001it is uh 7:30 p.m. we'll continue on with the agenda and the next item is Pledge of Allegiance if everyone will please stand okay um we do have some upcoming special presentations on March 10th we will have our preliminary budget presentation for the 2526 school year on March 24th Charlene Peterson from New Jersey school boards will PR present updates on school board ethics Uh current ethic issues that she or School boards is seeing across the state on April 28th there will be the final budget presentation and hearing for school year 252 6 and on June 9th New Jersey school boards will be returning to help us recap our goals uh uh present our self- evaluations and help us set goals for 25 26 school year um M gski can you please change that to include
002that it is a retreat a board retreat and we'll have an early start at pm thank you next item is superintendent comments Dr Forte so our um anxious generation group is up to about 130 people right now we are getting ready we're doing some final um preparations for the first meeting on March 5th very excited and we're going to meet with um St Claire's as well to talk about the panel that will be on April 22nd a little green team update our green team has been very active and they're real involved in the town I'm pretty happy about some of the things that are going on um they they did do their application for sustainable Jersey we're expecting to find out um where we're at in March um the recycling center that thing's moving along
003and we're going to have the plastic recyclables at at the DPW and we got a uh confirmation from Wegman's to be a collection site so we'll be transporting the any Plastics from Denville to Wegman's um we've already submitted 600 pounds of TRX recycling since November so we we're going to hit our 1,00 pound goal and we'll get another um another bench out of it um they are they're also recycling sneakers which has been really really positive a lot of people have been bringing sneakers in it's a it's a company called got sneakers and they they actually provide the bags to recycle them and then also the postage um sustainable Sunday if you're around June 8th our sustainable Jersey from uh Valley viw will be there actually from all three schools and another nice event is
004the Arbor Day event at the Oaks this year on the 25th and that's my report for today thank you Dr Forte assistant superintendent comments Dr just a reminder that kindergarten registration is open and you can find it on our website at denville.org we currently have 133 students registered 57 at Lake View 62 at Riverview and 14 currently in the flexible attendance Zone and just a reminder that because of uh the class size placement that our Flex Zone notification letter will be going out a little later than usual coat testing started today so second graders test today tomorrow and Wednesday and fifth graders take theirs on Thursday and Friday the dala program will be running again this summer as a paid program for four weeks and registration opens Monday March 3 and it will run from
005June 30th to July 24th the cost is $70 per week this concludes the assistant superintendent report thank you Dr gois business administra comments Mrs just a reminder if you you have not completed your uh ethic disclosure form please log in and uh complete it and submit it to me for review if you need a reminder uh for your ping number please email me and I'll forward it to you thank you thank you very much it is 7:35 and we'll open it up for public comments seeing no one online and no one in the chambers we'll close it at 7:35 p.m. uh Mrs Z dellis can you take us through old business action to be taken I'm happy to uh the following resolutions have been recommended by the superintendent of schools to the board of education
006for approval I move the following through to approval the a resolved that the board approved the following reports for January 2025 the treasur of school monies and the board secretary report B the education reports one two and three four has been pulled uh until further notice C the minutes result for organization meeting January 6 the work session and executive session for January 6th and the regular session and executive session for January 27th I'll second thank you questions comments roll call please D deore yes Mrs sellis yes Mrs asterino yes Mr Cass yes Mr Capello yes Mr Kim yes Mr Capello can you take us through Personnel please I'd be happy to uh if there are no objections under Personnel I would like to move items one through six uh one includes new hires resignations retirements
007employee leaves extra pay and adjustments uh number two is um resending a resolution um number three is uh retroactively approving um a um a math club adviser number four is approving uh Matthew Pearl to be trained as a school bus driver number five is um a leave of absence or actually a couple of leaves of absences number six includes uh new hire substitutes for the district I'll second thank you questions comments roll call please Dr Mo yes Mrs selis yes Mrs asterino yes Mr Cass yes Mr Capello yes Mr Kim yes Dr Moore can you walk us through imp please sure I'd like to move the uh following resolutions under instruction and program for approval uh under number one is the attached list of field trips and under number two is to approve the shann
008andoa National Park to provide a free virtual program the shann andoa salamander climate change casualty or Survivor to eighth graders on March 13th I'll second thank you questions comments roll call please D deore yes Mrs Adelis yes Miss asterino yes Mr Cass yes Mr Capello yes Mr Kim yes okay the next item on the agenda is governance I'll go ahead and take care of that uh I motion that we approve SE the section under policies for first reading and for first reading and that includes a bunch of policies and regulations as outlined on the agenda second thank you questions or comments uh I just want to note that governance committee did have a couple of policies that uh we wanted to uh vote on but we'll go ahead and put it on the next uh
009Cycle's agenda uh so not so the March um the March regular session agenda you'll see a couple from governance as well the last one is the governance one too oh I'm sorry is that is is that on here that I 0110 oh okay I thought there was U like maybe three policies is the other ones we'll put on the next okay sure that's not a problem okay great uh roll call please Dr Moore yes Mrs Adelis yes Mrs asterino yes Mr Cass yes Mr Capello yes Mr Kim yes uh Mr Cass since Mr Anderson isn't here could you walk us through Finance please glad to do it okay under Finance um item number one I'm asking the board to approve the enclosed checklist in the following amounts you have the the milk fund $14,500 68
010we have a payroll check register current expense 3,744 18159 and we also have the elementary enrichment check for $246.9 and general organization at $4,180 item two is to approve the donation of $2500 in Acme gift cards from the Acme Marcus Foundation item number three is to approve the attached contract with Brook Arthur executive coach and item number four is the board approve the following summer enrichment fee structure $115 to parent cost per class $73 paid to teachers $17 paid to coordinators and $25 paid to the Board of Education can I have a second I'll second thank you questions or comments I want to go ahead and thank uh Acme Markets for the donations of the gift cards that is fantastic roll call please Dore yes Mrs Adelis yes Mrs asterino yes Mr Cass no on
011the milk fund yes on everything else Mr Capello yes Mr Kim yes and Mr Cass can you walk us through operations as well glad to under operations Transportation there are no actions to be considered on this agenda number two building and grounds item 2.1 I'm asking the board to approve the devotional Associates of yogesha use of the facility at the rate of $100 an hour for the 2024 2025 school year and item 2.2 that the board approved the following building usage for summer 2025 at Valley View Recreation camps at Riverview National Football League alumni camp for one week and a lake view Denville esy D and enrichment I'll second thank you questions or comments yeah I just had on item 2.1 I believe that we rented facilities to them last year we did yeah what
012facility you refresh my memory what facility are they're going to be using that would be the river riverv viw school okay okay if there are no other questions or comments roll call please Dr Mo yes Mrs Adelis yes Mrs esino yes Mr Cass yes Mr Capello yes Mr Kim yes okay we are at the point of the agenda for the good of the cause to discuss any committee reports correspondence discussion items such as board meeting highlights and classroom considerations I can start out uh a couple of things I wanted to bring up uh I went to the re review PTA meeting always one of the fun parts of my job and um just a couple of key items that Mrs T brought up that the global play was a big success as well as the
013Friendship holiday and once again she frequently mentions the therapy dogs that come in and that's always a very positive experience for everybody and also at this time I didn't realize they also bring in cats periodically and rabbits so um the other thing she mentioned which is something stays under the radar but I think it's it's really important especially with postco is the uh with this flu epidemic running through our society there the absenteeism rate is well above average and there's a lot of absenteeism and she reminded all the PTA people that were there that um we do have standard for absenteeism and if you go over that threshold of more than 10 uh there's warnings and uing processes that could happen which is um unfortunate especially with the flu going around so uh it was
014good to remind everybody that the goal is 10% or less of absenteeism um and the attendance is automatically generated by Genesis so uh they have some operating efficiency with tracking tracking that um and she also reminded everybody uh we have new neighbors moving in with kindergarten kids to get in the register as soon as possible and uh that was about it um brick fundraiser um another important they do a lot of very creative fundraisings at Riverview so the that was good to hear um the other thing is is that um I want to go to Deep In The Weeds on this but I mentioned this to a few people is with the uh affordable housing mandate and this is not stopping with the current round it's you know it's like it's going to go on
015forever the way it's set up right now but I see this is an unfunded mandate because you're looking at a real big impact to the schools especially if you have to do addition that you were not planning um or you have to build a new school and as well as the uh the the lack of studies on the uh impact to infrastructure traffic um water and and sewage and the environment uh when you cut down all these Acres so um I think that's something that we get through maybe through the governance committee but we should talk to our attorneys and well as it was 27 other towns uh Dr Forte that were involved in these lawsuits I mean that could be another way to uh get some sanity to this process because right now we're
016we're losing a lot of these court cases um including having the Town Council have to do a res very unpopular resolution uh buying onto it before the other case is um comes to court and the decision is made on it thank you Don do you know if the township um or the town uh passed a resolution with stating a position when I we were at the last meeting there I was under the impression they were going to approve it because if you don't approve that owner as it is then you don't have the protection of the courts anymore you're on your own and that could just cost a small fortune and you don't know which way the wind's going to blow you could lo you could you could end up with a um a higher
017count of affordable housing so it's um you walk on a tight rope Wire by by not approving it the way it it's worded but it's um you really don't have any choice I mean slowly way they they have chipped away at home rule with uh with the affordable housing in terms of getting the towns to do something which is reasonable for the well-being of their citizens and and their town thank you yeah uh I am uh governance committee did discuss it and uh I'm I'm working with Mike to try to develop a resolution for for us to maybe hold a position on everything like that so we'll present it to the board once we have a resolution uh a draft resolution in mind that's that's a great idea and I think I don't know if
018there's one Central Point Dr Forte for the uh the other towns that are fighing affordable housing but uh that that resolution could be like a boilerplate these other towns I mean that you know just us Denville sending something to the state legislature um the governor um if you had 27 other towns doing it too I think it would have more impact but I really think it's um you know important that uh all the board of EDS and the communities um escalate their uh objection to to what's being done yeah yeah yeah incl including the fact that the cities are exempt from it which is just mindboggling yeah if we uh if we do develop something we could bring it to school boards maybe and have the delegate assembly take a look at it as well
019so any other board members want to say a few words or I was um I have two things uh I was actually part of a a security drill that was held at Lake View uh so I want to thank Dr Forte uh I want to thank Miss Sopo uh and I want to thank Mr Scala for uh showing me all the ins and outs that they go through uh it was great to see the security drill uh happening with the new technology that was purchased by the district and it was really um comprehensive it was really state-of-the-art and it was really impressive um I also want to thank uh the Denville Police Department who was there as well and you know one of the things for me that's still sort of shocking is that this
020happens on a monthly basis this drill and um I know that we've been doing this for years but to me it's still kind of um I'm I'm trying to find the word for it I guess uncomfortable or just sort of in shock I think with the fact that this is the norm but uh it's great to see that uh the teachers and the students are well adapted to it and to them it's just another drill and uh I'm grateful that we are where we are and I do hope that we never have to use it but I do feel that if we got forbid ever had to use it I feel like we're very uh we'd be well prepared so thank uh I want to thank everyone that was involved um and the last the
021final words is that on April 2nd will be the unsung hero Awards presentations or nominations I should say and that uh that will actually be held in Morris nulls High School and there will be another uh Denville eighth grader that's going to be nominated for um an unun unsung hero award so I look forward to that presentation okay I'll tell you what I have for my Friday for the Friday folder so far I have um Acy donation the reminder that we have some presentation coming up on March 10th and 24th about the budget I'm sorry March 10th and April 24th about the budget and then the 24th of the 9th about the uh March 24 and June 9th about NJ SBA and then um also at the board approv the summer enrichment program anything else
022to add do you want a reminder on the March 5th uh anxious generation and just as a side note from the parents perspective I had like 15 people reach out to me on Friday to let me know they love the new format like the way the Friday folder was set up on the website there were like the images it was better organ ized people were psyched wow that's great to hear it was like all of a sudden I just had all these text messages and I was like oh my gosh I can't wait to say something so yeah thank you appreciate that okay uh if there's nothing else for the good of the cause we'll go ahead and open it up for public comments at 7:51 p.m. seeing no one in the chambers and no
023one online we'll close it at 7:5 5 2 p.m. uh there should be no need for another executive session so could I get a motion to adjourn motion to adjourn I'll second all in favor I I any Nays extensions we are now adjourned at 7:52 p.m. thank you everyone