure all our staff's life's events are celebrated. She organizes multiple themed lunchons, breakfast throughout the school year, which staff have an opportunity to gather, have fun, and develop a family-like atmosphere. Miss Cordata supports our school's athletic programs and attends games and events along with her family in support of her current and former students. She's the seventh grade class adviser and schedules numerous fundraisers and organizes extracurricular activities such as the upcoming sixth and seventh grade move up dance students to science class trips and the seventh grade trip to Medable Times. Please join me in a round of applause for Mrs. Catatus in recognition of her unwavering dedication and service to the families of Bound Brook.
Yeah. I think is is Yeah. Yep. you know, because we do want something successful that's going to to to work, but we also we also want to be able to clearly articulate what that looks like and what the process looks like and what the impact is going to be and have the businesses that are going to be impacted say, "Okay, all right, like I I get it and we'll, you know, we'll be we'll be partners in this." So, it's definitely a continuing discussion. Claudia, hold on. Were you thinking that you wanted to be the lead? No, I wasn't. Okay. But I I did want No, you do. I mean, sure. Yeah. Rock, paper, and there's nothing, you know, we could we can, you know, there's nothing preventing you from actually, you know, from us working together on this, too. I think we should do that.
But any district, any school, any organization that receives federal funding is required to have a policy for the administration of a physical examination. And you have to be in compliance to receive funds per the federal law. So Sarah actually sent me the law and I forgot to forward it to you. She sent it to me today. So I will make sure to give that. It's like billion pages, but in there it explains like why and it goes into one of the thing the one of the way she explained it to me is you kind of have to take your parent hot hat off for this. This is a board policy that is being put in place to make sure that we are in compliance and that staff and teachers, she said, think of someone, you know, looking for abuse or um a temp check and there's, you know, a situation where it's not necessarily like a nasal swab or an internal exam, but it puts parameters in place to make sure that we're compliant.
Um I have seen um since I came in and um let's use the word assisted collaborated for the 23 audit. Um one of our delays for that 23 audit was the student activities fund in gathering enough information and detail about the expenditures um without using the bank statements, right, which have copies of the checks, right? We really wanted the people that own those accounts to to um to come and report to us. Um Angela now has a system in place where she is receiving on a on a regular basis um the um financial reports from each and every student activity fund um that's here in the city and I think that is a huge accomplishment. So thank you uh for that. Um it was actually one of the first things that we closed for this audit for 24. Um so um a huge I I want to say almost like a fivemon improvement in lead time from being a lagger of two to three months to being ahead um of the other information submitted to the auditors by two months at least.
And that is our family at events all the time. Wait, wait, wait. You got to stay here. Stay here. Please join me in celebrating Miss Henness Piccato as the community middle school representative for Somerset County Ed Specialist of the Year. Miss Piccato is a graduate of the Bound Brook High School, a graduate of Monontlair University, and is currently working on a master's degree in social work at Monontlair. Miss Piccato serves as a teacher associate at CMS and is tasked with assisting and facilitating instruction for our multilingual learners in math, science, and social studies. As a fluent Spanish speaker, Miss Piccado is able to bridge the language gap that ensures all students have a full understanding of classroom material. Miss Piccato has an immeasurable impact on students learning and has helped to break down barriers that in the past have been a point of struggle for both student and teacher.
We don't want to official assign two people because then it's a subcommittee. But I'm saying it's not being exclusive or anything like that, but No, I'm glad you jumped in. But I do want to just say again publicly that these folks did a tremendous and it's so hard to to know how hard people work and then you go to town meeting and and you can't put it over the or or the ballot and you can't put it over the finish line. So and then Michael has one clarification for Yeah, I I remember what the what the rule was, which was you can use public uh CPA funds for private purposes so long as there's a public benefit. So, I think the approach we'd have to take is how historic this this would help preservation for the community which would be a public benefit. That would be the legal approach I think without talking to council.