001Good evening everyone. The meeting of the Monroe Township Board of Education will come to order. Please stand for the pledge of allegiance with our student board member. I pledge of 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. May we have a roll call, Mr. Gorski? Mrs. Arminino, I am present. Mr. Braverman, here. Mr. Cherella here. Mrs. Deo here. Mrs. Kapanovich here. Mrs. Lang here. Let it be known that Mrs. Lang is participating via teleconference this evening in accordance with board policy. Mrs. Corino here. Mr. Mr. Ryback here, Mr. Russo here, and Mr. Rudsky here. Madam Board President, you have a quorum present this evening. In accordance with the provisions of the New Jersey Open
002Public Meetings law, the Monroe Township Board of Education has caused notice of this meeting to be published by having the date, time, place thereof posted June 8th, 2018 at all schools, the Home News Tribune, Cranberry Press, and filed with the clerk of the municipality. Thank you. At this time, we will go to number five on the agenda. Approval of minutes for the public board of education meeting of April 25th, 2018. So moved. Second. Mr. Cherella, Mr. Rybeck. Any additions or corrections to the minutes? Then all in favor? Opposed? Abstension or recusal? Recuse. Whatever. Are you recusing or abstaining? Know the difference. She's recusing or obstaining. I don't think we were there. Yeah. Yes. Noted as an abstension. Thank you. Okay. The approval of the minutes for the closed session meeting of April 25th, 2018. So
003moved. Second. Mr. Cherella, Mr. Ryback. Again, any additions or corrections to the minutes? Recused. Okay. All in favor? I I opposed. I miss Armenia is opposing. Mr. Russo is abstaining and Miss Corino is abstaining. So noted. Thank you. Uh the approval of the minutes for the public board of education meeting of May 9th, 2018. So move Mr. Ryback. Second. Second by Mr. Cherella. Any additions or corrections to the minutes? Seeing none, all in favor? Opposed? Abstensions? Abstain. Abstain. That's Mrs. Lang. Thank you, Mrs. Lang. and the approval of the minutes for the close session meeting of May 9th, 2018. So move second. Mr. Tierella, Mr. Ryback. Comments or questions? Additions. All in favor? Opposed? Miss Arminino is opposing abstensions? Abstain. I abstain. Mrs. Lang and Miss Corino. Okay. And tonight on the agenda, we have
004a lot of presentations. So, I will start off with the historical commission essay contest and I will turn this over to Dr. Dory Alvik. Okay. Good evening. So, this year, Mrs. Castile worked with the Monroe Township Historical Commission for our inaugural essay contest at the high school. So, this evening, uh, Miss Castileto is going to introduce, um, some of our members from the historical commission who would like to recognize some of our students. Good evening. Thank you, Dr. Alvik. It's my distinct pleasure to share with you some exciting district social study news and introduce you to members of our Monroe Township Historical Preservation Commission and students who will be honored tonight for our inaugural essay writing contest. As Dr. Alvik alluded to, we um have a brand new partnership with the historical commission and it
005has led to a number of new initiatives and this essay contest being won. So, we're very excited moving forward to have this collaborative um forum to work in and it will promote um civic leadership. It will promote the kids finding a deep love for their community and just being great participatory citizens. So, at this time, I'd like to introduce Mr. John Curba, who is the commissioner for the Monroe Township Historical Preservation Commission, and he's going to make presentations. Thank you. Good evening. I just want to say thank you to uh everybody that's worked on this project from the board of ed down the teachers. Uh the teachers volunteered all their time to with the row capus students making that a new uh a new thing this year the first uh ever. Um I just want
006to say the history's always been here in Monroe and it's just like you have to get the information out there for people to rediscover it. It's like my kids discovering the Beatles for the first time. They think this is great, you know, but you tell them it's been around for 50 years, you know. But we love to uh we love to see the enthusiasm. Um the the process to pick winners um was very difficult. They were outstanding these essays. They spent a lot of time. You could tell people went out actually into the uh neighborhood did their research and uh they really put a lot of time and they and and everybody is a winner. They they put in a lot of time and they all deserve a round of applause for the hard work.
007These are very top-notch kids. You could tell just by the way that they were raised. They all obviously come from great families also, but I want to give them all a round of applause for the hard work that they've achieved. So, I'm going to turn this over to Lisa Mada who was on the uh historic commission with me and she's going to read off the names of all the participants and uh and also the two winners that we selected. Okay. So, we're going to recognize first the participants. [Applause] Serendi, Sarah Sure. Sure. If they're okay. Maybe we'll do a group picture. So, [Applause] Okay. Robert, [Applause] Lauren, Jessica, Ashana [Applause] Siobhani Sneew Jillian [Applause] Har gun. [Applause] Thank you Krishna [Applause] Reva. [Applause] Amia should know. Our second place winner with a $100 gift card
008is Burkaran Sadhar. [Applause] And our first place winner, a $200 gift card, is Katie [Applause] Gallagher. I just want to say uh our historic leaison Len Baskin could not be here tonight. he's at his granddaughter's graduation, but uh he extends his wellw wishes to everybody that contributed their time and congratulates all of them. Um the the town's also uh given gift bags for each and every participant from uh the mayor and council to say their their thanks. Thank you. Thank you. And I'd like to congratulate all of our award winners this evening. And um it's nice to have a an opportunity to have an inaugural essay contest and we hope to see this continue in the future with between us and the um historical commission. Thank you. So we're going to change the up the
009agenda a little bit and we're going to go to C and give out the academic and student athletes recognition awards. We have a lot of students to honor this evening. So we would like them to to be recognized. So at this time, Dr. Kak, Dr. Alvik, and Mr. Borski. Still there. Patty. Patty. Patty. Yes. All right. Still there. Go ahead. Yes. No. We need it on the record. Not When Dr. Kzak and I talked about how we would honor our student athletes at a board of education meeting, he says, "Look, Greg, just make sure we don't have a lot of teams. It's got to be. So, we looked at it and we said, "Okay, how can we get this done?" Well, kind of underestimated things because we've had a phenomenal an unbelievable year in athletics.
010We have six teams here tonight. Okay. representing just from the winter and from the spring. So, that's a phenomenal job by our our athletes. Let's give them a hand for that. On top of that, I'm pleased to tell you that we not only won six championships, we also won won the sportsmanship award in the upper division in the GMC this year for all sports. And that's a that's a tremendous view on these kids here because not only they're champions, but the way they conduct themselves. Let's see. You got a big hand. I just want you to know I've been here for 31 years. When I started in the winter and the spring, we had five varsity sports. So, we actually have more championships than we actually we have more championships this year than we actually
011had sports at the at the time. So to move this along, the first team I'd like to introduce is the boys lacrosse team. Coach Yoni, bring your men [Applause] up. Our boys lacrosse team has been to our county finals five out of the last seven years, winning twice. They were also the division champs along with the conference champs. Guys, stand up here so we get a nice picture of you. Most of the guys have done it while our boys lacrosse team. Unfortunately, Coach Welsh couldn't come tonight because she was out sick, ran running on a fever. Coach Cummings, the assistant, was here tonight, but she did have a field hockey thing to attend, so she had to run out of here. So, right now, I'd like to introduce our girls lacrosse team. Not only won
012the county championship this year, the conference championship, but this is the second year in a row that they've won it. It's a tremendous accomplishment. So, the girls lacrosse team, please come up. I have to tell you just a 10-year-old. our girls lacrosse team. Our next team won a state championship, went undefeated, and also won a national championship. our competition cheer team. Please come up. They're getting their rings tonight, so they're excited. You guys are a little flexible. Are you done this? Oh, our girls competition cheerleading team. Congratulations, ladies. Our next team, our conference county champs, the uh boys ice hockey team. [Applause] Our next team up is our bowling program is is doing a f phenomenal job. Last year, our boys won the state championship and our girls went undefeated and won the county championship.
013This year, the boys won the conference championship and the girls won the sectional championship. So, first the boys, come on up. Go to bed. our boys [Applause] bowling. And now we have our sectional Central Jersey Group Four Champs, our girls bowling team. There's our basketball team at this. Our girls bowling team, they're excited. They're getting their rings tonight, too. Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Bas. Mr. Morado, if um you're in the back, could you please come up to the front? In addition to tremendous athletics in our district, we also have tremendous academic programs. So each June we like to recognize our students who have achieved uh athletically and academically at a state or a national uh level. So to that end we have several groups and uh students that we're going
014to ask to come up. We're going to start with the model United Nations. [Applause] We're actually going to start with uh business education tonight uh just because that's on the top of the list. Uh so our business education program here in Monroe Township features several competitive groups that travel around the state and the nation engaging in a variety of uh competitions, role playingings, and written tests. And every year they seem to one up themselves with their levels of success. So, I'd like to start with Deca, which is directed by Miss Debbie Stensky, who's actually here tonight. So, I'm going to ask Miss Pensky to come up and stand with me if she doesn't mind. I'm sure she [Applause] does. So, all the students who are going to be recognized from DECA finished number one in
015the state in their respective categories. And we're going to start in the category of marketing communications. And the winner uh the number one in the state with the top written test is Sonia Linganini. In the category of sports and entertainment marketing uh for the top written test we have Nidi Seline. The top roleplay award in sports and entertainment marketing was awarded to Nidi Seline and Leanne Rego. Top roleplay award in a category of buying and merchandising. Manasi Raj and Aman Amir top roleplay award in accounting, Brian Hillyard. And in a category of marketing management, not only finished top in the state but also at the national level, Rihanna Doshi Monro Township High School DECA program. [Applause] The next program and students we'd like to recognize is our high school's uh future business leaders of America
016organization which is directed by Miss Dale and many of our winners are seniors. So uh they couldn't be here tonight but we want to recognize them nonetheless. Uh there's two competitions that we engaged in with FBA this year which is called the FBA LifeSmarts competition. It runs in the fall and in the spring and it covers categories across all general business comprehension. And this year uh Monup High School won both in the fall and the spring and our number one in the state. And our fall competition winners were Pne Nang and Meghna Jane. And in the spring, our winners were Rya Banderoo and Sonia Ligani. [Applause] Yeah, at the FBA state leadership conference, we had one student finish number one in the state in mobile application development and that student is Faraz Khan. And jumping
017back to the life smarts competition, uh we had a group of students that partic participated in the national bracket uh which qualified them for the national uh competition. They finished number one in the state as well. And this was the team of Riddick Patel, Akalesh Red Ready, Abajit, Regate, Namit, Sharma, and Ronnish N. Congratulations to the Mono Township High School FBLA. [Applause] Shifting gears, we will now move over to the performing arts side of things. And uh we'd like to recognize the students who were selected to all state chorus at the Monroe Township High School this year. Our chorus in Monro Township is directed by Miss Ariel Klene. And this year we had seven students selected to all state chorus. And we'll start with our all-state mixed chorus students, Gabriella Jimenez, Calstub Vidantham, and Antonio
018Zarko. And our students that were selected to all state treble chorus, Trisha Shingari, Amanda Skuritan, Jessica Skuritan, and Taylor Vana. [Applause] Now, we would like to recognize our students from band that have been recognized with some outstanding accolades. And he happens to be here tonight. So, I'd like to call up Mr. Alfred Hadinger, our marching band director and assistant band director here at March uh Montown High School. He's also running the sound for you this evening. We have one student that we've called up here once before because she's been recognized to All State several times and also region band several times. I believe three times to all state and that is Monnique Leagospi. We'd also like to recognize Manan Bot who was selected to the region orchestra. Vun Ragav who was selected to the region
0192 percussion ensemble. Nquille Tangella also selected to the region 2 percussion ensemble. And special recognition to Graham Kak, who was selected to perform at the US Army National All-American Marching Band down in San Antonio this past winter. Graham Kak, congratulations to the band program and Mr. Hadinger. [Applause] Next up, the FCCLA state competition and state uh champions in categories ranging from culinary arts to family and consumer sciences, early childhood education. Uh we did very well in fashion this year. We're very proud to announce that we had several students in our fashion and design program finished number one in the state in their respective categories. Starting with senior Julia Vandera who finished number one in fashion runway for careers. Winning a gold medal as the number one in the state for fashion runway evening wear was
020Rehea Honda. In fashion runway sportsware, we had a tie both Monroe Township High School students in first place in the state. Uh Abigail Dico and Christina Urbano. In the category of sewing, number one in the state, Amanda Liowitz. And in early childhood education, we had uh number one in the state for storybook ethics, Kristen Belco, Amy Borsac, Lauren Robel, Emma Ferguson, and Riley Wolvin. Congratulations to our students in that area. It is worth noting that the FCCLA is directed by Miss Pam Velvano and Miss Amanda Doerty. both uh could not be here tonight, but we had one student actually score a perfect score at the state level, number one in the state in the category of accessories, and that is Monica Santiago. So, congratulations to our students from the family and consumer science program. Finally,
021uh this was not on the initial agenda because we just found out a couple days ago that we had four students from Miss Maria Nomics fine arts program selected to go on tour throughout the state with the state teen arts 2018-19 tour. And that is Jessica Skuritan, Simone Gurgess, Caroline Albert, and Carie Rimolatto. They don't even know they're being recognized tonight because we just found out. But congratulations to those people. I don't know if Miss Castello. So, next I would like to turn it over to Miss Castileto uh to speak about model UN and um I'm sorry youth in government. Thank you. This evening we recognize many of our students who are participating or have participated in our model UN or youth in government. Okay. Um adjust my glasses here for a moment. Okay. Youth
022in government. Prrenav Malapali. He was the state program officer youth advocacy delegate in Washington DC. Pruna great job. Sure. Also Dar Patel was premier statesman emergency response committeeman. Great job. And Mega Jane was council of national affairs delegate. So the talents that they have to demonstrate are leadership. They also have to demonstrate um knowledge of specific fields that they have written to and work collaboratively with others. Um this is a very high achievement um for youth and government. So congratulations [Applause] All right, we'll move on to model UN. Students who attend model UN uh author bills and legislation. Um so it really gives them the knowledge of how our government actually operates and again it makes them u more knowledgeable about global affairs as well as local politics. Uh so we're going to acknowledge uh
023we are acknowledging Prrenab again if you'll come forward. Thank you. So he was the council on national affairs delegate and conference program officer. Great. And he was at also at RO Kappa. We had uh uh the induction last week for our new national social studies honor society and I know you were part of that as well. So congratulations Brian Yusafi, Council on National Affairs delegate. and Dar voted premier country and council on national affairs delegate. Congratulations gentlemen. Great job. Okay, very good. I'll hand you that. [Applause] So, that concludes our academic and our athletic awards. Uh some of our seniors uh obviously were not here tonight are students but um we are very proud of all the students. When we started this a couple years ago, we didn't have as many in each award and
024each year it has grown. We could almost recognize every student in the high school for all the achievement that they uh were the multiple achievements that students uh gained during the year. But we did set a standard of county or state recognition or an individual achievement that rose to that level. And as you can see, we're very proud of the number of students that we had up here tonight. Thank you. [Applause] So speaking of proud, uh we're not only proud of our students, but we are certainly also proud of the dedicated employees that we have, especially those employees who have provided service to the students and staff of this wonderful township over a number of years. So with that, we would like to call up our retirees for this year. If you don't know who
025they are, they're people smiling, very happy looking, very relaxed. All right, so we're going to start with Miss Nancy Debella from Mil Lake. What do you do? [Applause] Next, Miss Barbara [Applause] Grosen. Okay, I don't see Barbara coming forward. Um, Miss Patricia [Applause] Russo, Miss Joan Kofki. [Applause] No, she she's [Applause] not. Next, we have Miss Beth Goldstein. [Applause] Okay. [Applause] Next we have Miss Linda Kora Brook. [Applause] Miss Deborah St. [Applause] press office. [Applause] Miss Susan Lowry Woodland [Applause] Let me get involved in I could [Applause] and Miss Mirna or MNA Klein from Albar. [Applause] Okay. And we have a few people who uh could not make it tonight, but I do want to honor them by at least mentioning their names. We have Miss Jerry Sullivan from transportation, Miss Martha Belmont from Woodland,
026most Miss Rosalie Litzbartski from the middle school, Miss Deborah Scott from the middle school, Mr. Laura Green from the high school, and Miss Maren Pruzikowski from transportation. So, congratulations to all of our retirees. Right. And that concludes all the recognition for our retirees and our students. [Applause] That's a lot of things. So again, I'd like to congratulate all of our excellent students that we've had an honor this evening and they deserve another round of applause from us because of the awesome job that they do. So let's give them another hand. And I would like to congratulate all of our retirees and wish them the best of luck and happiness in their future. And at this time we are going to number B on the agenda. We will have a end of year presentation on district
027goals by Dr. Kak. Patty, you still with us? Yeah, I'm here. Okay. the timer on the phone. I just wanted to see if she could hear us. beginning of year beginning of the year uh for the school year in August I guess that we the board met and we developed both board goals and district goals. The district goals are overall goals for uh that drive the instruction that drive our facilities drive our operations uh throughout the entire district and all of the school-based goals really reflect in some aspect some part of the overall district goals. So, I'm going to present to you the uh presentation on what we called this year our 2017 2018 all students achieving plan. And actually, the board's familiar with this. I may flip it around so the audience can see
028it. That's fine. I guess we don't have another within this. Let me see. So, contributors to this report are Dr. Mr. Alvik, Mr. Gorski, and Mr. Jerry Tag. This course, this represents our board of education, Mrs. Kathy Kalpanovich, our board president, Mr. Ryback, our board vice president, Miss Michelle Armino, Miss Don Corino, Mr. Frank Russo, Mr. Mark Braverman, Mr. Paul Rusky, Mr. Jill, Mr. Miss Jill Deo, I'm sorry. Um, and Mr. and Miss Patty Lang wherever she is virtually that is okay. Um she's you attending virtually this uh that the district goals again encompass our district vision statement and mission statement and there are basically four elements to this uh overall these overall goals. We wanted to improve student achievement, improve school facilities, increase community involvement and improve management and operations. So within or under
029improving student achievement, the first sub uh goal there category is to continue to develop innovation through real world uh real world and project-based learning. And that is something I I put pictures into the program because I thought it better explained it was better easy to see exactly what our students are doing. So I've shown various pictures where of course this ties into our STEM or steam initiative and also the innovation uh the innovative types uh teaching to bring kids to deal with real world problems and critical thinking development of communication skills collaborating as you can see pictures from students throughout the district on that are involved in that. The next category of that is to explore programs and partnerships to advance STEM initiatives. So we looked at several programs over this past year. Some of
030them are um I have to look at the sheep for this. I know we had Lheed Martin in there. We had the US National Model STEM uh education program. We had a program through Kain University. Uh there is also other programs that we're looking. We always have the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory as an opportunity for students to apply and we're trying to bring to bridge that gap between the K to2 education and both the university offerings and the corporate offerings by bringing projects and competitions that our students can compete in and take part in that will give them that experience. We're also utilizing data to continuously improve proficiency in uh ELA, English language arts, math, and science. So to that end, Dr. Albik, do you want to join in on some of the U bullet
031points on here on how we use data? Sure. So along with the information that we get from the park assessments each year, we are also utilizing a program called NWA NWEA MAP uh measures of academic performance uh yes academic progress and we're using that through K to8. Um we started that two years ago. The teachers are utilizing the data so that it's impacting instruction the day after the assessment is complete because teachers are receiving that data that quickly. Um, I know the teachers are using it. When I meet with teachers, they're talking to me about about using the data. So, it it's evident in their lesson plans as they're grouping students. We're also using that information to help us as one of our multiple measures for um accelerated math, our TAG programs, our basic skills,
032and the RTI process. So, we're really looking at that, using that. The high school didn't have an assessment system. We had started looking at it a couple of years ago. So, we actually spent this year identifying what kind of an assessment would work best at our high school level in English and math. And I am happy to report that the English and math departments at the high school will be utilizing the same assessment beginning next year, um the MAP assessment. So, they'll be able to we'll have data from students kindergarten through 12th grade to show where their um where their levels are and how we can best utilize that information in the classroom and differentiate our instruction. We're also planning to implement the tool schooly um to begin implementation next year uh specifically grades 9
033through 12, but eventually moving it moving it districtwide. It's going to take some time to implement, but it's one of the um needs that we heard from parents about needing one place to go for information on what their children are learning. So, we've we've listened to what the parents said. We looked at several different learning management platforms and this is the one that the district is going to be moving toward and we're going to start um training our staff members. Um half of the high school staff will be trained in this next year and then half the following year. As Dr. Avoc stated, we want to use the data really more for our purposes. We want to make sure are the students learning and we look at the students both individually and collectively. we want
034to make sure is each student we meet that student at where he or she is at academically and we want to see that they're advancing to where we expect them to advance and we have models of where we expect them to advance. We have national models based on the data that's available that says this is the expected rate of growth and in New Jersey our students perform higher than most uh of the states Massachusetts and uh and New Jersey the students generally perform higher. So we take that into account and we're always looking to see can we move our students even beyond what the expected rate of growth is because we really do want to prepare them for a global society and a very very competitive college uh university environment. And I'm happy to report
035although we don't have the results of the park testing from this year nor the MAP test we're still waiting for the results for that. I am happy to report that when we looked at an analysis of our park scores for the last three years, so last year, the year before and the year before that, we have seen a steady increase, a growth in our student scores. That is attributed of course to our wonderful teachers who were in there really at the ground floor. They're the they're the people that are in there working with your children every single day. But we use that data that we talked about at our with our leadership team meetings. All of our principles set their goals based on data on student growth. At least one or more of their goals
036is set on student growth. And you can see the result of that although it's hard to see on that graph that overall from Monroe Township we have the the uh there are three columns there representing the three different years uh 1415 1516 and 1617. So the very first three columns on the left represent Monroe Township where it has it has grown uh and that is in ELA. our district factor groups which are groups uh schools that are grouped like us by socioeconomic means we are above those groups similarly sized districts throughout the states we scored higher than those districts and in Middle Sex County the overall and in some grades some districts have scored higher but our overall average scores it are higher for than the other districts in Middle Sex County and that also
037includes the eight, we have the same comparison in math and it's the same categories. So if you look at this again, the first three columns are Monroe Township for the past three years, districts like us socioeconomically, similar size districts, districts in Middle Sex County, and districts in the state. And these are the overall from grades 3 through 11 for the park scores. We also have other indicators. US News and World Report ranked Monroe Township High School 57th in New Jersey this year. So that reflects the ongoing work that we're doing to use that data on an ongoing basis to look to improve the delivery of instruction, our offerings to ensure that each and every one of our students is meeting each of their or his or her goals that we're setting for them. And we
038want to make that a continual um ascension with test scores and with their understanding of material. We're not just interested in the academic performance. Dr. referred to this a little earlier. We put together several committees this year and we the end result was the name was called the whole child committee and that really reflects what we're looking at at overall mental emotional health behavioral health for our students starting in the youngest grades all the way up through high school. We know from surveys, we know from looking at data, looking at records that we have students that have expressed a lot of stress. We have students we know that are maybe exhibiting signs of depression or we're aware that we want to look to identify that. We're looking for ways to help students deal with stress.
039So, we looked at programs such as mindfulness, yoga, other types of um activities our students can be involved in our character education programs to to really help students develop an overall awareness and an appreciation for living a healthy lifestyle. So some of the slides following are some of the pictures and I couldn't even fit I I could have fit but I have even more pictures that we have uh recently from some of this. There we are. Okay. So here are some of the pictures from our students participating in some of these activities. some of the programs that we have at our that was at our middle school. I miss missed that one picture, but we did I know I just recently got a number of pictures from Woodland School and other schools at the end
040of the year activities where our students are engaged in various activities. And we're hoping to continue this from kindergarten through 12th grade to really teach our students how to deal with stress, how to um live a healthy and happy lifestyle, and give them the tools to be successful with that. Another goal for us was to in improve school facilities that is the installation the construction of 10 temporary classroom units or trailers at the middle school. So if you look up here at the goals when we started the year off we had yellow stickers next to all the different points meaning that that was the beginning for us. That's where we were starting. And now we're looking at and saying how have we progressed. So the green goals represent that we're on target. We may not
041have achieved it, but we're it's a continuing initiative. So they are the areas that I've gone over with you. Now we're up to the best facilities. It's yellow because the trailers aren't actually in place yet. They will be in place before September. They've been ordered. All the plans have been in place. So, it's somewhat achieved, but trying to keep it that they're not physically at the middle school yet, but they are on the way. There's been a lot of research into that. And there's a graph that you can see of the classroom, temporary classroom units. The next was the development of land which was donated by Monroe Township to be used for expanded school bus parking. And again, in progress. A lot of work has been done by Mr. TEG with this regard in particular
042and there's a lot of work that has to be still be done but across from central office and where the transportation area is the township has donated land for us to develop. We have to clear the trees out of there and put a parking lot. So that's a that is a work that'll take some time but it has certainly been in progress. And that is a picture of what that will be or where that is. The next is a continuation of the district capital improvement plan. There have been a number of initiatives and projects that have taken place throughout the the district. So on October 12th, the Department of Education completed its review of the proposed amendment to the approved long-range facilities plan submitted by the Board of Education pursuant to the Educational Facilities Construction
043and Financing Act. And basically the department has approved the board's submission and the approved long-range facility plan uh amendment fulfills all of our reporting requirements for a period of 5 years from the date of this letter. Unless the long range facilities plan needs further uh attention or amendments to address a proposed school facilities project that is inconsistent, the board will amend the plan to reflect any changes that may occur within the next five years. As you can see, we try to make this these goals as comprehensive as possible. The next was an application for safety grants to fund specific safety improvement projects. In 2017, the board applied to the state or to the New Jersey schools insurance group safety grant program for a safety grant and the district was awarded a grant in the amount
044of $31,272.81 81 which was used toward a playground surfacing project at Mil Lake School and the board will apply for the same grant in 2018. That's a picture of the playground project or the playground I should say. The next goal under that was to develop and present a referendum which will satisfy the needs of a growing student body. Thank you. And certainly we did present develop and present the referendum. Unfortunately, it did not pass on March 13th, but that work is in progress. It was presented. We had multiple re multiple presentations. This is a list of just some of the presentations that were offered during that time. Next was to increase community involvement. That was to broaden parent community engagement and communication. There are several ways that we look to address that this year. Monroe
045News, which is the mayor's newsletter that reaches all community members and features generally about four pages of coverage of the the school news. We had a referendum newsletter, an actual paper newsletter was sent to all community members. We increased media coverage of student events in Monroe now which is a a newer online uh news publication in the home news tribune. We increased communication with parent participation at the special education parent advisory meetings. We have of course continued the Falcon Flyer and Falcon Express. We had a new app for the district and we were able this year for the first time to post articles in our adult communities, our senior cit citizen communities, about 10 of the communities that we were able to put school news uh into those communities to engage the community in discussions
046regarding the need and importance of passing a referendum. Numerous ways. We have referendum videos. We have presentations at adult communities at community and school events. presentations at schools, presentations at the township library, presentation at the community center. We use the uh channel 28 or then the Verizon TV channels, and then we had Facebook and Facebook live uh with one of the presentations actually hitting 2.9,000 views of the referee referendum presentation. So, we were looking at every possible way to increase our communication to the community. We wanted to collaborate with community stakeholders in implementing the next phase of the onetoone technology integration at the high school. So that's an outline of basically when we formed a committee. We invited parents and community members in to talk about our iPad initiative. We submitted surveys. We brought uh
047we we were able to secure two of the companies out of the four original companies to give us pilots to give us equipment to pilot for a month. The students had a chance to pilot it. The staff had a chance to pilot it. They came in and presented in the commons at the high school one day. And basically the outcome of that was that continuation has occurred. The board did approve the purchase or the renewal of the iPads again for next year. Next area is improved management and operations. Mr. Gorski, you want to speak to the areas in this section? Yes sir. Uh first and most of importance is the ad hoc committee for fair funding. Dr. Kak and myself contributed uh to the chair uh Kent Chiella's fair funding committee. We also provided testimony
048throughout the year to put our district at the forefront of consideration for distribution of of aid. There's a new development with this now with uh Senate Bill number two that everybody should take a look at because we've advocated for that before. I'm getting a little off script, but that gets rid of the um growth limits on the budget and also phases out uh um adequacy aid, which would give the Monroe Board of Ed approximately 5 to6 million more state aid. That's material. So, keep an eye out on Senator Sweeny's Senate bill number two. Um, discussions are continuing with superintendent from other unfunded school districts in New Jersey. We had a meeting recently with Mrs. Arminino, uh, Mrs. Kapano, Mr. Ryback, and Mrs. Lang with representatives from New Jersey school boards where we hosted a forum
049on underfunded districts and they went through and provided a lot of good information and some initiatives that we might be looking at and studying in the future to put pressure on the legislators to get us more state aid. Um, now we're on the 18/19 school budget which I got which provides for three to 500 additional students uh for curriculum aging addresses aging school facilities adds new quality staff required for growth while staying within the tax levy cap and without using the bank cap. We're strategically holding the bank cap for next year. The 18/19 budget was approved by the county office of education. Uh the budget met all the needs of the additional students including temporary classroom trailers, additional capital projects, new textbooks, continuation of the onetoone tablet initiative, about 35 additional staff, about nine buses
050and a van and trailers while staying within CAP and not again not using the bank cap. The board of education continues to pursue spending efficiency and best fiscal practices promoted throughout the district. District administration is continuing its use of fiscally prudent strategies. Negotiations with insurance carriers resulted in significant savings. Health insurance was about 1.4 1.3 million in savings from the initial proposal. And by participating in joint insurance funds, the district has information from our broker where we saved $1.4 million, most of which was in the area of workers comp as opposed to if we went out and got private insurance. Budget defense rounds uh indicated that school principles and supervisors are continuing to utilize best fiscal practices with their zerobased budgets. Um, the PTO's and the PTAs continue to supplement programs outside of the budget
051with services for students and staff. The Monroe Township Education Foundation awarded numerous teacher grants and MTEA awarded grants highlighting various educational activities. Okay, so that concludes the report on the district goals. As I stated before, I try to make that as we all try to make that as comprehensive as possible to address all aspects of the district. There's a lot really to the to running a district. Uh there's the academics of course, the finances, the facilities, and certainly addressing student and staff needs. So, with that, are there any questions from the board of education? I would like to make a comment though. Sure. Okay. Uh Dr. Kak it seems that uh things are positive in your report and on the goals have primarily been met and some of them are continuing and also uh so
052so we see continuing a continuum of improvement and of course the community has supported you so I thank you uh for all your efforts so uh here is the conundrum you've succeeded pretty well it seems to me and yet uh you have received received a previously mentioned letter without the consent of the board. So again, I have a conundrum. Uh most of the community would like to see you stay and I thank you for all the hard work and like to see you continue uh to improve our district. It's just a [Applause] comment. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Summer. Any other questions, comments, good jokes? No. Okay, seeing none, thank you very much for the presentation. [Applause] [Music] Okay, so while we're waiting for Dr. Kak to take his seat, um we will go to
053the student board members report. Um, at the end of June, FBLA students will attend the national conference at Baltimore. Also, a few students will be attending the American Legion Boys and Girls State Leaders Civic Leadership Program. The high school held a blood drive on June 5th. And lastly, on behalf of all students, I would like to thank the staff for a wonderful school year. Oh, thank you. um our senior member uh student board member could not be with us tonight. It's uh a busy time of year for seniors and they they do the best they can to meet all of their obligations. But I'd like to congratulate Stephanie Scalesi on her two years of service to the board of education. Um she was a member of the AVID program. She was an advanced Italian language
054program and inducted into the Italian honor society. She was a member of the student council and the poet society. She has volunteered in the community to raise money and run food drives for those in need. And we do have a um plaque for her which we will forward to her and we want to wish her the best of luck in her college years and on. So congratulations to Stephanie. So, at this time, we'll go to committee reports if there's any committees that wish to report this evening. Mr. Mayo, um, we had a a curriculum committee meeting tonight. Um, we Oh, wait a minute. I misplaced my my notes. We reviewed one curriculum document the functional social studies and world cultures. This document is for this curriculum is for the self-contained population and it introduces them
055into geography, world language and economics um in a functional way that will help them manage the world outside. We also had an update on the homework policy. As you all know, this started in November um where it was recommended we review the current homework policy. In December, Dr. Alvage reached out to the staff and asked them um to become part of the homework committee. They had their first committee meeting in January 17th. Um the committee was divided into three subgroups. There was the research comm the research portion where they would gather and analyze current research on homework practices. There was the policies and regulation subcommittee that reviewed current policy, the current policy and regulation um and then looked at other districts homework policies. And then there was the survey section where they sent surveys out
056to parent, student and staff to get feedback from um those groups, the groups that are directly affected by the homework practices. In February, um they the sub community communities got together um and completed all their tasks. In March, um the surveys were sent out and they had a pretty good response. Um 216 of the staff members responded to the survey. 633 elementary parents. Um the middle school parents, 355 answered the survey. and the high school um 297 parents answered as well as many students. April, there was a third committee meeting. They reviewed the results. Um everyone received the responses from the surveys and Dory read all of the responses where people put their own comments in and the committee could read um as many as they wanted also. Um and then they provided input on
057the current homework policy and they came out with a um oh and the committee was comprised of every grade level teacher administration guidance and um and had about 30 30 members on it giving input into the homework policy. So, it was really um it was really um well done. And what they did is they went off the current homework policy, but the proposed pol policy has a few um changes to it. Um some of the new um parts of the homework policy is that homework and long-term projects are discouraged during breaks which are defined as Thanksgiving, winter, and recess. This doesn't mean there won't be homework during those breaks. But what they've also done is they've also defined um defined what that means. And I'm going to take a step back. They felt that through
058the studies that homework adds value to a student's learning. When the homework is um evaluated by the teacher and the student gets the homework back with feedback right away so that they could correct mistakes and learn where they went wrong. Um and then they they def the other change is they defined homework breaks and they they talked about at each grade level the elementary the K to five what that means how how um homework won't be given over breaks um for example in the K to 5 homework and projects will not be defi will not be assigned over defined breaks with the exception of makeup work Um, if a long-term project is assigned, it must be assigned at least 3 days before a break and cannot be due until the third school day after a
059break. Um, and summitative assessments cannot be given until the third day upon the return from a break. Um, there is no expectation for work to be done during the break. So, they're giving students extra time on either side of a break to complete homework so that they don't have to do it during the break. They also defined this for the middle school In a similar way, um, long-term assignments due after winter break and spring break shall either be assigned a minimum of three periods prior to the break and be a minimum of three periods after the break to give students extra time to do that. Um, for classes that follow the AB schedule, any long-term assignment doing after the winter and spring break shall either be assigned a minimum of two periods prior to the
060break and be due two periods after the break. So, the kids can work during break, but they're given opportunities to work outside of break if they have other plans. And in the high school, due to block scheduling at the high school, any assignment due after the winter and spring break shall either be assigned a minimum of two blocks prior to the break or be due a minimum of two blocks after the break. And the policy also has given a checklist for teachers, which the teachers really liked. Um got very positive feedback on that. So, we're looking to get that on to the policy committee in July and then for a first read at the July meeting and a second read so it can be in August so it can be implemented in September. I have
061a question. Mr. Tierella, who's going to police this? This is a lot of rules. I mean, you're going to what happened? And then what happens what uh to the teacher who doesn't who violates and they go two days out right before a third holiday, but five days out before a second holiday. Well, there's not meant to be there's not meant to be penalizing teachers for not following the policy. Well, we have policies, so you have to you have to implement them. You have policies. Can I suggest something? It's me, Mr. Russo. Thank you. You're welcome. I would suggest the um first homework assignment. Okay. Talking to the microphone be to study those rules because I was completely lost. I mean it's like there's so much there Michelle u it has not gone in front of
062the policy committee yet. So these are suggestions I take it from the committee committee and then it's going to go it has to go into the policy committee for review as well. I I would I would just say if it goes before policy, then we probably should have a homework calendar so parents know what how to follow it also because I with my kids I'd like to know if they're invi if uh they're getting too much homework or now they're if their teachers are in violation of some policy that we created. Um, you know, just like cookies, we, you know, cookies are banned. And now we're going to have, you know, we should have a whole set calendar for parents so they know what's banned, what's not banned, what teachers can do and what they
063can't do, when they can do it, when they can't do it, bathroom breaks, when they can breathe. We should just have it all calendarized for them and for the parents, too. This way it'll make it really easy. I'm sure it would be part of the opening handbook to start the new year. if we can get this approved by September be one of the things added to the uh student handbook in September. Well, it it may be confusing, but I think the premise behind the policy and the work behind the policy is that the teachers put a lot of effort into this and there was a lot of buyin from the teachers and a lot of positive um comments from the teachers and you know there was definitely teachers who wanted um you know who felt
064that they needed to be able to give homework on breaks but there was this was as a result of a compromise and I think the product of the work is supported ed by the teachers. Dr. Alvik, would you like to add to Mr. De Mayo? So, this entire process was led by the teachers. So, I brought it to the teachers. The teachers did all of this work. They're the ones who are proposing this. The next steps after a policy and a regulation, if they're approved, would be for the admin building administrators now to go back and work with their teachers to identify more specific pieces. Exactly what you're saying. That's not something we would put in a policy or regulation. That would be something that would go into a student handbook and that would be
065the the um job of the building administration working with teachers and we would have to do that even at the elementary level as the three upper elementary, the three lower elementary. So there were administrators on this committee. There were um princ assist assistant principles, principles, um supervisors, but there were also teachers from every grade level from every subject area, child study team members, guidance counselors, um and we made sure that there were there were um representatives from every school except Barkley Brook. They were the only ones I didn't get a a um a volunteer from. Um but we made sure that there were people there from from all areas of the district and it was really led by the teachers. Okay. I I appreciate I would just I would just like to say one one
066followup on that. It's just that we have a lot of uh parents and children who are looking for more homework. They even go and get they they get tutoring. They go to uh you know various uh schools outside of our school just to just to get more rigor or more you know just just more exposure to the things that they're looking for. And I and I think that I just I just think that we I would just caution this you caution everyone that we're in we're in a school. So, it's not we shouldn't be looking to make this uh an easier, you know, we we want to compete with the world on the world stage and we want to get our kids into the best schools. I don't necessarily think that by Don't clap yet.
067Uh, excuse me. I was in the meeting. You're you're going way off track here. This in no way, shape, or form says reduces the amount of homework. It just structures the homework, make sure the homework is prepared. Well, excuse me. Because because I was talking, right? But what I remember a board member here sitting here, Mr. De Mayo who brought it up to the to the board and said that she was upset that her child had homework on a on a on a trip family trip that they took. That was the impetus for this whole thing. So we have a board member and we have administration that are going to our teachers and telling them you don't like homework, right? And then the teachers are coming back going yeah we don't like homework. This is
068what we're going to do. That's what I'm reading here for that. That's not what happened at all. It was all this was all all done by the teachers. There was no influence. I mean, they did all the research. They they completely have a buy in on this and they made the decision about what they felt was right for the schools. Where's that word at Mr. Roybeck? I just like to clarify a point. I'm sure you'll agree, Mr. Cherella, but I just want to touch on it. Rigor does not necessarily refer to how many homework assignments, but the kind of homework assignment it is. And I think that one of the things that we're in school systems in general trying to do is is tailor homework assignments for the individual student. Uh so you know when
069you look at rigor you don't have to look at quantity is the quality of the assignments that we're talking about and that was a major thing that the teachers brought to the thing. What makes good homework and how does good homework produce better results? and they looked at that research and that's what they helped geared the policy about too about well there's no policy yet the proposal we have we have because we already we do currently have a homework policy but so the the the part of this was looking at how to give homework and what does it mean to give homework that does produce better results rather than just giving more homework okay since um I had requested to be a part of at least some of the uh information going into this revised
070policy and I was not invited. Um I would like to if you present if who's going to present it to the policy committee is someone going to represent and present it to the policy committee. Yeah, I had actually asked to have it on the policy committee for last week but there was no room on the agenda. So I have I have no problem coming to to the next policy committee and presenting the exact same thing that I just presented. I request all the documentation, all the surveys. It's in the confidential everything is there already. Okay. Okay. So the report and the summary and evaluation of the Okay. And any other committees? Mr. Ryback. Personnel. Um I know Dr. Kak had mentioned at our meeting that the district is working hard on filling the job openings
071for next school year. And also uh we reviewed and are recommending updates to the wording of contracts for the coordinator of student transportation, transportation secretary and transportation dispatcher. And lastly, uh we are recommending for your consideration tonight contracts for assistant superintendent, business administrator, and board attorney. Thank you. Thank you. And Mr. Mr. Armano. Okay. The policy that we did, we do have a lot of policies u that getting backed up because we've had very important policies to review. Uh the policy that we did get through and I think it was about 18 pages was the procurement procedures for school nutrition programs. It's policy 8561. Uh we have directives from the federal government and there are quite a lot of um uh mandates procure. Well, it's not really, it doesn't say it's a mandate on this
072policy, but they are directives from the federal government as to how to proceed, as to how to keep records and um there there are a lot of things involved in this policy that we did go through. So again, that's policy 8561. Uh we also continued our discussion on the school security policies. Uh we we just had a discussion, we did not make any changes. um since I went to the uh June 1st uh 2018 uh New Jersey school board's um school board seminar on this. I'm just going to read some of the things as a summary of what they discussed. Um first of all, um let me just make sure I have it. Okay. Uh the New Jersey school board school security and student safety conference was conducted on June 1st. I attended along with
073uh Mr. Piro, our uh director of security and Miss Lang um one of our you our of course our board member. Um the big thing that I took away from from the full day conference uh was that they continually suggested re-evaluating and reassessing our school security programs and and again neverending reviews and reassessment of these programs and our policies. Uh we were we had a lecture and uh speaker from the New Jersey school boards and they told us that there and we were uh some of us in in on the board were aware of it. I put out a a flyer at one of the committee meetings. There is and I don't know if it's open to the public but it may be. It's a 2014 New Jersey school board study and it was about
074what makes schools safe. They also talked about the role of training. training was a big thing for the whole conference. Uh training uh our staff, training our security personnel, uh training uh students. So training was very very important. We also heard from the uh US Department of Homeland Security. They had a speaker there. Uh this would be something that we should look into. They have something called edge edge ge. It's a virtual training tool. It's free to all schools. Uh they showed us a couple samples of what it looked like. Again, it would be something that we could bring into the school uh by committee and take a look at it and see if we can utilize it. But it's free to schools. It's called a virtual training environment for schools. Uh they also suggested
075a security audit uh which I think members of some of the members of the policy committee would like to see. Uh we can delve into what that means down the road. we're still doing. Again, this is a very dynamic issue. It's a very concerning to everyone and it's something that should be continually reviewed and looked at and discussed. Um, and finally, let's see, the uh last speaker was from the Department of Education, the New Jersey State Department of Education. Uh, some of the practical things that they talked about was clearly marked entrances in a school. They talked about the new construction requirements mandated by the state, which I think we're going to have to be very very uh cognizant of since we need new schools. Uh they talked about how to protect our vestibules in
076the entrances and all the architectural designs um regarding our new con our future new construction. So that we're going to have to get up to date with. I'm sure our uh facilities uh and our buildings and grounds will know about all the state mandates but they are for the protection and security of the physical um building. They also mentioned uh this was again repeated many times. Take training seriously. Um and again training training training um drills um uh development all kinds of things. Again it was training and repetitiveness and review. Uh again take training seriously. Do not one of the suggestions was do not announce drills. the best practices uh for drill procedures were conduct drills but don't announce them because people get complacent. They stop really um you know uh acting in in in
077the proper way. So so that's going to be something that's going to have to be discussed with the uh administration and the security department. Um so after you conduct the grill conduct the drills, you're supposed to debrief. So there's an ongoing debriefing from the administration and security and then it also talks about providing feedback to staff what works and what did not. If something fails in a drill, it's not a negative, it's a learning experience. So providing feedback to staff and working with staff and finding out what didn't happen um is going to be a critical uh critical for us to have safe schools. And then finally, announcing a lockdown. Just use plain language and I can I can have a discussion with Mr. Piro if he chooses uh to maybe refine our policies to
078talk about. The thing that I really went there for because it was such a discussion in um in the policy committees was the use of a weapons in our schools uh with our security. And that was really it it astonished me that it was not discussed at great length. So I went there to to try to get a handle on the use of uh lethal force and yet um that was really not something that they addressed all that much. So I'm still pursuing you know that kind of thing because um I think again it should be part of our discussion. All right, that was uh that was a full day. And finally, we did have another discussion item. Uh again, no policy revisions at this point, but the uh committee talked about outside activities uh
079with uh people, you know, our staff members employed on the outside as well and also conflicts of interest. So, we're that's an ongoing and we're working on those policies as well. Thank you. Thank you. Does anybody else have a report? Mr. Finance. Finance. Okay. All right. Quite a few things we went over at the finance meeting. So, we'll start with um we are entering into the Hunter County Educational Services Commission uh cooperative. And this is a pricing agreement received by the transportation director, Kathleen McDonald. this um as a co-op we participate in several co-ops and consortiums which allow us to get some better prices and and in this case sorry in this case um lost my train of thought there allow us to identify or she did identify a specific style of vans being offered
080through this Hunter County uh commission which are actually less expensive and are of a superior for your quality. So that that's our hook uh for joining this extra consortium and it's uh better than what we currently are offered through Middle Sex County Consortium. There's no fee to join. Um it just gives us an extra option of where to look when we're purchasing uh some new equipment. So that was good. Um this is interesting. So all buses are going to be fitted with easy pass going forward. And that's going to what's great about that is it allows us to get rid of petty cache which you know there there's a lot of um flaws in pettyash systems. Um so this will improve internal controls. The only reason we were staying with cash was because easy pass
081wouldn't accept um they only accepted credit cards. They would not accept um purchase orders which they now do accept. So that's a good thing. It's going to allow us to change. And as anybody who has easy pass knows, when you use them, you can save anywhere from 15 to 20% on each toll. So that's uh money well spent. Uh and that'll be savings to the district. We are entering into a five-year lease purchase uh agreement for all the equipment budgeted in this next year's budget. Uh that that again allows us to extend out instead of paying for everything in in full upfront, it allows us to stretch the payments out over five years, which actually for the most part nicely coincides with with the depreciation schedule on much of that equipment. So that too is
082a good practice. Food service management. So our RFP uh we went out and we got one bid back. Coincidentally, it's with Mets Culinary Management, which we currently use, which actually is fine because everything we've seen and experienced from Mets, um, we have high lunch participation rates. They do a wonderful farm-to-table initiative, which is a enjoyed by all. And um I love this word there for this year and tell me if I'm wrong, but there's a guarantee of a $95,000 profit at at least. Madam, yes. Yes. There's a guaranteed profit in the proposal from Mets of approximately $95,000 pre-depreciation. Before depreciation, right? Yeah. And that's important because this um proprietary program is unique in that it it is designed to break even every year. It's federally and state funded and they feel if you're generating a
083profit in the cafeteria fund, you're charging too much for lunch or you could perhaps improve the quality of the food. All right. Easy, easy. Don't steal the rest of my thunder. I I just wanted you to confirm the $95,000 guaranteed profit. Confirm. Okay. Thank you. So now on to that part. So, the good news is is when when we do have these profits and we did grow um the food service profit to a level that exceeds what we're allowed to keep on hand. So, as Mr. Gorski was just so eloquently saying, you have three choices. You can improve quality, which right now is impossible because we're at a very high level already. You can reduce lunch prices, which doesn't work for us because they just made us raise lunch prices 10 cents. or third but
084and best option is to invest in capital upgrades which is what we're looking to do. So roughly $200,000 will be put to good use replacing existing equipment which was actually purchased with a 1999 bond referendum money and uh has clearly been uh gone beyond its useful life. So, um, when you could put all that together, um, good good quality where you get good profits and you could then upgrade your equipment that that really all comes together very nicely. Um, so that concludes the initial part of my finance report. If it's if I may, can I add one more thing on top of the on top? So, now this this is is uh the fun part for me. is where I get to be a little extra happy on top of the normal amount of happy.
085So, as the Jamesburg representative, I'm definitely proud to say that our administration uh over the last couple years has done an excellent job. Uh they've updated curriculum successfully and continue to do that across the district. Coming back from the cuts that we suffered nine years ago, we've now officially brought back sports plays. this year. New U National Junior Honor Society. Uh the band is coming back next year. So, we're we're back to now full strength going forward. And that that's been a lot of work in progress. Uh but it it it's great to have that accomplishment. And I say all that um leading up to the final part of that is our our BA has done an excellent job budgeting and he was able to squeeze out before closing out this year. um a nice
086amount to add to what we already did with the Jamesburg tuition um for attendance. So, we have a check here um that I'm going to ask that I give it to Mr. Gorski uh for $100,000 to be used to towards um the attendance arars. Oh, that's great because that that really shows that that u first congratulations to Jamesburg because I know how hard it's been for you guys to to deal with all the cuts and with all your students and everything, but it shows that the agreement between Jamesburg and Monroe that we fought so long to get a a one that would work is working and that's good for both Monroe and Jamesburg. So, congratulations to your BA and your board of education. Thank you very much. Thank you very much. And we appreciate all
087the um the understanding that was built into that agreement and the time and um it it again, as we talked about when we did the budget, it's turned nicely, small, but it turned where we chipped away 22,000 initially, but that just wasn't enough. And so as again as as we worked the budget and we massaged things and we were able to put off some projects to the next calendar year, we were able to have this uh amount of money available to hand over now. So if I may, I'd like to add this into tonight's uh make a motion if I may. Okay. All right. So, I move that the members of the Monro Township Board of Education approve and accept the $100,000 installment payment and direct the business administrator to apply said payment against the
088outstanding tuition arers from Jamesburg schools to the Monroe Township Board of Education. Second by Mr. Ryback. So, this is all so on camera. $100,000 check. What about that big one? I I I thought about it. I didn't want to do it. Confirmed. Okay. Made out to Monro Township. Um any comments or questions? Mr. Armenio. Yes, Mr. Rusky. Thank you so very much for all your hard work and thanks to the people of Jamesburg and um we really appreciate it and I'm glad that things are looking up for them as well. Yes. And as as welcomed as all their, you know, your students are, we appreciate um the uh installment payment. So, thanks to the board, thanks to your uh business administrator, but thanks to the the uh the residents of Jamesburg and thank them for
089sending their children to us. We're happy to do it and thanks for having us. Oh, I can I Oh, sure. Sorry. No, no. Anyone else? Mr. Russo, let's thanks uh Fair Funding. There you go. I can't check on my phone the send, but I'll check when I get home. Okay. is um this would be a roll call. So if there's no more questions, we'll have a roll call. Mrs. Arminino, yes. Mr. Braverman, yes. Mr. Cherella, yes. Mrs. Deo, yes. Mrs. Lang, yes. Thank you. Mrs. Corino, yes. Mr. Rybeck, yes. Mr. Russo, here. Yes. Mr. Rudsky. Yes. And Mrs. Colpanovich? Yes. Madame board president, I'm pleased to announce that motion to accept $100,000 installment payment from Jamesburg has unanimously passed. Wow. Thank you very much again. Okay. I have a question on something else on on
090the Mets um Men's uh food service. If we accumulate uh other funds, will they be able to be used for new construction kitchens for the in the new in the new schools or they have to be capital improvement from existing facilities? I think so, but I would defer to Mike. Yes. Um fortunately, we did talk about that at finance committee and um I appreciate you bringing it up. The question is, can uh retained earnings in the cafeteria fund in terms of cash um that runs into a problem when it exceeds a few months of expenditures, can that be used to offset a future referendum's kitchen outfitting of equipment? And the answer to that is yes. Oh, you you can you can um offset some of the costs of a new referendum by procuring the equipment
091and from the uh cafeteria fund and in lie of bonding, but we can't from year to year accumulate that funds that money. Is that it? Like let's say it's going to take us four or five years to build a new school. Can we accumulate those funds over that period or do we have to utilize it on a annual basis? Unfortunately, you have to watch the uh balance of cash in the cafeteria fund carefully because if it exceeds the state limit, you could run into an audit recommendation. Um so there's no reservation of the fund on the balance sheet for that purpose. But um you know, we should still be able to make a contribution towards that goal. Thank you. And I'm sorry, it would have to be used specifically for cafeteria uh equipment. Yes, ma'am.
092Okay, thank you. Any more uh committee reports? I think we're still looking at Okay, seeing none, um we'll go to the public forum. Anyone from the public wishing to speak to the agenda, please come to the microphone and give your name and address for the record. Anthony Preio Equestrian Way. Everybody here heard tonight, look how well we're doing with scores are going up. Our rankings have been going up and some board members still want to get rid of go Dr. Kak doesn't make sense. Okay, Kathy. Um, was Dr. Kak notified that he was not getting renewed for his contract? I said in the past few meetings I will not speak to Well, you mentioned it before. You said yes, you did. I will not be speaking anymore about Dr. Kos's contract. How many board members
093received a notice that his contract was not renewed before it was presented to him? Could you raise your hand? Anybody? Did you get that notice? All of you got that notice, huh? Okay. You know, Kathy, you spend the taxpayers money like it's water. You know what's going to happen here? It's going to cost us over half a million dollars to replace somebody whose scores have gone up, whose ranking rankings have gone up, who I received a letter from teachers last week. I mentioned, why aren't the teachers here to support him? They're afraid to support him because of retribution. Many of them are supporting him. There's so many people supporting him and you still want to get rid of him. I don't understand it. It It's It gets to me. I keep on saying maybe you
094want somebody that you want as a superintendent. Uh I've mentioned that before. It's really a shame what's happening here. Uh it's just a bad deal and you're going to cost the taxpayers over $600,000. [Applause] Betty Sabarito to Barrymore Drive. I wanted to speak also to the superintendent contract. I'd actually like to read a copy of the letter because it was sitting near the agenda. It says, "Dear Monroe Township Board of Education members, I'm going to assume all of you received this. In conversation with colleagues, the subject of Dr. Kak's employment and the recent disscent among the board of education members came up and I felt compelled to write. We felt you should be aware that the vast majority of us support Dr. Kak and believe he is good for the district. He is present in
095buildings. He knows a good many of our names and shows real compassion and caring for what we do in the district, much more so than we could have ever said about Dr. Hamilton. We also believe that he is being pushed out of the district not because of his job performance, but because of a personal vendetta against him by Kathy Kapanovich and Michael Gorski. We also believe that an Anthony Preiosa was correct in his assertion that the reason Dr. Kak is being pushed out is so that Dory Alva can be given the position. It did not go unnoticed that the posting for the interim superintendent position contained words central office experience. So, she could be given priority over any of the other district employees holding supervisory certificates. We also wonder how much better the district could
096be under Dr. Kak's leadership if he wasn't thwarted at every turn. Anyone seeking proof of the collusion to get rid of Dr. Kak need look no further than the posted text messages between Mr. Gorski and Chrissy Scurby. It was eye opening to see that on more than one occasion there were there was a concerted effort to get rid of district employees including Hamilton, Sharon Biggs, Dana Walker, etc. The reference to Dr. Kak as goofy to a parent was unethical and disgusting. It was also upsetting to become aware that according to Mr. Gorski, KK listens to me implying that he is the boss. Shouldn't it be the other way around? As if the above is not enough to cause concern, Kathy Kopanovich sending a letter to Dr. Kak informing him his contract would not be renewed
097after a board meeting with no vote by the board members also did not go unnoticed. What happened to the decision to offer him a contract within 10 days of him extending his force resignation? Is this district a dictatorship? Isn't the purpose of the board to ensure a vote? Since Miss Kapo Kapanovich was so inclined to act personally to send him a letter, I hope she is prepared to be sued personally for the cost of a new superintendent search and any money Dr. Kak may receive from a lawsuit he should pursue. I'm sure the taxpayers of Monroe will be happy to undo costs incurred due to the dict dictatorial ways. You will notice that this letter goes unsigned. I wish I was brave enough to sign it. However, I am afraid of being the next person
098to be forced out of a job due to the lack of moral and ethics associated on this board. I fear that if board some I fear that if both are not replaced, all in this district will be afraid of letting their opinions known. A school district is no place for backdoor dealings and backstabbing. We are looking to you, the board members, to do the right thing and begin the process of replacing both Kapanovich and Mr. Gorski. If any of you would like to read this letter at a board meeting, please do. Sincerely, concern district employees. Um, I want to know if the board has any response to this letter, and I know you're going to say you can't speak to it because it's a personnel matter. So, I'm going to ask Dr. Kak, since the
099personnel matter involves you, would you give the authority for them to speak and would you release that letter so that we can get everybody and everything out in the open and start to speak about why it is you're being replaced? This district is in no position now. We have no money to look for a superintendent. This man is doing an incredible job. Look at the statistics. You you fired him or let him go or whatever you want to call it before his evaluation, which makes no sense. The district is in a mess. I want to commend you, Mr. Armenino, for always listening to the public that I really wish some of the rest of you would do. This is not your personal business. You are working for us. You've been elected by us. You're paid
100by us. So, Dr. Kloak, if you would release that, that would be great so that maybe we can get the ball rolling and we can start figuring out what it is we need to do to keep this man here, which the public has come up and spoken about meeting after meeting. [Applause] Anyone else from the public? I mean, just as a comment to as far as I mean, I wave the right if board members wanted to respond, they certainly can. It would be a breach of confidentiality. Should the board members say anything at this time due to pending legal matters? Okay. When uh my time can start now. Praash Parab 33 Dana Drive. Dr. Kak, excellent performance and I feel very sorry that you have been pushed away. From last June 7 meeting, you president
101of BOE indicated that you submitted statutory notice to Dr. Kak on March 27 with consultation with county superintendent and NJ education department. You, the president of BOE, did not provide information to BOE member Michelle Armeno when she requested by email details of your dialogue with county and state authority. This shows that you're not even transparent to BOE members. You are acting on your own and keeping public also in dark taking shelter under district attorney. We also understand from June 7 meeting that the statutory notice regarding Dr. Kak's reappoint was given by president of BOE without consent of BOE without Dr. Kak's yearly appraisal. We in public feel that you're not following bylaws. Can you explain? I will not explain Dr. Kak's contract or his um employment with the district. the same answer. In last June
1027 meeting, you President Bu said you cannot disclose details of internal posting of acting superintendent. Why? We taxpayers demand this information and I have worked in corporations. The internal announcement posting comes but after 15 days you have to post the same thing outside. So can you explain to taxpayer me and many of us why you cannot discuss what is the criteria of the acting superintendent and what you are looking at because that is confidential information that's being discussed in close session and when the time comes we will be able to discuss we are just asking as a public what is the criteria of the superintendent you are looking for you not have to discuss what is posted what is the criteria you're looking for the acting superintendent that we public taxpayers are asking you requesting
103you please the the criteria was listed in the posting um and on the um I believe it was listed in the um in the anyway I don't want to take a time are you following the laws that you cannot disclose to the public what the acting super requirements are we are not asking for what is posted we are requesting what criteria you are looking for the criteria is listed in the posting. I am following the law. Yeah, you have always following running this institution, following the laws, getting rid of the people, following the laws, not even under following giving information to BOE members and that is not fair. So, which other contracts are under renews? Please, which other contracts are expiring? Is the contract for the district uh attorney also is going to be expired?
104My question is let us talk very simple. Is district attorneys contract is under renewal? It is on the agenda. Which agenda? Today's agenda. Today's agenda. Okay, that's great. Another one thing last another one thing Dr. Alvich is working on policy for homework. Let her present this halfbaked issue. You know I have met Dr. Alvich and she had a good explanation when I met in January what her plans are you know so I was looking today for her presentation but the agenda was full so Dr. all I look forward for your presentation in July. It will be not half big story, it will be fullbaked story. So we want to listen to you on that. Thank you very [Applause] much. Krishna Teal 11 please. Right. I have a question about this school. Right. What's the next
105step on the referendum? We don't have an update on the referendum. Okay, here's my concern. Right, today the interest rates went up by quarter point. There are two more rates coming this year and you are not planning to put anything on the referendum. We are going to pay more in more in interest than on what we can borrow. This is going to be more expensive for this uh township because of your refusal to follow the red tape or improve on the red tape. What's the choice? I mean, what are you going to do about the interest rates and what are you going to do about the referendum? You can't certainly do anything about the interest rates, but you can actually expedite the referendum. We cannot expedite the referendum. There are five days during the year.
106Okay, let's not go there. I I ignore the five days because we've heard it when Dr. Well, if you're going to ask me a question, then please let me answer the question. All right, go ahead. We have five days during the year where we can have a referendum. The the next one we can have is in October. we will not have anything on the agenda for a referendum because we needed to get it back in March for September, October. For December, we would need to have one now. There has been no recommendation from a steering committee or a a um administrator to the board of education in regard to a referendum. The next time we can have a referendum would be January or March. And that's what we are looking for. Right. But what has
107stopped you from following up on the referendum? You went in onto the referendum with no plan B? You you expected that it would pass, but if it failed, there was no plan B in there. The plan B was that if it did not pass, we would have to go back to the public and which we did through a survey, find out what some more information, get an updated demog demographic report and then come up with a with a plan that we think would be passed next time. The also plan was to make sure that the teachers contract was settled so that we can get teacher support because we knew we didn't have teacher support on that. So um again the teachers contract was purely a board's making right it wasn't the township that uh you're
108punishing on the teachers contract teachers contract was with the board uh we don't want to go into why the teachers contract wasn't signed but as a taxpayer who is living in uh Mandro my problem is you know the interest rates are going up and there is no referendum and the earliest you could do is in March or January of next year and this year is a wash out and meanwhile there would be an additional year delay in the school districts coming in. There would be OPEX coming in because there would be trailers there probably even in high school and that is that is all correct and information that we did in all of our budget preserations. If it didn't pass, we were we told the public that they were looking at higher costs because of
109interest rates going up, the cost of materials going up. and we're going to look at more trailers and a year's delay in in any school at this point. Okay. The way I remember the plan B was that you know, hey, you would turn around and just put it back for a next vote. Um, which that was a consideration, but we never said we would exactly put that back right on the agenda. We could debate the semantics for all we want. The other point I wanted to bring out before my time runs out is um the budget would be signed by the governor um July June 30th, right, which is about two weeks from now. What is the board doing right now between now and June 30th to influence uh that we get additional funding, not
110uh 300,000 or 400,000? Well, I'm hoping well I know me personally and I know Mr. Ryback because we've done this together, have had uh conversations with our legislators. Um we I would hope that the public and and other board members would be writing to their legislators and the um governor and governor um Murphy and Senator Sweeney. So at point and at this time your your time has is up. Raguchi Turi 23 Green Street. Uh I want to talk about unified homework platform. I brought it up a couple of months ago. I mean today somebody spoke about the homework thing, right? Um it may be appropriate time to talk about it. uh not all teachers are following the same uh website or the Google classes or like you know if I have to as a parent
111if I have to look at my son's homework I have to follow up either on his uh on his notes or on his Google class or some other place like you know it's not consistent is something that a board can look into it to mandate all the student uh homework go into some unified location so that the parents can look at it and work on I I believe that um Dr. Dr. Alvik, I I believe that's something that will be in the policy. Yeah, that I I did mention that during the district goals. That is something that we're looking at is is a program called Schooly, which will be where all of the uh parents would be able to see that grades are still going to be in Genesis. That is our student information system.
112So, grades will be in Genesis, but we're going to be moving towards schooly. It's going to take a couple of years to fully implement it. Okay. But are we starting this year? I mean, we're starting in it. Half of the staff at the high school will be trained in schooly during the next school year. Cool. And second thing that I brought up about is the bathroom sanitizations in both Oak Elementary and in high school. My kids go to both the schools and they've complained the bathrooms are really bad. And I asked last I think two or three months back in the same school board meeting. I mean, are there any inspections being done to randomly check how how well those are maintained? school to check for just I just want to clarify uh randomly like
113inspections of the facilities. No, the bathrooms. The bathrooms. Yes. Okay. In the schools. Um Mr. Gorski, you want to speak to that? Yes. We have a day shift and a night shift custodial crew. And uh I respectfully, you know, disagree with your statement that they're in unsanitary conditions. Uh they are also uh reviewed by PE OSHA public uh entity occupational safety hazard. Also the the uh New Jersey Department of Education comes through every year before opening schools and inspects all of the school facilities with a very uh sharp eye for looking at any uh unsafe conditions and includes the bathrooms and uh we walk through and tour. I also am frequently in the schools and uh inspect the bathrooms on occasion and I will tell you comparatively to other school districts that uh I have
114inspected um ours are in the utmost sanitary condition in my opinion if I can and Dr. would like to follow up. I just want to make sure I understand what schools did you say? Oak Tree. Oak Tree Elementary and then uh the middle school. Okay. Oak Tree and Ele Oakree Elementary and the middle school. I will follow up with the director of facilities to make sure that he follows up with the custodians to make sure that anything that has occurred recently is addressed. Um just, you know, things happen sometimes. It's busy by the end of the year. I want to make sure that if your stu if your child's coming home and saying that it's unsanitary, we we will check that and follow up. It's not that you know my my kids are just saying
115this, you know, I heard the same complaint from couple other parents too and if somebody says that the inspection is happening, maybe they might work it out like you know make look clean but what I'm asking is a random checks not like you know by third party or make sure those are properly sanitized. Absolutely. Sure. And the last but not least uh thank you Mr. for uh Kuzak for your metrics and all like and that proves us the content that we have on you and thank you very much for all your efforts and make sure ensuring that our schools are doing really good and miss Kathy we are totally disappointed with your responses not that I know agree that there are a lot of legal matters you don't want to discuss but it was not
116even the board members don't know a lot of information uh as today uh Michelle pointed out she was requested for to be a part of the homework work uh committee. She's not even invited. Those are things. Thank you. Thank you cuz your your time is I understand. But those are the things that is a board or somebody can look into those like you know that's why we have committees and that's why we have committee reports and they bring the information to the board. I understand she was requesting to be part of that meeting. She was not invited either. Well, she was not on the um com the um curriculum committee. She's an alternate to the curriculum committee. So board members who are not part of the committees cannot attend those meetings. We can only have
117five people on a on a committee otherwise that would be considered a quorum. Thank you. [Applause] Good evening Ramang Nat 6 in Strive Mandro. Um again uh congratulations to everyone right the good achievement from the students uh not only the award ceremony as well as the statistics that Dr. Kak shared. So thanks to all our educators and uh certainly thanks to Dr. Kag really for steering the ship and uh getting Mandro to a much better place and we hope he can do it for another few years. Um regarding the u uh referendum uh right again it's disappointing. I shared some thoughts at the last meeting, a week back or a couple of weeks back. Um, you know, again, we talked about the interest rate increase today, probably another probably 50 basis points over the next
118uh few months, more in 2019. Uh, you know, we're going to pay a price for this delay. Uh, right. March referendum went through. I still don't understand why the BOE and the leadership didn't feel that we need to be moving on. Enough research has been done. We had talked about the plan B in terms of the high school and so on and so forth. I just don't understand why you couldn't self yourself a time clock between March to October, November to get this back and make it happen. Um, you know, still disappointed. I still feel you have 90 days out there to make this happen. I don't think you're going to get any earthshattering statistics. You had mentioned at the last meeting that you're waiting for information from the administration. So what is the real
119hold up? Why can't you sharpen up your pencils and work towards that October, November, whatever is that date and make it happen this year? Kathy, can I ask you uh and I think I've tried to explain this at the last meeting. You need when we come up with a a recommendation from the administration to the board and the board approves it, I now need six months to go to the uh state and get their approvals. And that's the holdup. Um, at this point I I don't have the six months to get into September. We don't have a recommendation right now in June to get into December. So we are looking into n in 2019. Right. So can you say today, okay, it'll be Jan 2019. Can you work towards that? You have six months. Why
120don't you commit to a date Jan 2019? You're gonna make it happen. It's it's not up to me to commit to a date. It's up to the to the the administration because they make the recommendations to the board of education and the board of education acts on the recommendation. So when they feel that they have the the uh the amount of information they need to make a recommendation to the board that will happen. Mr. Okay. We we have also engaged the the demographer to do up up update the enrollment projections by school so we could tell you know if if the uh concentrations of enrollment are materializing like we had projected last time and that that the numbers drive the process that'll tell us where we we really need to address. Yeah I appreciate that
121Mr. Gorski but you know you you know that I don't think we need it to the second decimal digit or even driving by around Mandro will tell you you know what we need this right and I don't think it's going to change so again one is we would like from the next board of education meeting whatever it is we would like to get some formal response back from your conversations with the administration do they have that sense of urgency do they feel that pressure to make this happen or people wanting to just again it's some politics or some other reason so please give us that information. We really want this to happen and really as a board even if it's a stretch goal say that January you're going to be driving towards that. Let's commit
122towards that. The public will support it. Let's make it happen. Last piece I want is uh on the homework policy. Uh right. I I don't know maybe I was disappointed of course I look for the full presentation. It's almost like I've worked in corporate America many years. It's like kind of let's do the same thing. Let's put some lipstick on top right. I don't think it's a rocket science to come up with these rules saying two days before two days after. I don't know whether that's going to really change the outcomes for the students. Again, I I will hold back judgment till I see the whole thing. But one thing I would request is if you can share a summary or some of the elements from the research that was done to the public. Uh
123you know, we would like to take a look at that. Right? Our goal is are we being comparative, right? You're welcome to come to the next policy meeting and listen to the policy. um u um presentation by Dr. Albik. Once that uh policy has been approved by the board, we will make sure it's online. Okay. And can the research also be all that will be put online? Okay. Thank you. Good evening. Chrissy Scurby, 21 PNIS Drive. I'd like to point out again for the third meeting that this agenda violates the public's right to speak at public forum as I have asked both the board president and board attorney for the policy number that says the first public forum is for agenda items only and I've not received a response. What I plan to speak about
124is on the agenda. However, what I would like to call the board's attention to is the three contracts you are being asked to approve tonight. the board attorney for $188,000, the business administrator for $21,000, and the assistant superintendent for $174,000. These three contracts alone are over a half a million dollars and deserve your utmost attention and careful consideration. When we brought the attorney position in house, the thought was that the district would be saving money rather than having an attorney on retainer. What it has led to is an employee who is supposed to be representing the district, yet appears to me and many others to be working to fulfill the agenda of the board president and the and the business administrator with a disregard for what is in the best interest of the district. I
125have reached out to the board attorney regarding an Oprah request I submitted on April 19th. By law, I was supposed to be contacted within 10 days with either the information I requested or a reason for why I was not entitled. What I received was a very condescending letter from the business administrator saying that my request was overly broad and burdensome and it would be fulfilled by May 30th. On May 29th, I received a similar letter saying that now I would have to wait until June 20th. I reached out to Mary Smith, the board attorney, with concerns that I felt that this was being done to not provide me with information I requested until after this meeting tonight, which is against Open Public Records Act. She has yet to reply to my email sent last month.
126Similarly, both the board president and board attorney are in receipt of information that was provided by members of the public that show the business administrator speaking against current board members, the superintendent, and other Monroe staff. Furthermore, there has been information shared to the board attorney and board president that the business administrator has a private tax business where he has solicited parents, board members, and other Monroe staff to do their taxes for monetary payments. There is correspondence that show that individuals were directed to come by the board office with their tax information. Whether it was done on district time or not, it is my feeling that this violates New Jersey state regulations on school ethics. Ethics code 18A col2-24 for conflicts of interest says, quote, "No school official shall undertake any employment or service, whether compensated
127or not, which might reasonably be expected to prejudice his independent judgment in the exercise of his official duties. To my knowledge, this board has yet to discuss the information provided, nor has any action been taken. Yet, you are being asked to approve a contract which makes our businesses administrator the highest paid BA in Middle Sex County. The board president recently wrote on Facebook, of which I have a screenshot of the conversation that everything she does is with the advice of the board attorney. If that is true, then the board attorney advised the board president to write a letter to Dr. Kak after the March 27th meeting when board members walked out and there was no quorum stating that he was not getting a contract. As we heard here last week, Miss Armeno said that the
128board had not seen nor voted on that letter prior to it being sent. In my opinion, the board attorney is protecting certain individuals at the expense of the taxpayers and therefore you should strongly consider not renewing her contract. [Applause] Anyone else from the public wishing to speak Masters 9 Michaela Court um I have a comment two comments and a couple of questions. Uh we had healthy living night at Oak Tree last night. I just wanted to say it was a great success and I want to thank the board for that. We had a really good time and the kids had a great time. Excuse me. Also, um most people know I'm a germaphobe and I'm always at Oak Tree and I have never had an issue with the bathrooms there. I I'm not saying there
129couldn't be. I was actually a janitor. I worked my way through college. Um and it does happen, but I've never seen an issue with the with the uh the facilities there. Um somebody said about or somebody mentioned that a administrator purposely excluded a board member from attending a meeting. Can you clarify that? an administrator purposely. Can you repeat that because I'm not quite sure what your earlier on we talked about the homework policy and then one of the board members says that she has to be uh invited to a meeting and she was excluded. Um again it was a curriculum committee meeting. Uh we had a curriculum we have a curriculum committee uh as you well know that um we have five people on each of our committees to have a sixperson attend that committee
130meeting would be a violation because that would be a quorum. So that person would not be allowed to participate in um in that committee meeting. Okay, makes sense. Um this question is more for the BA. Uh, are you or you can direct it to him. Are you the only Oprah custodian in the district? Yes, I am the Oprah official for the district and in an event that I'm not physically in district and an immediate request is is uh um made then the accounting supervisor has fulfilled the obligation. In those rare circumstances, there are a great number of OPER requests that require thousands and thousands of district documents to fulfill the request. These documents often have private personnel information, negotiations information, deliberative information, and other information that's not releasable under the law. And they have to
131be redacted by hand. and that the redaction is performed by the board attorney because a lot of those uh is items I mentioned go into specific areas of law and prior to Mrs. Smith being on the board as the board uh general's uh counselor uh Wance Goldman and Spitzer performed the OPER request review and redactions at a uh a material fee. So, okay. So, you're the only Oprah custodian, though. Yes. Thank you. Um, you just actually led into my last comment about Mary. So, if you were projecting out for the year estimate costs, and you just said about how much we spend on legal fees, would you estimate we're in the black with her salary? Without a doubt. Um, without a doubt. But I can tell you that when the position was created and Mrs.
132Smith was cherrypicked for the um uh the the position uh because of her expertise in in school uh labor issues and um special education issues and and many more that um the district was paying very high fees outside of the retainer to Wins Goldman and Spitzer. Mrs. Smith coming on board has saved the district over a hundred to $150,000 per year. This year has been so heavy with Oprah work and special education litigation that it would easily go into the $150,000 range in my opinion. I have not uh specifically calculated that, but I'm comfortable with that estimate. And I will also add um that she's been going through tens of thousands of um documents in order to fulfill the Oprah requests. And there have been so many oper requests that she's putting in time on
133Saturdays and Sundays, sometimes 10 hours on a weekend so that she can fulfill the opra request as soon as she has the the time to do that. Not only is is she um redacting oper requests, but she has legal obligations to us. She's working on the um mtea agreement. She's working on two other agreements. She's working on a a slew of um special ed um uh um what's the order I'm looking at? Suits that that and plus other everyday activities. So, she's she's more than worth her weight in gold. And just one more thing, I know my time's up. If we went ahead and sued the state, she would lead that effort. If we went Well, um it would it would start with Mary. Okay. She would at least coordinate that. Yes. Thank you, Dr.
134Kak. Good job. Thank you. Anyone else from the public? Seeing no one, we will go to the I will close the public forum. Ask one question. Who wants to ask a question? Mr. Mr. Russo, this is public forum. This is not the time for board members to ask questions. So, we will go to Dr. Kak's report. I I want Okay, I can bring it up right after his report, but it's related to his report to his report. Then we will talk talk it under comments and questions. Before I um ask the board to approve the items, I would just like to mention um Miss Margaret Cerny, who's a teacher of special education at the high school, who is retiring uh not until January 1st, 2019. So, she wasn't recognized tonight. It won't be till January
1352019, but I always like to recognize the efforts of uh any of our staff members for their service to the students and the staff and the community. So, with that, um I would ask the board to approve the attached personnel items A through B. And as you can see, it is a very lengthy personnel agenda. And I also would like to just shout out a thank you to Kathy Barracallo, my secretary, for putting in an enormous amount of time putting this agenda together. But I I um digress. Items A through BS, please. So move. Who moved that? Steve. Mr. Mr. Bribe and and Mr. Rutsky. Uh comments or questions? Mr. Russo? Comment and it's a good thing you asked me before. um for Dr. Kak and couple of meetings back couple of meetings back uh
136there was a question that came up about a one of the staff that was moved from a um a part-time position to a full-time position without applying and no vacancy announcement had been posted which was against what we agreed on and against the policy. Uh, I see the staff members here again on the agenda. Now, I it bothers me because to see a someone who's part-time just moved into a full-time job where now they're going to get pension and they're going to get health insurance. I'm I'm just curious. I'm and I'm not pointing any blame at you. I know it's large list and it was a large list the last time and things can slip through the cracks, but how does that happen? I mean the person will be get will be enrolled in a
137pension fund will be getting health insurance that has to go through the budget has to go through HR how does that happen so as you know we we did look into that matter and address it and I did address it with the board attorney we looked at a involuntary transfer from now to the end of the year and this matter has been um it's being contested uh so at this point it's I would say that It's not fully resolved even though it's on the agenda. Um but it has been u not necessarily that item but the the transfer has been because as you know there there are other material connections with this and the policies that we're trying to create for the uh the outside activities and we believe there's a strong connection but I
138mean I I just don't see how it can pass through. We were told it's a transfer. How does that how does that get through HR? How does it get through uh the budget? Is there a Well, there's a couple things we have to consider. One is we have to consider requirements to notify staff for next year where they're going to be placed. The transfer we did look into it as an involuntary transfer uh due to requirements that were were needed to fulfill an IEP. Okay. There's no paper trail to that. So there's no let's you know did and others staff who were probably more qualified were over overlooked. Well again we did look into that to see that there was more than one person looked at that other qualified staff were um looked at and
139the committee the people the supervisors chose that person for that position. Again I'm not casting any any blame on you. There are a lot of names there. We don't know them. We typically vote. As a matter of fact, there's a saying that goes just put it on there, they'll vote yes because nobody it's impossible for even for us to know all these names. That's not a saying I would go by, but saying it it's happened. Here's the proof. Here's the proof. And and again, there's no paper trail because that's another thing, you know, I'm always pushing for that uh accountability and that paper trail so we can always find out at the end who is accountable. Okay. So, we're still looking into that one. Yes, that one. So, so how are we going to vote
140on this into not not into the We're looking into uh other issues related to that, not necessarily the Yeah, but how how so how can you give somebody a full-time job? It's not right that you can take somebody part-time and just decide without going through the process. I mean, yeah. again. I mean, we agreed on the the Apple track process, the vacancy announcement being posted in every school and we do use that and being Yeah. Yeah. But except in the case of It makes me wonder how many other cases are like this that I we don't know about. Right. Right. This creates I mean I I think this has to be overturned. I can't see voting for this. It has to be placed back in a in a part-time position. Do you have the letter
141that are you the agenda item right now? The original agenda item I have. Yes. I'm sorry. The original one. No. No. On the agenda. Do you have Yes. What letter that is? Uh letter is it? It's one of those like how many names? The page number I have here is um 81 out of 108. 81. No, I mean I I would think that all the board members would be equally alerted, alarmed at this and it's passing through a bunch of names here. Yeah. BQ B2 BQ PQ and you got a PQ it was AI I believe on the uh original agenda guess what you I have AI that lists power professionals and special education teachers yes and Right. Yeah. Yeah. Does not the superintendent have the right to to move employees around the district? We
142do for involuntary transfer. That that's what we referring to. Um but that's not the case here. This was taking somebody that's parttime with no benefits, no pension, and then suddenly giving them and uh you know this is something that we have to do. We have to we have to we this has to be addressed and have to has to be corrected. Otherwise there's no process. Why why do we even go through the trouble of looking at this and and signing off on it or voting on it? Right. No, I mean, as you understand, there is a process. We I rely on supervisors to make recommendations for employment. As you can see, there's that's why I'm wondering how does that get through the cracks? How do how does something and are there any Well, obviously the
143the supervisors have made that recommendation. You have to continue. Sorry, you have another person. See, there's another one. Okay. So, so may I ask the question? So, what what we're uh we're giving away jobs here without going through the process. So, so the supervisors aren't following are following the hiring process. Although um it's a question. Sure. It's not an accusation. It's a question. Um but the the board is the one the board in its in its whole hires. Everything's recommendations. But recommendations should not be brought to the board unless they're properly following protocol. I think that's what Mr. Yeah. And one of the concerns I have and I think everyone should have it knowing the uh situation with the superintendent are some of these being passed through because they think they'll go undetected. I don't
144know. I can't make any accusations. But there's no way that we could know all of these people, what status they're in, and what they're being moved to. We can't do that. So, someone is not doing their work. Yeah. But let me explain the process. So, every every employee gets evaluated. That evaluation then is looked at by that person's supervisor and then the supervisor makes the recommendations for his or her department. So, we have we have teachers that have, you know, in different months. Um, principal may make recommendations for the teachers in his or her building. The supervisors may u or directors may make recommendations for people that are their direct reports whether that be special ed, whether that be transportation, custodial, and I have to rely on those supervisors, directors andor principles to make the
145proper recommendations. We have an HR department that makes sure that makes sure that the uh process the applicants are vetted should make. So and I I I interview everyone that is new that comes into the into the district. So as I put in the confidential report I think there was 13 or 14 interviews uh that's 13 or 14 hours this last week just in interview interviewing new candidates. people that are already employed, they have to be supervised and if they have satisfactory evaluations, then they are recommended for approval for next year. So, I'm thinking I I don't know for certain, but I think you're referring to a person who was already employed who's being recommended for next year. The the issue with this one is that it was going from a part-time to a full-time
146position. Yes. To fill out the this particular school year. Uh, no, that's not the case. Okay, that's not that's not what happened. But the person was moved from part-time to full-time, given a full-time job. And I think there's a lot wrong with that. And like I said, when we get so many names, we don't know how many others are like that. There's no way of telling. Yeah. So, is that a decision? It was I don't know. You know, can I make a motion that that we get a we get a report from the supervisor on this that we get a detailed there has to be a paper trail. Somebody's responsible for putting that name through. Sure. Yeah. So, okay. You don't need to make a motion. You could you could Dr. Kosak, I'm sure, will
147give you that paper towel. Absolutely. Okay. And can we table this? I I don't think you want to table it because you're not you're tableabling a whole section and I that that would that we we we just can't table a whole section. But then we got to get it right. We can't right I mean I I feel very bad voting like this especially knowing that maybe by granting someone a position we are denying others who are probably more qualified have been here longer. It's it's just not right. But that's not what we should be doing. Right. I understand but understand that we do post positions when they're new. There is one particular position I'm I'm aware of that we looked that I looked into when it was brought to my attention and it was brought
148to uh the conclusion was that it was an involuntary transfer which is allowable but that was only that one particular case all other cases but you can only transfer part-time to part-time full-time to full-time. If you take somebody who's part-time and you move them into a full-time position, you're giving them a full-time job and you're giving them all these other benefits. And we're not voting on that because that person didn't follow a procedure because there was nothing set up for them. They were just pushed through the system. Yeah. But that was also that position was also posted. It was not posted. It was not, you know, that was the thing I had asked at the at that first meeting when I brought it up. Where was the posting? And we know there's no there was
149no posting. That's and there was no application right that but that is a situation where we looked at the requirements needed. I mean do we need to do an audit of all these names because quite honestly if one slip through and Mr. Marvin Mr. Braverman says he has another name Mhm. I mean are there I'm just worried that maybe in your situation people are pushing um I I would hope not but we do not right we do have a process in place. We do follow it uh as I said through interviews, through observations. All of that is tracked. We have an online system that tracks all of that information. I don't and it's stated on the website. They have to apply. It should be posted. Right. Right. This should have this should have never shouldn't
150happen. This shouldn't happen. So if you if you email me about a particular individual, which I can't I mean everyone's riced in a way. It's a new law, but I can't go into detail talking about an individual, but I will certainly get you the process. Yeah. For an individual, okay? And it's special ed, so we don't want excuses because of certain needs. If there's no paper trail, it was not done properly because nobody can move someone from part-time to full-time without getting approvals. That went through HR. That went through the budget. There were a lot of well supervisors involved, right? Yeah. But that if the the particular situation you're referring to, I know I looked into it because you had brought it up before and I discussed it with a number of people including the
151board attorney and we looked at it as an involuntary transfer. So that was that one particular situation. Yeah. I spoke with uh Mary as well. Mhm. And one thing we agreed on, the person was moved from part-time to full-time. Didn't apply that we to my understanding from my my conversations, there were several people that were looked at that had the proper training. Yeah. I mean, unless I'm being told, unless I'm not being told the truth, but there was no vacancy. I'm sorry. There was no vacancy. Uh there was a need based on an Where's the paper trail? Where's the where's the It would all be in the IEP. Let's see the memo which says there was a need and we selected that person. I could I mean that that would really be the IEP that
152was that determined that uh specific training was required. Well, that look that's it's not the case. Okay. But in in fairness, if you want to email me the the individual's name, I will look into it and get that. In fairness, this shouldn't happen. It should not happen without going through the proper process. Okay. But I'm contending what I'm saying is that it does there is a process and that we do follow it. Um there's a process and it should be followed but it's not always followed. Okay. To my knowledge it's always followed but uh if certainly if you identify somebody I will certainly look into that. Okay. Are there any other I had one other thing because I had two two things I wanted to bring. I again another note. I want to thank you
153for uh this document because uh that's the list of um staff by department. Remember I wanted staff by department and budget uh for each department. And um I just want to tell you that I I had originally asked Mr. Gorski for this. It's taken about two two and a half years almost three years to get it. I got it from you in one week. Um, so I want to say thanks for that. And since I have this and I think it would be a very useful information for everybody on the board and the public, I would like to make a motion that this um list and I can send it to everybody by email um be posted on the agenda each and every agenda. Basically, it's a list of um the number of staff and
154the budget for each department. And so it's broken down by department and there's number of staff and uh the budget for each department and um we have the number of students. Let's see the number of staff as well. It's very important. It's good for the board to see. You agreed it's very good for giving you a snapshot of what the budget is or what it will be like. So I I agree and actually it's a good organizational tool and that can be further developed. That's only the the beginning stages of what you would request it. Yeah. Uh that's a long-term project. I think the HR director needs to look at and really to identify that. I think it's but even what you provided in terms of number of staff and the budget for each department,
155a nice breakdown. Uh I think that would be very helpful to have on the agenda because it's well I defer to the board to decide on whether to include on the agenda, but Okay. So I would like to make that motion. You don't have to make a motion. Okay. I I will look at because I don't know what you have and then decide if that needs to be on. All right. I'll send it to you and then we'll we'll Well, he can make a motion to put it on the agenda after we do this. He doesn't have to make a motion. The Well, he might want to. So, you want me to send it to you? Yes, please. And then you'll get back to I will I will let you know because it's the administration
156and the board president who makes who creates the agenda. Unless you make a Okay. Because I or unless you know when I first sent this. It's not in policy either. I know. But when I first asked for this, you were very reluctant to I I was you know that. Yes, I was. And I don't see really any reason for that. It's numbers. It's no different than the number of students. It just shows the number of staff. So I don't see why that would be a problem. Well, send it to me or Okay, I send it to you. And what will you do? You'll come back to me or the whole board. How's that going to work? What happens after that? Can Can I ask a question? M Mr. Mayo cuz I have I understand what
157you're talking about but I haven't seen it. So could you send it to Kathy and she can actually you know what you can do send it to um it's we'll put it in the Friday confidential either under Dr. Kak's maybe under your report and um send it to the board that way. Okay. All right. Okay. Okay. I'm sure you'll all find it very uh very helpful. Anyone else? Mr. Cherella. Yeah, I'm looking at the enrollment again. So last month, I think we were up 400 students. Am I wrong? Almost 400 students last time. And now in the high school, I'm saying in the high school now, we're up another students. The thing that I want to caution us against is allowing political considerations to take the to take precedent over or uh uh precedence over
158our needs. So, what I'm afraid of is we're going to push this need for our high school and need for our middle school, not just until January next year, but through all of 2019 into 2020. And they'll and there'll be there'll be different reasons that'll cause that. You know, I I'm guessing I'm reading the future and I think that uh there'll be things like uh you know, the the state needs this and we're not ready with that and we needed projections and we needed this before we could do that and finalize this and that. And what really will be going on is that they're going to kick this through a political year next year and into 2020. And we can't wait. So, I am asking that we we do everything possible to ensure that next
159year, if it's going to be January, that it's January. And no matter what happens, no matter what we're told, no matter what political pressure comes down on us that we say no, our needs trump any other political needs that are going on in this in the in this in this town at that time. No, I agree because we we I would have liked to have this in May. I mean uh in March done and and get ready to go. So, and I'd also like to just say that uh I want to make a motion that that we make Dr. Kak our interim superintendent. We um at the end of this vote there's a motion on the table. Yeah, we have a motion uh the superintendence report that would become under other board business. So um
160I have questions. Okay. Okay. Um on uh do Dr. Kak not not that you need to respond but just on your enrollment uh we have the high school uh the difference uh the high school from one year to the next 136. Um actually um Miss SC um Chrissy Scurby pointed this out oh a few meetings ago and I've been following it since that the high school is really the place that that needs if we're going to change the uh referendum. I mean if we want to get the referendum back in we could just get put the first school referendum, right? We could I just want the public to be aware that if we wanted to put the referendum in by September, we could just resubmit the original one, right? So that's a possibility. That could
161be plan B that we could resubmit the original one. We don't have to change anything. If however we want because it does make sense that the high school should be addressed then we have we have gone through this already. We we've we know because we were planning on all three. We probably know that we just if we just do oak uh the uh elementary school and the high school, how much more do we have to submit? Why do we have to why do we even need an administrative um uh recommendation? Why can't the board just vote without an administrative recommendation? We know it. We need it. There is no question about it. But we don't have the information to vote on. We don't have information. We have we have vetted this whole process for years.
162But now the costs are different. So if you're putting a new referendum on, even if you're putting the same referendum on, there's a chance that the cost we have a point of order. There's a motion on the floor. That's what you're either discussing or we're voting on it. And let's proceed. Well, that's okay. Good point. I'll be I'll be happy to talk about that at any given time, but not now. I take your point, sir. So, I will ask a question then about AE. Um, there's 45 TAG program uh TAG teachers. Does every student uh my question is in this is does every student that qualifies to have a seat to to for TAG has a seat in the TAG program? Yes. Yes. And the and the parents are fully aware of what it's what's
163the criteria is for TAG. Yes. And has that changed? Yes, it changed last year. It's on the district website. Um and parents are are made aware of that. And if a student qualifies for TAG, parents receive notification and a parent either gives permission for the student to attend or decides that the student is not attending. But yes, every student who qualifies is given the opportunity. They have a room in the classroom. Yes. Okay. Um then one more um just on and again I guess I can't speak to the the person but I it must be in the par professional there's a secretary job that seems to be filled by a teacher and I just don't understand that um yeah it could be it's a again yeah May okay Mr. Uh there is a case that
164we had last year it was a similar situation where for our extended school year program in the summer that there are certain positions opened up such as secretary and we've had in the past we've had teachers apply for that um and if no one else has applied I mean they've taken it it's a lower rate of pay they it's that's fine it's just a summer it's it's temporary okay I just thought that yeah I don't know I don't know if that's the exact situation you're referring to but that's okay but that's what can happen yes okay thank Thank you. Any other comments or questions? Seeing none, we'll have a Roll call for personnel items A through BS. Mrs. Armano. Um, yes, with the exception of AI where you vote. No. Thank you, Mr. Braverman. No
165for B C B D and B E and no under B1 for Barbara Urban. Wait a minute. All the rest. Yes. Spell the last name, please. Urban. U R B A N. Mr. Gorski, I must uh I I thought it was a different section. So is can can you please repeat what what we're voting on? I'm sorry. Personnel items A through BS. A through BS. Mr. Braveman, may I clarify your your vote was okay. Yes, with the exception of B1 with that particular individual you noted. BC BD. No. on BCBDB. Yes. Okay. I'd like to redo my vote. Uh yes, with the exception of A I which is no. B C which is no, B D which is no. Okay. So noted Mrs. Arminino's vote is yes with the exception of A I which is
166a no BC which is a no and B D which is a no. Is that correct? Uh that is correct Mr. Cherella. No yes except for BC BD be I BQ. Would you repeat the nose please? The nose are BC, BD, BE, B I BQ. So noted, Mrs. Deo. Yes. Mrs. Lang. Yes. Mrs. Corino. Okay. Um there'll be cues on AG AI. Um is AI a whole bunch of people? Yes, it's a section. Okay. I'm recusing on AG Nancy Dempsey. A I Ununice Fana recusing BC B D B L K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K Kathy McDonald and Bob Nash BM Unisa.
167I'm voting no to BE and yes to everything else. So not Mr. Rybeck. Yes. Mr. Russo. Yes. On everything. Uh but BC is no. BD I have uh recuse myself. B no. Uh B L abstain. BP abstain. and BQ um abstain. BQ abstain. Thank you, Mr. Rodsky. Yes. And Mrs. Colonage. Yes. Thank you. Any board action? How did How could you say what the votes were? Was everything passed? I I'm on I'm going to need some time to go through this. Okay, we should recess then until we can come through this so we could get a proper vote on this so we know the public knows what we just voted on what the outcome was. You want to make a motion for recess? Make a motion that we Before we do that, can we authenticate
168that Patty is on the other line? Patty, are you with us? Oh, yes, I'm here. But how do we know that's her? Sounds like Patty cuz I I dialed her phone number and that's listed on this on the It is me. It is I can we uh ask give the secret board code. What's the secret board code? But don't say it. Okay, that's a motion to uh take a recess. How long? Second. 10-minute recess. Will you guys call me back? You can stay on the line, Penny, if you want. Oh, okay. We could call you back, Patty, in case you need to get up. We'll call her back. Okay. Are you sure? I don't want to risk losing that. All right, Patty. We'll just stay on the line, but I might get up and walk
169away. Yes, you do that. We'll see you back in 10 minutes. Not walk away, but get help going away. So, no. Go ahead. That's fine. I don't feel I know. I know. Yeah. I need to tell you. So, at this time, the board will reconvene back into public session. have not did you Ouch. Yes. Everything's calculated. You want me to uh Is everybody ready? I don't see everybody. Thank you. At this time, the board will reconvene. I believe um Mr. Gorski has calculated or whatever he needed to do tabulated calculated and will give us an update. Yes, ma'am. I appreciate the board's patience and sorting through this. And as far as personnel items, Patty, yes, I'm here. Are you? Yes, I'm here. I'm here. You're back from your little Okay. Walk from my nap. Okay.
170Okay. Personnel items A through BS everything is a yes with the exception of BC which did not pass BD which did not pass and that is all. Okay. Thank you. At this time we will go to the um you have something else. Board action board action items. Recommend that board the board approve actions or I'm sorry items A through W under board action. So move second. Any comments? A through W. Yeah, this is a little shorter. It shouldn't be as as complicated with Miss Corino and Mr. Russo. What page does that start at? I don't have a page on my agenda. 89. 89. 89. Okay, good. Thanks. Okay. Comments or questions? Mine. Uh, hold on one second. Look, we wait long enough for everybody else. Hold on. um 89 because I do make notes on
171the original agenda and oh board action 8. Okay. So let me look at my original because I do read this whole thing for hours and hours and hours. So I believe it this was 10 and some pages. Yeah. 108 pages. I am aware of that. 108 pages. A lot of it was long. No, but then we also have to read the background information. So, if anybody else has a question, that's why I don't see any other questions. Okay. Uh, I'm sorry. 89 board action. Let me just tell you where I would wanted to make a comment. Um, I think the lists of requested field trips is that one in that group. Okay. So then let me say on the field trips, there are only two field trips on the agenda I thought and I think
172one was the Princeton Art Museum which I was thrilled. So that's a comment. Good. Um let's see. Avid policy. Okay. on W. Um, in light of uh the the most recent um vote on W, do we have to change any of that and that appointment? I don't believe so. He's currently doing that and his contract um reverts back to this year's contract. Okay. So that's still considered in this year's contract. Well, it's not in his contract. That's part of his responsibilities as that this year. So it will be his responsibilities for next year. Okay. Is that it? Uh it see Oh. Oh yes. on the advancing opportunities. It's a Do you have a letter? Yes, I have a letter advancing. Oh, letter. Uh, no, it's 15. Is that Is that That's Is that another board
173action? Uh, I know. We go from A to W. Okay, I'm done on that one. Okay, then we will have a roll call. Board action items A through W. Mrs. Armeno. Uh, yes on everything, but no on W. Mr. Braverman, yes. Mr. Cherella, yes on everything and no on W. Mrs. Deo, yes. Mrs. Lang, yes. Mrs. Corino, yes on everything. No to W. Mr. Ryback, yes. Mr. Russo, uh, yes on everything. No on V and no on W. Mr. Ritzky. Yes. On everything, Miss. Leave it at that. Mrs. Col Hanovich. Yes. One moment. Oh, did that pass? One moment. Sorry. You're set off that timeline. This is crazy stuff going on. Broke your bell. My wife did. Personality. So I think Nancy said yes. I got one, two, three. Nancy said yes. Okay. Um, board
174action items A through W has passed. Okay. So, we will go to the business administrator's report. Madame board president and members of Monro Township Board of Education, it is recommended that board action items A throughouble O be approved by consent roll call. So move Mr. Ryback second Mr. De Mayo any comments or questions because I know there was a lot of reading for this Mrs. Armino. Yes ma'am. I have a question. Go ahead. Let him Mr. Russo. It's another one of those things that pops up from time to time and it's not clear. So on number nine, it says it is recommended that members of the Monro Monroe Township Board of Ed approve Amy Shaw from Aaron International LLC. And we never know who owns these companies. Is there any way we can provide that
175information? because I I don't feel like voting for I I don't have page numbers on my Can Can you talk into the microphone? I can't hear what he said. Okay. Okay. Mrs. Lang would appreciate if everybody just talks into their microphone. Yes. Would she? She would. Oh, she would. Okay. So, we're talking about number nine, and it's uh it's a recommendation for services from Aaron International LLC. And in the future, can we include the owners of the company or at least we should ensure that nobody from the school from the district um is an owner in the company? policy policy. Um I I would be happy to speak to it because it's my report, right? I believe we discussed something similar in policy committee and I would recommend that the gentleman uh uh refine that
176consideration at policy. Okay. We don't have the information now. And right, we don't know who owns it. Appar no who owns the LLC. Apparently, unless it's in the uh of the supporting documents that No, I don't I don't know. Okay. Which which letter are you referring to? Nine. Number nine. Number nine. Number nine. A number nine. Yeah. Number nine. Aaron International LLC. Yeah, but it doesn't necessarily say who owns the LLC, right? What? What about 15? There's no disclosure. Is that my report? This is 10. This is nine. This is your report for the translators. Yeah. No, I I I received those recommendations from special education. We compare them if they're in the budget. Uh make sure that the rates are not improve increasing over an exorbitant rate over the prior year. Um and then
177put it on the the BA report. So this is coming at the recommendation of special services and number 15 as well. There's another company there. Again, we don't know who owns it. We don't know if somebody from special education owns this company, right? And yet we would be voting to approve it. More concerned uh uh from a special education standpoint that the children's needs are being served. Yeah. Well, we have to be concerned about a lot of things. That's one thing. But if someone in the group is an owner and they're advancing their own business within the school, that's why they're on the agenda. And uh I think it's important for us to know that there are no conflicts of interest, that nobody uh from the district is or has any interest in that company.
178Wouldn't you agree? Well, right now we don't have a policy that's enforcing that. So when that new policy is created, then this would be part of the there's a but yet okay but we don't have we don't have the uh you don't know who owns it. I'm just curious because it's not it's not required on these types of contracts. I mean I mean you have a lot of them. You have Summit Speech School. You have um Advancing Opportunities. You have Oxford. I we don't have the information to see if anybody in the district owns any of these companies. Okay. So you're you would be in support then of the policy that I'm pushing which would would help us with this. I didn't say I had a problem with your policy. I said that there needed
179to be some things that had to be looked at. So you support it. Okay. But you see the need here now real time need. Okay. Yeah. All right. Thanks Mr. Cherella. Yeah. I just want to point out something too. So, we're saying that these two numbers 9 and 15 that we're absolutely sure that uh no administrators, for instance, have any dealings with this business whether from a service standpoint or from an ownership standpoint because our bylaws and I have them right here. This is not I'll wait. I beg your pardon? I'll wait because nine nine and there is no requirement before putting forth on the board report to check the ownership uh of these entities to explore conflicts but there is a requirement under our bylaws for administrator code of code code of ethics no
180administrator or member of his or her family shall have an interest in a business organization or engage in any business transaction or professional activity that is in substantial conflict with the proper discharge of his or her duties in the public interest. No administrator shall use or attempt to use his or her official position to to secure unwarranted privileges, advantages or employment for his or her hers or him herself uh or his or her immediate family or any person. And it goes on to say that these are from our bylaws. I pulled this from ours. So what what I think they're asking is do we have anyone we already have policies. We already have bylaws. Is there anyone in the in the administrative capacity that may have an ownership? Uh they would have to declare that
181on their ethics form. That's only if they're at a certain level or if they had some kind of an interest in a in a only if they're at a certain level, not all staff. Well, then I guess you can ask the administrators if they have any kind of It's one of those things. I'm glad it came up because it's one of those points that I've been driving home. Uh there are there are things that come up that people could be taken advantage of and we need those policies that disclosure policy that I'm pushing. I'm hoping to get your support and everybody's support on the board because I think it's essential question. Actually, I my question on 15 is I thought that the um services or the invoice was very vague and I I wasn't sure
182does this have to do with special education. I mean because when I first read it on it it didn't say uh cable pausy um until I saw the background information and I was really unclear as to what this is and who it's for. Advancing opportunities through assistive technology services. Absolutely. 100% special education. But what is it? It's it's an evaluation. Is it a software? Is it It appears that it's assist of technology evaluation. Assist of technology is used by special education students, perhaps 504 students. And this is an evaluation of of the student and the assist of technology perhaps. Oh, so the student actually used some of this technology. It's part of their I I feel comfortable making that assumption. Okay. No one knows. Okay. But I I maybe in the future, I mean, of
183course, I I'm going to vote for it because of the nature of it, but in the future, I I I hope we can get a little more detail about what it does for us. Absolutely. We we'll do our best. Um, you know, the these recommendations come from various departments that are contained in my report and I don't have the special education uh wherewithal to to maybe do justice to an explanation, but I will tell you that this comes from the director of special services. Okay. And I believe it's a a prudent item. I mean, you know, it's just it's just too vague and I I would like more detail as to who it benefits. the benefit to the children would be uh you know yes and respectfully likewise if there's a question about anything on
184on my report or any of the um board reports please give a call and then we could bring the information to the board meeting and and uh and I apologize I I started reading this at 2:00 today because I worked the last five days so I I couldn't call and just one more point because you brought up the special ed the director of special ed that that's the case the same person uh is involved with that job that was passed through from part-time to full-time and uh another thing is with many of these companies because I check sometimes just on my own I go to those websites and many times you you can't get any information uh other you have to log in and register with them first and of course that's a good technique
185to screen anyone who might be from the school board looking to see who owns So, I think it's important for us to uh put the owners teachers. Sorry, one more question on 13, unless somebody else is going to speak. Um I see that we're going to pay Ross Haber another $4,500 um for an update again. Um and I guess, you know, $4,500 is $4,500. We know we need more schools and we know we need another referendum. So, this goes to my earlier uh concern as to why we keep paying these people when we know what we need. I I I don't understand why is it required that we have to update this for the new referendum and where is that where does it say that? It was a request from the steering committee to get
186an update on demographics from Ross Haber. I with all Mr. Gorski can can um you know elaborate on that. I I I would be happy to and I I think you'll understand the the need for this um by my conclusion. Um some members are advocating for the addition of a high school uh component to the referendum. I I understand that there there is a need there. We prioritized as best we could before. But if I asked the question, how many classrooms do we need? um I don't think you would have reasonable information to make a conclusion. That's the purpose for this report. This does an enrollment study based upon the most enrollment ca most recent enrollment counts and then does a scientific projection for what we can anticipate or in the future and that is
187what drives the project. To say we need a high school edition without definition is is um is a is a motion. Yes, we need it but how many classrooms? What type of classrooms? How many special education classrooms? Uh should the auditorium be enlarged? All these type of questions are driven by the demographic report. Okay. Then when we get this when we spend the $4,500 for this, I would like to compare it to the most recent one prior to this because I really don't think there's going to be a significant difference. So I would request that with my vote yes for this. Um, I don't know if I can change the language that it is compared to the prior the prior one right before this because I I think we're just wasting time and money at
188this point. To Mrs. Arminino's point, I will tell you that that's the first thing administration does is we compare it to the prior report. We make sure that there's consistency with the um the formulas used and quite often we have a back and forth exchange with the demographer that where we disagree with with particular issues. Oh, we're not using the Rutgers formula, are we? Rutgers formula. No is out. Okay. Can I piggy back on that a little bit, Mr. Ruters? Just a thought. So, um I I would argue with all due respect that aren't we don't we know that the high school addition as it's what it can be is going to go to full capacity regardless if it's 30 students or 35 students. the addition of the high school has to go to capacity
189as I understand it from the last search. So I I would agree that that this is taking longer than I think any of us wanted it to and we'd love to get just another thing out that's that's more comprehensive and people could start getting behind it. And I I guess my question is isn't the high school edition going to be what it's going to be regardless of what this magical study comes back and tells us? And and if I'm wrong, please correct me. I'm wrong. Again, I go to the definition. What if you're referring to going to maximum capacity, right? There's a set spot of the high school that could be added on to that that could that argument is could be made. But even if you went to maximum capacity based upon the square
190footage available to put an addition, what design are you going to institute for that addition? How many special educations? How many self-contained classrooms? Do the cafeterias have to get installed? There's a lot of study that's driven from the the demographic report. There's no basis for a decision without the demographic report. Also, no, what hasn't happened? I'd just like to add um with all due respect, Mr. Gorski, to what Mr. Gorski is saying I don't know if it'll a demographic update will necessarily specify special ed or general ed or anything else about that. But what it will do is um looking at the latest housing. When we worked with Ross Haber before, he was making predictions based on um constructed models that we didn't have a lot of uh like they used the the birth ratio
191that you know, but this is a situation in Monroe where so many new houses were being constructed and there could be predictions about the ages of the children moving into a particular uh housing development. This enrollment study will certainly uh provide a little bit more basis of okay the predictions were made a year ago. Now we have all these houses that have been built as Ross predicted. Have his predictions been accurate? And that goes to Mrs. Armeno's point. You'll be able to look at the two. I get that. Um I'm going to go out on a limb and say not not go out on a limb. I I would just like to clarify with the administration saying waiting for a recommendation for from the administration to move the process forward. I would just I'm not
192sure who you're referring to, but I would take myself out of the mix because the last steering committee we talked about moving forward with everything and we haven't set up the next meeting. So with all due respect, I just want to clarify that it was not me saying you're not waiting for a recommendation from me is what I'm saying. So I just want to clarify that respectfully. No administration is you know Jerry T is part of Yeah. Are there any other comments or questions? I just want I just want to say with regards to that because I think Paul hit on something with that and and uh you know that the we we already went through plans where we I'm sure buildings and ground. We looked at even cutting up this library, what that would
193look like, all the different, you know, all the different things and we did projections based upon where we would be with with those things. So, you know, are we there now or not? You know, are we at where he said we would be now or not? If we are, then then how far did he project out? And maybe we don't need to do this. If we're not, then maybe he's not the right person to be doing this. So, I think Paul hit on something pretty good there. But, I think that that's something that we need to look at. For the record, I'll qualify one thing. I do understand that you can't just take the old referendum and throw it back out there because it is a specific number and I do know that those numbers
194have to all be reformulated and I get that whole part, but um I guess I just like this to happen sooner than later. Well, I would like to have it sooner, too, but the extra the extra study I could see it for an elementary school. I guess I just don't see it justified for the middle school. Okay. I but that that's just me and I don't want to debate that tonight because you know we have more things to do. Um but yeah I I think um the state kind of ties your hands a little bit and you know we we have to follow them. But if there's one I'm sorry is F on page um the contract renewal for pupil transportation. I don't know if it's still F. Is that is that what we're voting
195on now? That is F. Okay. Yeah. Um I just want to know given the recent tragedy of the school bus um accident in it was New Jersey, right? Yeah. Um, and I know our our school bus drivers are exemplary and they do a wonderful job, but I see that we do have to um hire out. Um, the do we get accident history and employee vetting from these companies when we do hire them for extra pupil transportation? I mean, do we have a way of knowing? Like if, god forbid, we had hired that firm, would we have known? Well, they did. They claim they didn't know of course but is there any kind of vetting that gets done from the transportation department when we when they recommend hiring these people? Madam, sure. The answer is yes.
196It's performed by the Middle Sex Regional Head Service Commission. That's the entity that we mainly contract with for um those services and they also have to comply with board policies. Okay. Um, but was that the same regional service that said that that guy was okay to drive? I can't speak to that specific incident. I just Well, that was a Bergen County. That was Bergen County. So, this parameters in Bergen County. Okay. So, this was a middle This is Middle Sex, Mr. Gorski, you're speaking of a Middle Sex. Yes, ma'am. Okay. Could someone make a call to them and just make sure that they do that for us? um or that you know if if they do do it they let us know that they do it that vet you know I guess the transportation department
197would do that I don't know they no my my comment was it's it's governed by the middle six regional service commission and it's actually educational service it's it's NJ yeah they changed the name what's the name educational services educa educational service commission of New Jersey and that's why it's listed as ESCJ so they provide services throughout the state thank Any other questions? Are you going to call to check that or do you want me to call? Mike. Okay. I'll be happy to call. Mrs. Arminia, would you rephrase exactly the question you wish? I I just want to know if somebody if if if we have a way of knowing the accident history of this company and any employee vetting that they do. I mean, because we're just hiring dorms, school service. I think they may
198be wonderful. We don't know, but I I would like to know if they do if they or somebody provides that kind of history or employee vetting, accident history and employee vetting. Vetting. What do you mean by vetting? Um, well, how do they vet their employees? Yeah. What are the the employment? I'm sorry. The drivers. Yeah. Yeah, that's fine. I can tell you that um you know from our board of education here, we will not uh hire a new bus driver who has any driving violations on on the thing. I can't speak to the specifics of the ED service commission. I'm comfortable with their product. Okay. Uh so are all the other school districts in the county, but I will be happy to ask those questions. Well, I'm confident in our transportation department and the quality,
199as I mentioned, of our drivers, but this is not them. Training, training, training, training, training, training. Yep. Thank you. All right. If there's no further questions, let's have a roll call. Board action items A throughouble O. Mrs. Armenino. Uh, yes. Mr. Braverman. Yes. Mr. Tierella. Yes. Mrs. Deo. Yes. Mrs. Lang. Yes. Mrs. Ko. Yes. Mr. Ryback. Yes. Mr. Russo. No. No. On all. Thank you. All. No. On all. Yes. Very good. M. Not until we get the names. Take a pardon? Not until you get the names. Not till I get the names. all the companies and whom ownership history. Okay, you won't vote yes until you do that. I'm going to vote yes for all. Mrs. board action items A throughouble O has passed. Thank you. That concludes my report. Okay. And since this has
200been a long meeting and we still have some to go, I I do not have a board president's report other than to wish the the community and our staff and our students a safe and happy summer. So, other board of education business, anybody wishing to Yes, I'm I would like to make a motion that we uh in that we uh install Dr. Kak as the interim superintendent. I'll second. Thank you. I'll Patty, did you get that? Nope. Mr. Cherella made a motion to have Dr. Kak as the interim superintendent and it was second by Michelle Armano. Okay. Comments or questions although we can't talk about personnel? Not we'll have a roll call. The second was Mrs. Armeno. Min. So noted. Mrs. Armano. Yes. Mr. Braverman. Yes. Mr. Cherella. Yes. Mrs. Deo. No. Mrs. Lang. No.
201Mrs. Corino. recuse. So noted, Mr. Rybeck. No, Mr. Russo. Can we vote or you you were conflicted? I'm conflicted. So, write that down. You can recuse. He's conflicted. Do you wish to recuse? Well, that's what That's what you have to do. I'll record that as a recuse. Or a conflicted. If you conflicted, you would uh most likely recuse. Yeah. Mr. Rudsky. No. And Mrs. Colonich. No. Madame board president. That's three yays. Five nos, two recusals. Motion does not pass. Okay. Is there any other U board of education business? Okay. Then we will go to the public forum. Anyone wishing to speak about anything, please come to the microphone, state your name and address for the record. Okay, seeing no one, we will close the public forum and go to the close session resolution. Be it
202resolved that the board of education of the township of Monroe hereby moves to go into close session in accordance with the sunshine law chapter 231 of the public laws of 1975 NJSA 104-6 through 104-21 to discuss the following subjects harassment intimidation and bullying I finally said that word right acting superintendent search deliberation process personnel matter following close session action may be taken the discussion conducted in close session can be disclosed to the public at such time as the need for confidentiality no longer exists. So move Mr. Ryback second by Mr. Deo. All in favor? I opposed. Opposed. Opposed. Mr. Tarella. Miss um Miss Armenino is opposing. Um and I have a resolution I have to read before the close session. So I'll do it now. Um, it is recommended that the board of education appoint
203Steven Ryback as temporary board secretary for the remainder of this meeting in accordance with NJSA 18A col 16-1.1. I will move it, but I have one just one one request that we take the that thing away from him. The beeper. Oh, take the beeper. No beeper for him. Okay, a second. Second by Deo. All in favor? Opposed? Miss Mino is opposing. Oh, you're writing all that. Just for clarification purposes, are Frank and Dawn actually leaving or are they staying? Well, they can stay for the HIB. Okay. Okay. Motion passes. Patty. Yes. Um, we're moving on. Patty, we're we're going to close session at this point. Okay. So, we will I'll give you I will text you my home phone number so you can the phone in there. Okay. I have it, Patty. I'll go in
204there and establish the connection. Good, Patty. All right. So, the we are the board will now move back into public session. It is um 12 38 38. And I have a a resolution to read. I make a motion that the Monroe Township Board of Education appoint Robert Goodall as the acting superintendent of schools in the Monroe Township School District effective for the period from July 1st, 2018 through June 30th, 2019 or until such time as a permanent superintendent is appointed by the board, whichever is sooner, subject to the following. One, negotiation of an employment contract acceptable to the parties. Two, approval of the negotiated employment contract by the Middle Sex County Executive County Superintendent in accordance with applicable law and regulation. And three, approval of the negotiated employment contract by the board. The board president
205and board attorney are hereby authorized and directed to take all necessary steps to implement this action by the board of education. So, we need a second. Second. Second by Mr. Mayo. Any comments or questions? Then um Mr. Ryback, we will have a roll call. Oh boy. Okay. Are you ready? Um I'm Well, it won't be alphabetical. Miss Alminia. No. Okay. I have Mr. Rutsky. Yes. Okay. Mr. Chella. Yes. I vote yes. Mr. Mayo, yes. Mr. Colonowitz. Yes. And Mrs. Lang mot. Sorry, Mrs. Lang. Yes. Can you repeat that? Yes. Okay. Sorry. Motion passes. Thank you, Patty. Um, a newbie. At this time, there is no public forum because there is no public here. So, the next board of education meeting is scheduled for um tomorrow, right? Well, oh yeah, it's actually today. Um for today,
206June 14th, 2018, 7:00 p.m. at 7:30 p.m. at the Monro Township High School. It is a special meeting. Motion to adjourn. I think it's already Mr. De Mayo. Second. Second. Seconded by Mrs. Lang. All in favor? Opposed? Then the meeting is adjourned.