001good evening the meeting of the Monroe Township Board of Education will come to order please stand for the Pledge of Allegiance may we have a roll call Mr Gorski certainly Mrs armeno Mr Braverman Mr Ella here Mrs Deo here Mrs kapano here Mrs Lang here Mrs Kino here Mr Rybeck here Mr Russo here Mr rudsky [Music] here Madam board president you have a quarum present this evening in accordance with the provisions of the New Jersey open public meetings law the Monroe Township Board of Education has caused notice of of this meeting to be published by having the date time and place thereof posted April 20th 2018 at all schools the home News Tribune cranberry press and filed with the clerk of the municipality thank you at this time we needed the approval of the minutes
002for the public Board of Education meeting of March 22nd 2018 I move I'll second Mrs slang and Mr rutsky any additions or corrections to the minutes seeing none all in favor I opposed abstentions Miss corino's abstaining any other extensions okay um uh the approval of the minutes for the special public Board of Education meeting of March 27th 2018 so moved Mrs Lang second second by Mr Ryback additions or corrections to the minutes seeing none all in favor I I approve uh opposed I abstain Miss armino abstains Iain Mr rutzky abstains so I was not here Mr Miss corino's abstaining so noted okay and a approval of the minutes for the Clos session meeting of March 27th mov Mr Mayor second second by Mrs L additions or corrections to the closed session minutes okay all in
003favor opposed Miss Miss s Mino is opposing opposed yes abstentions Iain Mr rutsky abstains Mr Corino abstains okay okay and at this time uh we have quite a few presentations this afternoon or this evening and the first one I will uh turn over to Dr alvic we have a student presentation by oak tree good evening so this evening we have oak tree coming to present on a program that they had for the kindergarten students it was an mtea fast Grant um it's Laura Goldstein organized this paint party for our kindergarten students um the grant provided the students and their parents uh I'm sorry the grant provided for students art canvases aprons art hats paints and brushes along with step-by-step instructions by a local artist um Kathleen miralda from the cranberry station Gallery I I had
004the pleasure of getting to go and visit one of the classrooms while they were working on mixing paint colors and creating their masterpieces so I'm going to turn it over to Mrs Dinsmore and Mrs Goldstein [Music] hello good evening everybody I'm Patty denmore I'm the very proud principal of oak tree school I am honored to introduce to you tonight A you a unique event that took place in March at Oak Tre involving our entire prek and kindergarten staff families as well as Mrs miralda the owner of the cranberry station Art Gallery research has continually shown the importance of incorporating art education within the school curriculum including gains in motivation concentration confidence and teamwork while our halfday prek and kindergarten programs do not presently include for formal art instruction our staff Works diligently to provide multiple
005opportunities for students to create using paint crayons scissors markers and yes glue while integrating artistic themes into social studies science math and reading lessons here to tell you more is special education instructor and writer of the mtea fast Grant Mrs Laura Goldstein I do not consider myself to be an artist however I have been invited to attend several paint parties over the past few years and have come out um with pieces of art that look like an artist made them um we were talking about this at a grade level meeting and the team and I discussed the idea of inviting our students to experience a paint party during the school hours and inviting their family in to participate and um at that meeting the idea for our grant kindergarten teach teaching diversity and kindness to
006the Arts was born the mtaa fast Grant provided the funds um for a complete experience for the kids including adorable artist beray that you will see in the video um and Kathy morala um who's a local artist um just was a fantastic teacher who taught them um stepbystep um developmentally appropriate um ways to make a painting that really looked like um an Earth with children holding hands around it and here without further Ado is the video of our grant in action and if you look up there I'm going to keep that on the overhead projector thanks Mr bars we have a a visual that you can kind of get an idea of what we're going to do today we're we're going to make a circle of the world of the earth and then all the
007children around it you can add more children on you can make less but that gives you an idea and there's a they're all different colors of the rainbow so when we get to that you're going to make those children around the earth any colors you want everyone's a different color right everyone's a different shade everyone has favorite colors so it doesn't make any difference right we're all the same and we all have the same Earth well well the exciting part about today is that the um mtea has uh decided that it would be a nice idea along with the teachers the kindergarten teachers in preschool to put the art back in [Music] kindergarten whenever it's lighter [Music] the mon Township Education Association um which is our local teachers union um put together some fast grants
008um which is families and schools together um and they encouraged us to find areas where we could bring families into the school um and you know provide Rich experiences for the students um so the kindergarten team and I I um got together and I wrote up the Grant and we were rewarded it which was a great thrill um to provide this opportunity for our students lli on your on your sticks please put your P up in the air so I know do ready ready you have to some remember the Earth has have a red one you had a yellow one red apron you know in this busy life there aren't a lot of opportunities for kids to sit with messy paint all dressed up like an artist and just kind of discover that you can
009make red and yellow turn into orange so that was really wonderful for us to see put [Music] your um and now um we have four wonderful students who came to show you their masterpieces so um please give a round of applause here is Michaela I'm going show your art so beautiful you can and Leah so very [Applause] [Music] proud very nice that's beautiful did you guys have did you students have a good time doing [Laughter] this I what a nice gift for Mom and Dad yeah and thank you to the mtea for continuing to support all of our students in in these wonderful activities that we showcase every month at our board meetings it's really nice to see what the is happening in our classrooms thank [Applause] you okay at this time we will have
010a presentation by the Henry rickless Holocaust Memorial essay committee Dr kosette yeah so it's with great pleasure that we ask David Rothman to come up and every year our students get the opportunity the wonderful opportunity to participate in this sa contest and every year Mr Rothman comes out and is able to present either the winners or winner of the essay contest and we always look forward to hearing the students uh hopefully read I don't know if they're going to read tonight or not we'll we'll have one or two do that yes absolutely um pleasure to be before you uh uh Dr kak members of the board um just a little brief background uh Henry rickus was a liberator he liberated daal and he had a business came back to New Jersey uh and when it
011was time to retire came to where else Monroe Township moved to Concordia he saw the need to have something to commemorate what happened in the Holocaust and he created a committee and upon his passing we named it after him now every year we have a holocaust essay contest it's voluntary uh and I want to uh call out Matty philippus somewhere here and also Bonnie caletto they make it seamless for us um Freshman Class comes in and we're able to bring three Holocaust Survivors and every Holocaust Survivor story is unique well Lithuania Poland France so forth and then we challenge the students your choice after hearing them do some more research and we give them eight Poss possible essays well last year we got all voluntary 280 essays were turned in the highest number ever all
012good 10 were outstanding uh I'd like to share at least two of them to your question Dr kak and the first one I'd like to call up is Brenda Chavez Brenda are you somewhere here and I'm going to turn this over to you she CH the challenge to her was why is it important to even learn about the Holocaust and what do we do with those lessons going forward rendom good afternoon uh evening put that down I'm short um it is hard to imagine that 72 years ago Europe was consumed by enormous cloud of hatred that blinded thousands of people the blood of innocent Jews were spilled due to harmful messages that encourage anti-Semitism men women and children were victims of the Holocaust because they were different these innocent people were used as scapegoats for
013all of Germany's problems one should never forget the million of lives lost during the period of Darkness because these victims deserve to have a voice that must be heard that is why it is very important for students to learn about the hate crimes that were directed towards a group of people that were thought to be inferior students will be able to understand what racism and Prejudice can do in a matter of time the lessons learned about the Holocaust can be used in today's world that is still consumed with bias opinions towards certain religious and racial groups the Holocaust is a very tough and Grim subject to learn about but the lessons that can be derived from this period of time is very essential for students of today's generation students will understand how feelings of racial
014superiority can brainwash millions of people into hurting and killing others is just because they are different skin tones or religions they will learn how racist messages that are spread and shared with others can quickly convince young people that they are superior or better than other citizens this lesson can help students prevent such harmful and hateful words to grow popular amongst their peers learning about the deaths of Jews during the Holocaust can teach students to accept religious diversity in their communities to learn how to accept diversity will make students understand that everyone is equal no matter what unfortunately the Holocaust could have been prevented if everyone came together and fought against early anti-emetic plans the importance of learning about the Holocaust will teach students not to be a bystander and not to allow actions that hurt
015other people take place students will learn how to stand up for not just themselves but for anyone else who is being attacked and needs help these valuable lessons that can be learned from the Holocaust can also be used in today's world students will be able to look at a person from a different religion and know how to accept them for the person that they are not to hate them for what they believe in these young students will not be infected by the hatred that might have spread through their friends because they now know what Prejudice can do after learning about the Holocaust they will have an understanding of what can happen if they let themselves be filled with offensive ideas the important lesson of never being a bystander can be extremely valuable because the children
016would know that they have the power to change the world and make it a better place to live in they will be able to fight for what is right instead of allowing the wrong thing grow bigger it took 6 million Jews to have their lives taken away for the whole world to realize that they must change their way of thinking 6 million innocent lives were targeted because they were not seen as ideal humans learning about the Holocaust can prevent another tragic event like this to occur students will learn the importance of accepting and treating everyone equally because no one is better than the other their eyes will not see color or religion but instead they will see quality of someone's heart as they listen to the sad stories of Holocaust Survivors the students will understand
017that the world needs more loving people that want to unite everyone as one instead of separating and tormenting families the Holocaust should not be an event that is forgotten but it should live in the memories of all as a lesson it should be remind us how many lives have left this Earth because they were different the Holocaust should teach our children that they will never again look at someone and make that person feel inferior to them lastly the Holocaust should be a reminder to everyone that they should love one another and together they can change the world to a better place for the Next Generation thank you [Applause] this is America capitalist system so we want to make uh when you win an sa contest you get paid for it so here's your $50 gift
018certificate and I'll be calling up the other show thank you okay now another student one of our 10 winners Kendra Stevens she took the question what would you do or say if you ran into a holocaust denier came in contact Kendra Kendra please come forward well yours thank you when people recall some of the worst events in human history one of the first ones that comes to mind is the Holocaust the Holocaust took place over 70 years ago yet it is still a major topic of discussion for people all around the world today it is an important part of our history that many people do not want to admit ever happened and some even believe that it was a Jewish plot to advance their interests there are those who did Den that the Holocaust ever
019happened while others say that the Holocaust did occur but that the 6 million Jews that were targeted by Hitler and the Nazis were not murdered however the evidence that the Holocaust occurred and 6 million Jews were eliminated is Crystal Clear to begin Holocaust deniers are people who believe in forms of anti-Semitism their beliefs about what they think really happened stem from feelings of hatred towards Jewish people these people view the idea of the Holocaust as a plot by the Jewish to draw attention of their own beliefs and a way to plant seeds of a Jewish State Inside the Minds of leaders all around the world in addition they deemed that the gas Chambers built in the owitz extermination camp never existed despite the amount of evidence that we have today there are still those who
020remain firm in their beliefs from personal journals Diaries newspapers video footage and their survivors themselves there's enough proof to fill an entire library in my opinion it doesn't matter what words Holocaust us used to deny the Holocaust and all the people who suffered and ever transpired their words are only understood by those who speak the language of fear and hatred by refusing to admit that millions of Jews were exterminated in the holoc cost also means that they refused to accept the fact that millions of non-jewish citizens suffered as well countless of countless amounts of research and investigation have been conducted to prove that over 11 million people perished in total 6 million of which were Jewish it is hard to think that there are still people on this planet who can deny the existence of
021the most horrific genocide of all time if I was to come into contact with the holoc den the first thing I would ask them would be what evidence do you have to prove that the hust was nothing more than a story honestly I wouldn't expect them to have a decent enough response to which I would then proceed to tell tell them about why their beliefs are incorrect I would share with them Snippets of some of the Holocaust Holocaust Survivor stories that I've heard in school and from the ones I've read about online hopefully at the end of our discussion we would both agree that the Holocaust was very real it's important for young students and people today to learn about what transpired in the past so that we can prevent the same thing from repeating
022itself in the future the Holocaust showed everyone around the world that human beings can become our own worst nightmares and that fear and hatred are powerful weapons that monstrous people can use to oppress others my great-grandmother who escaped from Poland during World War II told me that in war there are no winners they're only survivors when I try to imagine the pain and suffering that she went through it only feeds my anger and frustration when I hear of people who say that none of it was real after she left Poland and came to the United States she never wanted to go back home because it was simply too painful in order to prevent the Holocaust from ever happening again we need to make Holocaust deniers realize that the Holocaust is not something that should be
023ignored or rejected even though it took place many years ago it is only by realizing our mistakes and admitting that they happen that we will be able to learn from them and take care of steps to ensure that the future is peaceful and prosperous thank [Applause] you super superb okay spend this frivolously okay enjoy it thank you you did great okay let me read off the other eight names and if it'd be appropriate I'd like to uh hand them their gifts okay uh Caitlyn weissan please come up here you are thank you so much uh H stay what would all would all of you come back up and stand over here so we could get a good picture come on back up okay next I need zarak Atif zarak thank you McKenna pagon okay okay
024all right uh Ashley panello thank you uh Mahi by the way I I never met you before so I'm not always sure I pronounce it right so mahi perit wow I got it okay Isabella Moretta Isabella okay um since I don't trust me with this uh mattity philippus I'll give it this to you afterwards okay Kristen Belo you're Kristen Belco and Nikita nir Nikita Nikita sounds like Matty philippus gets two we want to have a recording of of to make sure that do you want to have him sign when he does it thank you very much it's a pleasure huh okay thank you all if any of you happen to be free off work on May 10th at 8:30 in the morning we're going to have for the new freshman class we are bringing three
025more survivors so you're all welcome to join us thank you thank you for continuing to bring this essay competition to our Board of Education we look forward every year to listening to what the stories that the the children or students are writing thank you thank you so for having us okay at this time the next program on our agenda is board training Workshop by New Jersey school boards association with us today we have Maryann fredman our our board representative to New Jersey School Board Association and having training is one of the goals that the board set for ourselves for this year and um we felt that this was a good time to have some training thank you Maryann for being here thank you for having me I have some packets to send around so thank
026you for having me as you know many of you will remember I was here last summer and we did develop board and District goals and one of the board goals was to have professional development and so tonight I was asked to come in and talk to you all about your roles and responsibilities as board members and we call this now foundations of board governance so the question is how many board members does it take to change a light bulb [Laughter] 12 I heard 12 from the audience how many from the board a majority a majority actually it takes none it's up to the board to say let there be light it's up to the superintendent to determine what kind of light that will be incandescent fluorescent candle which we don't see anymore um solar or
027neon and then it's really up to the board to make sure that you provide the resources for the superintendent to be able to provide that light and then to evalue valate the lighting so there are really four functions of a board of education and we break them into policy planning um and then um accountability and Communications and the first one is to provide guidance through policy development and you all know that you're a policymaking body one of the things that you do every year is you review and um submit your board self- evaluation which hopefully you'll be doing shortly and I would encourage you to do that that is up online on our website and you don't need need to anybody can go in and get started on that the superintendent's evaluation you need the
028superintendent to go in and kick that off but for the board self- evaluation you all can go in at any point in time and um so that also asks you about how you are doing in terms of policy and you know that when you do the board self- evaluation we ask you to rate yourselves as an entity as a board of education and then we ask you to rate yourselves as individual board members and then I can come back in and provide the review of that and what all that means what your your compilation means so as a policymaking body you want to consider curriculum Personnel all kinds of things facility and finance budget um business management things of that sort and then to provide a pro a program of quality instruction which is the
029the planning piece and that you're also you're approving curriculum on an annual basis and you're reviewing new curriculum as it comes out perhaps seeing Pilots of of getting information about Pilots that are being piloted in your District um and then getting reports on student achievement on the results of student achievement in your District then we have the oversight and Appraisal which is to provide for the effective management of your school district and in order to do that you hire a superintendent and then the superintendent is the one that figures out how he's going to get you what it is you want to have done in the district and every year by Statute and by code you also evaluate the superintendent at least on an annual basis so that evaluation process is up and running and
030um there is a new evaluation process that I think some of you came and had training on um and we also had training rolling out rolled out training at Workshop in in October of last year at our annual um conference in Atlantic City so in that respect you're evaluating the superintendent and you're holding the superintendent accountable to you the board the other area is to provide two-way communication between the board and the community you really are the aison as board members between your community and the district and vice versa so you want to make sure that you have an appropriate process for communication to the community and from the community to the district and the superintendent in your packet you have a much larger Vision version of setting the stage on the right hand side
031and basically what this is showing is that the board determines what it is you would like to see happen in the district so we say you are the what people that's not a question you determine what it is you would like to see happen in the district in the areas of planning program Personnel Finance facilities and communication and then you do that through your District goal setting process those are the things that you develop on an annual basis and you usually have four or five goal areas we don't like you to have more than that because those are things that you want to have heightened focus on in the upcoming year so it doesn't include the day-to-day operations of the district these are focal points for the year and then your administrative team your superintendent
032and administrative team determine how they're going to get you from where you are in that particular area to where you would like to be at the end of the year sometimes goals are multiple multi-year goals and sometimes you have strategic planning goals as well but District in terms of the annual District goals those are usually one-year goals and should be determined by the end of June now in terms of the superintendent's evaluation you need to evaluate the superintendent by July 1st which is a process and getting nine people or 10 people to do anything can sometimes be like trying to h cats in an open field and I say that in the most loving way because I was a board president and had to do this myself um so you have to work backwards so
033that process really should be beginning about now in order to get this done because you'll have to have superintendent needs to go in and complete his portion then board members are invited to go in and complete theirs barring any conflicts of interest and then the compilation needs to come back to you the non-conflicted board members need to meet in an executive session having rice the superintendent and you develop the majority opinion of the board of the non-conflicted members of the board and then somebody will write up a summary document and then it's your next board meeting we always suggest that you give the superintendent that summary document about 48 hours before your summary conference you'll have your summary conference again having rice the superintendent and that's just for the board and the non-conflicted members of
034the board superint endent non-conflicted members of the board excuse me to be able to address each other about the superintendent's performance and evaluation over the past year so you're always really evaluating on progress towards the achievement of the goals not necessarily whether the goal has been achieved or not any questions on any of that so far okay so now we're going to get into some roles and some scenarios so this is designed to be interactive and I hope that you all will will participate at as as board members with us and tell me why or why not some this scenario shouldn't happen or should happen so the board of education has successfully passed an elementary school building referendum and construction on the school has begun one of the board members who runs a large construction
035company has begun visiting the construction site every day to speak with the construction manager and check on the progress of the project is that something as an individual board member that you should be doing no no absolutely so if you wanted to as a board you had a construction project that was in process and as a board you said you know what we'd really like to be able to go over and see what was going on you would ask the superintendent to schedule a time and four of you could go over at a time or if you did it at a meeting you could go over before a meeting um or have your meeting open your meeting and go over to the construction site and that way the superintendent has managed that and arranged that
036with the construction manager or the business administrator has done so and then you can can look around and they'll take you on a tour of the building but that's not something that in your day-to-day operations as a board as a board you would be able to do because the liability in the district would be out incredible and you're also it's micromanagement so you really don't want to do that okay any questions on that one okay how about in executive session the majority of the board decides to support the superintendent's recommendation to fire its extremely popular football coach because of recent unprofessional and unsportsmanlike behavior following a disappointing loss to a big rival that's a very long sentence the next day board member who strongly disagrees with the decision calls his best friend who on who's
037on the board um whose son is a member of the football team and tells them about the board's decision and encourages the um the friend to bring the team and their parents to the next board meeting to try and get the board to change their decision is that something that you should do no I'm I'm hearing a lot from the audience [Laughter] excuse me no that isn't something you could you should do first of all sorry I'm still battling a cough after after a month of bronchitis um first of all what happens in executive session needs to stay an executive session so think I always think about the old commercial what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas so that really needs to be the case if somebody is conflicted out of being in that conversation
038in executive session that doesn't mean that then you should call that person afterwards and say hi this is what you missed in executive session it's for the board member who's conflicted it's for his or her protection to not be in that meeting it's for the board's protection for that person not to be in the meeting and it's for the district's protection for that person not to be in the meeting yes I have two questions regarding confidentiality and close session one if a board member happened to be absent but they were not conflicted could they be privy to the information at a later date yes okay that's one secondly uh when we are talking about confidentiality does that mean all the board members have that confidentiality and can and does that extend also to the President
039and Vice President of the board yes every as you probably are aware every year at your annual reorganization meeting which now happens in January because you have a November election you uh you vote and you approve the code of ethics and you adopt that and that means that every board member is subject to to following that code of ethics and confidentiality is listed in the 10 tenants of the code of ethics and and what happens if after that meeting uh it is it is thought or or uh a member decides that they should consult another party for I don't know to to help with one of the issues um outside of the closed session is that acceptable I think it would depend on who that person was if it was the board attorney attorney that
040would be something different if it was another member of the board who wasn't conflicted as you just asked and could be a part of could have been a part of that conversation I think that that would be okay if it's a conflicted member or if it's a member who if it's somebody who's not a member of the Board of Education that would be a con that would be a direct violation of the confidentiality Clause okay and um you answered that and I thought of something else but it just I'll come I'll come back to that if I may when I remember okay question okay was there another question I thought I should heard somebody say question okay um okay so the next one is the beginning of the annual budgeting process the Board of Education
041meets with the superintendent and the business administrator and sets parameters for the budget is that something that you should do as a board board members yes I hope you're doing that that's what board should be doing so you should be meeting to determine what your budgeting parameters are going to be if you were to get a wind of money which is laughable at this point because it just doesn't happen but if you were to get some additional money from the from your from the state um where would you like to see that money go what would the priorities be and do you have any strategic planning goals that need to be um that need you need to provide Financial Resources for over the upcoming year so those are all conversations that you should be having
042before the budget is is struck and as you're going through the process of developing that budget and so hopefully Boards of Education throughout the state have been having those conversations and I think tonight you're voting on your budget correct we are okay so hopefully all those conversations have already taken place and you're in good shape in terms of of the budget and terms of adopting the budget okay um the next scenario is Claire maray a member of the board of education is in the Pro produ section of the local supermarket when two of her neighbors come up to her and ask her and tell her that their daughters have told them that their third grade teacher Mrs Smith spends part of every day talking and texting on her cell phone while she's in her classroom
043with the students to calm them down clear promises the board member promises to investigate the situation and make sure that it doesn't continue is that something that as an individual board member you should do no no no so you we and we talked about this the last time that I was in you have a chain of command and one of the things that you want to do is be able to so Claire Murray should have referred those folks back to the ch of command in the lowest level so they would go talk to the teacher first if they didn't feel that they had resolution from the situation then they could go talk to an assistant principal or Andor the principal if they still don't feel that there's resolution to the issue then they can go
044to an assistant superintendent and then to the superintendent and you all as a board are the court of last resort so you don't want to get involved in the dayto day you're all people who care very deeply about your communities and about the kids in your communities or you wouldn't be sitting here here and what you just had your two presentations the kindergarten students and the The Freshman students who won the um the Holocaust essay contest that's why you do what you do and that's a really great reminder and I always like to to be here for that so I always offer to go after those those things because it does help to remind us of why we do what we do but you would then be able to so you can refer somebody through
045the chain of command and let them know what the chain of command is and tell them you're very concerned about the issue and you hope that they'll you know get back to you as you go as they go through but the reason for that is because most often these situations can be resolved at the lowest level in the chain but after you refer the the person back to to the chain of command and go through the steps you should then give the superintendent a quick call or send a quick email and say by the way um one of the moms told me I met you know a couple of parents in the supermarket and they told me that Mrs Smith I think it was um in third grade is talking and text texting on her
046phone and talking on her cell phone while the kids are in class I just wanted to give you a heads up that protects you as well as a board member in letting the superintendent know that you've referred folks back to the chain where there any questions on this one I know that this is a hard one because you do most of the time the people who are on the board are sitting here because they care very deeply about their communities and you like to help people people so this kind of goes against the grain of that but as a board member it would be something that would be outside of your realm of responsibilities as a board member you had a question sure um uh sometimes people and uh whether it is Justified or not
047fear that there might be some retaliation and that may be too strong a word but there may be some concerns about if they say something their child might not have the same um you know be you know some something may change with their with their child and I've heard that on more than one occasion over the years again not saying that it's Justified or or or could be verified but what happens if someone expresses that kind of concern I mean some people are afraid to speak up regardless I would suggest then that they go to the next step so if they didn't want to go to the teacher they felt that there might be retaliation and keep in mind that most districts have processes in place where that's something that's really um it it's avoided
048at all costs to have any kind of Retribution um or retaliation against the child but they could go to an assistant principal then if it was a if it was uh a teacher excuse me they go to an assistant principal but I pretty much promise you that the assistant principal would ask that person to talk to the teacher as well they may go and talk with them with the with the parent but they will usually refer back to the chain of command as well and that's the other reason why as a board member you don't just go directly to the superintendent with the claim um in terms of him or her fixing that situation because they're going to refer the parent back to the lowest level in the chain too because that's where it gets
049resolved the most and by the way resolution doesn't necessarily mean that everybody got what they wanted it may mean that they understand why they can't get what they want okay yes just a comment about that uh Mr you're absolutely right I've heard that comment many many times people are afraid whether it's the afraid to say something to a coach because their son or daughter might lose playing time or they're afraid to say something to a teacher uh you know or principal or wh whomever one thing that that we can do to reassure parents is a followup so if they contact let's say the teacher and they want to they have a question about something going on with their child in a classroom and they're afraid that there there may be retaliation uh or even involving
050the assistant principal or the principal the assistant principal principal or the teacher can follow up in another couple days just to check to reassure the parent uh so that parent has a chance to you know to know that we're not in a business of retaliation right not at all right and again that's why you let the superintendent know to give him a heads up so that he can then follow up and get back down to that you know to that particular person or to the assistant principal or whatever but I was unclear at what point you say that not at the first conversation you have with that person then after they've gone up through the chain of command no after so you've gotten a phone call from from me and I've said that Mrs Smith
051I hope you don't have any third grade teachers Mrs Smith Mrs Smith the third grade teacher is you know there's a problem in the classroom then you would let you would refer me to the chain of command did you speak to Mrs Smith first if you haven't then you really should do that if then you don't feel that you've gotten any resolution to the problem then go to an assistant principal and so on and so forth but then after you're done talking with that with me the per the mom that's calling you you can let the superintendent know in an email or a a quick phone call and I really do mean a quick email or a quick phone call you know it doesn't have to be a novel and it doesn't have to be
052you know um a you know a half hour phone conversation or whatever but just to let the superintendent know so that they can follow up and make sure that there's been resolution to the situation I do I I remembered I was ask you on the other question okay so if uh if there is a need for some reason to uh go outside of the closed session um discussion either administrator or vice principal I mean I'm sorry um the vice president or president and uh or yeah I guess that's I've got it all or the attorney and they do go out after after the Clos session we're all sworn to confidentiality is that and that and some action is taken should the board be apprised of that as soon as possible either either in an email
053or generally you have to be really and it depends on what the involve what the situation is again so it could does Mike calber who was our legal head of our legal would always say it depends and I hate to use that phrase because I know it gets people confused but um I think it does really depend you have to be really careful with emails though and we've talked about that I know we talked about that last year when I was here never repli to all it should be one-way information and not responding um if you need to respond to somebody give them a call um those kinds of things but there there may be times outside where something is discussed in executive session where then something else has to take place outside of that
054either with the board attorney or with an administrator and that would then that would require some followup to the board right the board should be before any decision is made right because sometimes decisions are made in close session and then afterwards another decision well technically you can take a straw poll in executive session but you can't vote in executive session so the any all voting that you do has to take place in public so you may get a straw poll in executive session to see what the majority of the board's wishes are and then be able to follow through with that afterwards thank you okay okay the Board of Education holds its meeting on the 1 and third Tuesday of the month board members receive their board packets on the Friday Friday preceding one of
055the members of the board in reading his packet over the weekend believes he's found an error in one of the proposals that the board will vote on on Tuesday and to make sure that everyone on the board is involved he decides to hold out until the meeting and then bring up point out the error and ask for clarification no not a good idea one of the things that you want to do as board members is and and sometimes people will say well I want everybody like this gentleman did in this scenario I want everybody to be able to hear the answer or know that I I found this error you can call the superintendent call the business administrator whatever your works in your um with your board and hopefully you have figured that out sometimes
056it's called a board president sometimes it's go to the uh superintendent or the ba depending on what the issue is but to ask the question and ask for the clarification and then because the superintendent or the ba or whoever may need some time to be able to get back to you with an answer on on that so then they can come back to you at the meeting with the answer and you can always say after the first and the second motion has been made and you're in discussion I had a question I called Dr kak and I asked him my question and this was the answer so that everybody does get the benefit of the answer but you've given the administration the time to be able to make sure that they have have researched the
057question and have the answer for you because some not always will they have all the answers for you right here at a board meeting when a question is asked okay the next one is a board member um has received multiple calls complaining about the behavior of a teacher at the middle school although she refers each of the callers up to the chain of command she also calls the superintendent to alert him to the issue that's a gimme I gave you that one because we already talked about that so the elementary school needs a new assistant principal and because in this case the superintendent is brand new the board decid Ides to help by reading all of the applications and interviewing all of the candidates for the position again no you are overseers you provide oversight
058the superintendent has the qualifications the certification the education and the training um and the background to be able excuse me to make these decisions so the conversations that you all can be having especially if it was a new superintendent or even if it wasn't is to say what kind we're looking for a principal for one of for an assistant principal for one of our elementary schools what qualifications are we looking for in that person what what qualities are we looking for in that person what kind of educational background and certification so that you can have those questions so when the recommendation comes to you as a board you can ask what made this person rise to the top and is this person everything we had talked about when we talked about it a couple of
059months ago okay so you're not you're you're taking into consideration the recommendation of the superintendent based on the qualifications and certifications that he has keep in mind if anything goes a with an appointment of a staff member that you've approved it's the superintendent certification that's on the line he is ultimately responsible or she okay the next one is a board member is very concerned about the district math scores she's heard a lot of talk about a new Miracle math program that's being advertised on television she asked the superintendent to research the program and prepare a report comparing that program not only with the district's current math program but also with math programs in surrounding districts or in neighboring districts is that something that an individual board member should ask the superintendent to do no the
060board directs the superintendent the majority of the board directs make provides the direction to the superintendent individual board members if that were the case your superintendent would never be able to manage the the day-to-day operations of the district because everybody would be calling and saying I'd like a report on this and I'd like a report on that if the curriculum committee decided that they would like to ask their leaon to the curriculum committee about a math program that was some that would be something that the curriculum committee could vet through though as well and then provide a recommendation to the super to the board that's come down from the superintendent okay the next one is a former teacher is now a board member and is often approached by teachers because she knows they're more comfortable
061with her than with the superintendent she encourages them to come to her with their problems or concerns is that something that you should do I'm very happy I'm seeing no head shaking no side to side um that's averting the authority of the superintendent even your your teaching staff and anybody in negotiated agreements that you have has a a um a chain of command that they need to go through that's outlined in their negotiated agreement all of your buildings have a building rep that somebody would go to if they had an issue first and then it would go through the chain of command and go with the teachers in terms of their contract or the administrators okay and the last one is a board member knows that New Jersey state law requires that all curriculum meets
062the standard set it should say in the New Jersey student learning standards in order to ensure that the curriculum meets those Standards Board member decides to go to the elementary school and question teachers and administration about the implementation of the curriculum and whether they believe it meets the new standards or not if that something that you should do no the thing about being a board member is that you're a board member only when you're at a legally advertised meeting with a quorum of the board so other than that you're just a regular person and so it would be like if I went to the school one of your schools and said you know what I'd like to come in I'd like to walk around and I'd like to see what technology you're using and things
063like that I would hope that you wouldn't let me do that I would hope that you have protocols and safety and um security issues in the buildings and I'm sure that you do right sir there you go um so that that wouldn't be allowed to happen and that's what you really have to consider yourself if you need to be in the building for something let the superintendent know so that he can alert the staff because otherwise there really there's a lot of talking that can go back and forth about why people are in the building and you don't want to disrupt the day-to-day operations of the school as well or with teachers because we know that every time somebody walks into a classroom it disrupts learning okay there is a Personnel quiz on the right
064hand side of your packet the question or the answers to that Personnel quiz are on the leftand side of your packet on salmon paper if you would like we can go through those or if you feel you're okay to to to take a look at those we can do that too what's your pleasure I don't know what time it is how am I doing with time do you guys want to take a test I no you don't want to take okay okay we can that on our own so in summary and you do have all the answers on the leftand side in summary there are four basic functions of the board it's policy it's planning oversight and appraisal and Communications we hope that you'll respect the what and the how so from the administration side
065we hope Administration will respect that the board determines the what and from the board side the board respects the administration's development of the how when you become a board member it's like looking at your your community through a um it's like going up in a hot air balloon when you're Community member a parent in the community and you have kids in the school or grandkids in the school nieces or nephews best friends kids whatever you tend to look at the school through a microscope how is it impacting my child my neighbor's child my grandkids my nieces or nephews when you become a board member it's like going up into a hot air balloon over all of Monroe Township which happens to be very big and I know cuz I drove through most of it tonight
066because of the detour so um it's like going up into that hot air balloon and looking down over all of Monroe Township and saying we're responsible as a board of education together for all of these students that come to our schools so it's really you become Big Picture People um in terms of personnel know what you should know and what you shouldn't be doing this really is a team sport being on the board um it's all about relationships and building relationships with one another with your administrative team the administrative team building relationships with you and that's the best way that things can happen and the way for that trust and that respect to happen is through Communications so we hope that that this program was helpful and I thank you for all you do for
067all of your students because all of your students are all of our students questions does anybody have questions for Miss fredman they don't seem to okay well I look forward to seeing you again soon um for our next training session and um let me know when you would like for me to come back and I'd be happy to do that okay oh thank you and thank you for being here this evening thank you very much and it was a it was really my pleasure to see the student presentations that's the part that I love the most we are we have phenomenal children in our district you certainly do thank you thank you very much [Applause] okay put this away okay at this time we will go to the presentation and public hearing of the 201819
068school budget Dr kosek Dr Alvi and Mr Gorski good evening everyone this is our second Public Presentation of the budget so we're going to make this a little bit shorter many of you may have heard the first part uh the first presentation so we won't go through everything the same but we will take time to go through the really important parts the financial parts so basically the presentation uh is a compilation of work really that Mr Gorski as our business administrator really does the uh bulk of the work uh but he also works in in coordination with myself Dr alvic our district leadership team who then also work with our uh teachers and other staff members of course none of this could be done without the support of the Board of Education we have Mrs
069Kathy K panovich as our board president Mr Steven Ryback as our vice president we oh and uh also the chair of the Personnel committee uh Mr Braverman we have Miss M miss armenio our chair of our policy committee uh Mr cherella our chair of our buildings grounds and transportation committee Miss Jill Deo our chair of our curriculum committee and uh Mrs Lang uh Miss Corino Miss Don Corino Mr Frank Russo and of course our uh Mr Paul rusy you moved you moved on me Paul you moved I'm used to pointing over here and I'm thinking Paul you you know you look better now all of a sudden but sorry uh Mr Paul rutsky our Jamesburg representative um of course our finance commiss uh committee excuse me uh Mr rusy chairs our finance committee Mr Frank
070Russo is our vice chairperson Mr Ken Chella Mr jel Deo uh are members of that committee with Miss Don Corino and Mrs K Miss stol Corino as our alternative and Mrs Kathy K panovich as our ex officio as a board president who can sit on any of the any and all of the Committees our vision statement and our mission statement is clearly stated here and again also on our website our district goals they were set out a little bit different this year than they have been in the past and we had to set up as a if you will as a column these are the four main areas with subcategories underneath each of these areas so the first is always one of our core mission is to improve student achievement to our second is to
071improve School facil ilities to increase Community involvement and certainly to improve management and operations our board as you heard tonight also sets goals and the and excuse me for getting closer it's a little hard uh the board the three goals are to evaluate and adopt a plan for enrollment and growth enrollment growth and facility needs to continue professional development for board members as you saw tonight the board will review the sampling of well review the sampling of programs and to improve committee communication with reports to the O rest of the other or the other board members and you're taking that one okay and now I'm turn it over to Dr alen here you go thank you so when we began the budget process way back in September and October of this school year we had
072several key consider ations as we were looking at the budget for next school year one of them was we are anticipating an increase of 452 students next year we are also looking at our aging facilities and the needs that each of our schools have at each of our school buildings have at this time we are always looking at our core content areas and all of our other content areas to ensure that we're meeting the New Jersey student learning standards um and making sure that our students have the opportunities that they deserve um we are continually looking at our student and teacher ratios in all of our classrooms and the we're always keeping our eye on the tax impact for the community so those are our key considerations as we start planning for the school budget
073we begin as I said way back in September in October through the budget process it begins with the budget philosophy meeting of the Board of Education where they give us our um directive of how we need to plan for the budget we start looking at our enrollment figures we review our staffing needs and then we begin with budget development so our supervisors meet with our building administrators on the content areas and fill them in on um any changes or updates that are happening in the district our buildings look at their needs in the classrooms for materials resources supplies teachers um and then each School develops each school and Department develops their budget those budgets then come through budget defense rounds um that means that we meet with each of the uh School leaders or department
074leaders and we review their budgets line by line um it's a very intense process but we're trying to ensure that all of our schools um specifically across the elementary schools because there are multiple schools at the same grade level that they are consistent and that we're being very um careful with our purchasing then it goes then we uh Mr Gorski patiently waits for the budget address from the governor to find out what our Aid um will be and then we find out what our state aid award is from there we then bring it to the Board of Education where we get a tentative budget adoption and then we have this public hearing for the final budget adoption and then the um along in that process it's also presented to the county superintendent to ensure that
075we're following everything that we're supposed to be doing so as we looked at our budget for next year and I talked a lot about this so I'm not going to spend a lot of time on this we talked a lot about this at the last board meeting um things that we're doing in our budget the programs and opportunities that we're providing for our students we have we have all of our curriculum is aligned to the New Jersey student learning standards forly known as the common core standards um and we review those and our curriculum documents every five years to ensure that we're meeting those needs um they are working documents so if if tweaks need to be made in between we're doing that also um we are preparing our students using differentiated instruction for our
076Park assessments we've Incorporated the nwaa map assessments k to8 um and the teachers are using that data to plan for instruction and next year we will be moving those assessments to the high school in the math and language departments language arts departments um we are focusing on supporting the whole child so we want to ensure that we're not only meeting their academic needs but we're also supporting them their emotional needs so we're looking at programs to help do that in the classroom um we have Incorporated this is our second year of the New Jersey seal of biliteracy we have 27 students graduating this year with the Seal of biliteracy stamp on their transcripts um which means that they have been assessed in a second or third in some cases language and they've earned that seal
077We are continuing with our stem or steam initiatives and our technology initiatives we continue with our professional development and our professional memberships I think um I don't know where Mr moraldo is but I think we had 10 students qualified this past weekend for um CM cmj Nea yeah mea um one of the um Elite programs for our students which is which is a wonderful Accolade for us um we're continuing with our Avid programs at the middle and high school and they are growing programs um we are getting a lot of students that are applying for those programs our co-curricular and and athletic programs are they're they're crazy we have so many we've already had a couple of presentations for our students because of the um Division and state championships that they're winning um we are
078looking at portable classroom units for the middle school next year so that is definitely um an impact on our budget our uh looking at high school bleachers replacing our turf fields um HVAC equipment at some of the schools so there's a lot going on um that we took into consideration as we were going through the budget thank you thank you Dr aloc where does the money come from well Administration has a role in partial funding in the budget with the management of the resources and Appropriations throughout the year and creating Surplus from that this year we're pleased to say that our Revenue recognition exceeded what we had in the budget and our Appropriations were less than what we had in in previous year's budget and all of that rolls over two years later because of
079the time table involved to excess Surplus Dr kak Dr alvic and I worked very hard in a lot of different areas in the budget to create excess Surplus maintaining a $6 Million number um and that's with all of the new student students with all of the new special education needs associated with those new students and all of the obligations that we've had to meet that is one of the areas that we can control transfers from other funds is another wonderful area because this board of education and Boards previous created a falcon care ECE program from a rental uh uh engagement with an outside entity and we designed our own business plan and model for a falcon care which is before and after school care with an added curriculum component so the children are just learning
080and going to their later grades more prepared than they were before and early childhood enrichment in the two years since those programs have uh started it has $1.1 million of profit $600,000 of which is transferred into this year's budget to offset the $1.5 million cost of trailers 10 trailers at the middle school and that's an incredible obligation to this District 1.5 million includes the leas price the Staffing the computers the wiring the security uh the the utility hookups and everything else tuition with the Jamesburg Board of Education we received grades 9 through 12 from Jamesburg Board of Ed and we have a tuition agreement that we're pleased to say Jamesburg bard of Ed was able to give us a an indication that they will be increasing the tuition of Monroe above that that's required by
081the agreement I think it was $114,000 they're budgeting for tuition above what is required and we've received news from Mr rutsky that they're also reviewing their Surplus and may have an additional sum of money that uh they have to deliberate and to transfer to Monroe to reduce that obligation and I'm very proud to say that last year was the first year that they had agreement showed success where the monies that Monroe collected from Jamesburg for tuition were more than their actual tuition charge and that difference got applied against the indebtedness transportation fees miscellaneous income extraordinary income state aid is only 3.12% of the budget federal aid is less than 1% that's where the money comes from of course taxes is 88% of all revenues approximately there's two types of state aid Equalization Aid and categorical
082Aid Monroe Township has not ever been eligible for Equalization Aid which is designed to support the Lion Share of a District's budget which is your adequacy budget the majority of which is mandated from the state of New Jersey the second part is categorical Aid that includes Deb service Aid Transportation Aid security Aid special education Aid our transportation department is the most efficient in the county and among the highest in the state for efficiency ratings with our tearing system uh we got an extra award in in that area this year but total state aid is only 3.42% of our total revenues to support the budget and although there was some good news that Governor Murphy is going to fully fund the funding formula for school districts Over a four-year phasin period the very disappointing component with
083that is that uh the growth limitations on the budget still remain in place and that costs us about $5 million uh growth limitations are like a shower water restrictor for revenues coming from the state they just the state doesn't have the revenues so they restrict what schools get through growth limitations and that's the area that we've been fighting and addressing what our legislators to get removed general fund state aid we will receive ultim Ely a 41.9% increase once it's fully funded and the phase in is over four years this year we got approximately $350,000 of additional aid but when you net what was lost with Debt Service Aid because of the maturation of our our amortization schedules uh we really didn't gain much at all we did gain much in terms of student enrollment over
084the last nine years we've gained 1,683 students a 30% increase while our state aid compared to N9 years ago is a $2.1 million decrease 30% decrease 30% more kids 30% less Aid than nine years ago that's an outrageous statistic where does the money go over 60% of Appropriations are directly related to instruction cost savings from shared services I encourage everyone to visit our website we have a special budget section that has a plethora of budget information beyond what is required which is userfriendly budget we go much further than that and take a look at the Shared service schedule that we have there we have very impressive joint shures shared services with the municipality uh joint Insurance funds where we have squee squeezed every dollar out of this budget that's possible one of the biggest areas
085is in health insurance from from hard-nosed negotiations between our broker and I with Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield which is a very competitive Health offering we saved $1.3 million this schedule this this uh chart shows what I believe to be Monroe's finest uh um fiscal best practice which is our health insurance rates I would compare our health insurance increases over this period of time with not only anybody in the public sector but private sector as as well what factors influence the tax rate most importantly in in the tax rate computation is state aid if Monroe only received the amount of Equalization Aid that South Wick gets it would result in a tax reduction to this community that would make your head spin unfortunately we don't have that fund balance is one area that we can
086manage a favorable uh consequence is that we are have increasing ratables through this Township which lowers the tax rate but it also puts stress on facilities that have uh been showing that they're not meeting the needs of our enrolling growing enrollment and the increased student enrollment effect on Appropriations the more students you need you have to appropriate more money to care for them some special education programs for example require uh pupil teacher ratios of eight students to one teacher you know you pick up a ninth student and you're adding a second teacher those are very costly programs and all of our students needs are met very well here that bottom line This hasn't changed since a tenative budget in 2016 we had a 4 and a half setting increase which was $138 on an average
087assessed home 2017 it dropped a 3.5 C increase or $18 on an average assessed home 2018 it was less than a one penny increase or $27.85 on an average assessed home and this year going to cap not using the bank cap which is available and it's left on the table for next year if this board should so choose to use it we have a consequence of 1.7 cents or $52 on an average assessed home when I became the ba eight years ago my predecessor told me if you introduce a budget to the board would anything less than a s Cent increase it's a page Turner it's going to be automatically approved 4.2 cents three and a.2 cents less than a penny and 1.7 Cent that is a remarkable address of the tax concerns that this
088community faces here by the board by acting in a very efficient fiscally responsible manner this budget provided enough resources as we were out of contract that no matter what came out out of negotiations as a result we had the wherewithal to meet it and I want to thank everyone for their contributions to this budget especially the finance committee Dr kak especially Dr alvic Who worked very closely with the principles and supervisors all the way down to the teacher teachers level in the classrooms to create individual School zerob based [Applause] budgets do you have a res yes okay Madame board president and members of the Monroe Township Board of Education it is recommended that the members of the Monro Township Board of Education approve the following amounts and resolution for the 1819 final budget be it
089resolved by the Monro town Township Board of Education that the 1819 general fund budget be adopted in the amount of 117,118 42 and a general fund local tax levy in the amount of 101, 353,000 and a Debt Service budget in the amount of$ 11,397 213 and a Debt Service local tax levy in the amount of 10, 970,000 whereby the 1819 budget totals 130 million 36,2 and whereas the monra Township Board of Education has been notified of state aid amounts and whereas such state aid amounts are for the 1819 the categorical special education Aid is 2,434 197 1819 categorical security Aid is $13,700 64 the 1819 categorical Transportation Aid is $1,964 and the 1819 Debt Service Aid is $427,000 and whereas the mon Township Board of Education has estimated a state aid amount pursuing an application
090and for the 1819 the estimated extraordinary Aid is 350,677 and we're by policy 6471 and njac 6A 23A a 7.3 provides that the Board of Education shall establish in the annual school budget a maximum expenditure amount that may be allotted for such travel and expense reimbursement for the 1819 school year now therefore be it resolved that the monre Township Board of Education hereby establishes the school district travel maximum for the 1819 school year at the tenative sum of 8,422 and be it further resolved that the school business administrator shall track and record these costs to sure that the maximum amount is not exceeded and be it resolved that the members of the Board of Education Township of Monroe authorize an approve a withdrawal from the capital reserve account in the amount of $89,400 to fund
091fund2 Construction Services account 12 4450 for the emergent replacement of HVAC equipment and a boiler system at Brookside school which project number is included in the district's long range facilities plan and has been assigned in approved project number of 23- 329-0050 d18 d1000 and whereas as a result of the extraordinary budget efficiencies created by the administrative stewardship of the budget which provided alternative resources in the 1819 budget such as the transfer of $600,000 of Falcon care Early Child enrichment retained earnings to offset instructional trailer costs and a fiscal best practice practice of very effectively controlling escalating health care costs the board has not exceeded the maximum spending Authority and furthermore has not used the $600,000 of Bank cap created in the 1617 school year now therefore let it be resolved that the superintendent of schools
092and the business administrator board secretary file the required documents with the executive County Superintendent motion make a motion second I will second that motion Mrs Lang Mr there any comments or questions from the board members M Mr Russo regarding the uh Fair funding I'm just wondering why we wasted so much time with the legislators when we have uh I think we got more money out of uh Mr rutsky and Jamesburg the other question is uh on regarding the health insurance I think we're we're spending about 20 million am I right a little over 20 million yes sir my only concern is that I understand that Mr Gorski is the only one that negotiates that is that true no that is not true okay I work in concert with the board's health insurance broker and I
093present periodic updates to the board's finance committee and the board in my weekly confidential updates throughout the budget season on health insurance okay so it's just yourself and the broker but there's nobody from the school from the district that works with you on that that negotiates that sits there and meets with the broker and talks with the broker I also have had assistance from our human resource director in the past uh the assistant business administrator helps me quite a bit um but I mean is it a practice or just when you need them it's a it's a fiscal best practice I could tell you that okay I okay I see control issues there but to have one person with such uh negotiating with a broker in such a large account it would be good if
094there were at least three people that were involved from the district are you dissatisfied with the result I can't say if there were three people people maybe we would get a different answer I don't know anyone else have a comment question Miss armo okay and uh I since after our training I didn't ask this this question in uh beforehand but we we were talking about the on the average assessed home could I could we just can you give me the average assessed home that you're going by sorry I didn't ask this sooner and I should have know I should know the answer to the question but the average assessed home as you as you're aware changes every year right and the information furnished to me from the township business administrator indicates that this year's average
095assessed home in Monroe Township is $315,900 44 basis that yes ma'am right okay that's good thank you anyone else okay then at this time I'm going to open it up to the public for any comments or questions on the budget and it's just on the budget because that's what the motion on the floor is for the budget Mar Klein 7 crunch or Court I know you missed me this will probably be the last meeting I come to which I'll explain later um I think you should also tie into this the referendum um we know what goes on in this state it's Piti um it's amazing what emails that are oprit tell the story that it tells and I want to get one thing straight now miss kapano and Mr Rybeck you had in an email
096that the information that Ron post wrote to people at Regency was based on the misinformation from Mark Klein that is a lie I read while while I was in Florida I read his letter is this is this in regard to The Bu please don't let me just finish it does okay none of it relates to what I the facts that I gave him in fact there are some board members that I CC them or BCC them so they see it so that's number one number two in in uh oh the ad hoc committee now That was supposed to help lead all this for the referendum and all I show up for the second meeting and a guy who never shows up at a meeting badmouths me is backed by Miss kapovich and I walked out
097and I quit those of you know that I have been fighting for money myself since about 201021 with no backing from this board at all when you ask in some of the um meetings that I've seen you ask well how did we get into this situation you had a superintendent before who and this I got from very reliable sources did not want to get involved with new schools or referendums so right away you're behind the eightball in 2011 when I served on this board you had a consultant come in that was going to handle redistricting and I pointed out at that time being that I go to the planning board and I'm on a zoning Board of what the new um projected developments were going to be that wasn't even taken into account and I
098don't even know if they ever did the the uh uh redistricting the point I'm getting to is the one who's responsible for the problem that we have now is not the superintendence the superintendent of as we found out earlier the superintendant are led by the board and the board president it's up to you to set goals for your superintendent why wasn't this done after 2011 miss kovich you served most of those years Steve Rybeck was there one year Doug po was there one year why wasn't that handled then you wouldn't be you wouldn't have the headache that you have now um as far as the comment made against Mr Gorski the knowledge that I have of Mr Gorski from day one when I was on the board and everything that he's accomplished since is unbelievable
099he should have been a magician and I as a resident and an next board member take offense to Mr Russo questioning what Mr gski does cuz whatever he does is what's best for the residents the taxpayers and whatever he's able to to jury rig to get us better prices uh my time is probably up um I do want to say that I get a I get a kick out of these kids not only the little ones in the paintings but the The Reckless Society of of the way these kids can write and the way these kids can speak and that is because of our teachers Don't Clap that's because of our teachers and the parents see the dummies that we have in Trenton think that money I have to go this way that money makes
100for better education they finally have found out that I'm going to stop now that they finally found out that money does not buy better education it's parent involvement so I will finish up later on but I appreciate you giving me the time and thank you very much [Applause] prash pup 33 drive this is all related to the budget because you know that state aid state aid is related to budget and last month I spoke about it for 3 minutes today what I'm requesting is the entire budget what is going to be decided depends on our how our legislatur are going to lobby and finally it is the Senate President sweny the Speaker of the House cin and Governor Murphy sit together and decide what happens so I request each board member to please write to
101these three people plus our legislatures call them Lobby them I also requested residents to call the all these three people plus our legislates because next month it will be finalized few Millions will count okay so that is the request the next is naturally this again relates to the budget because when you come with the referendum you have to spend money isn't it so I'm sure that you all are thinking of next referendum you send out the survey what we are requesting is in the next referendum please consider new middle school expansion of high school and full day kindergarten that is very important and lastly again budget the teachers contract you know it all relates to the budget how much we are going to negotiate and pay so I I'm sure you all have close session
102today so request that hope it ends today day and you have final decisions on that so we go happy home lastly again this is not related to budget but I you know one thing what the parents are asking is the public forum is always comes to at 8:00 8:15 and it's related to agenda the who decides about the agenda the parents come here they want to ask questions they cannot stay here till 10:30 when your close session is over and you ask for the public forum so I request that the parents are working here they have their children they cannot stay till 11:00 or 10:30 so request is agenda is also what the public parents have any concerns they should ask questions about so I request you you all to consider and I don't know
103I didn't see about Dr k negotiation in the agenda at all so like to have answer on that not now at least I will stay here end of the public session and I want to answer on that thank you [Applause] okay anyone else wish to speak to the budget Anthony preso a question way uh Michael how many iPads are we ordering from the budget I believe believe the answer to that is400 is that correct Dr Al those are all new yes sir what about the old ones the old ones are going to be put together and sold in a method allowable with procurement laws which means we'll be putting the used units out to bid to the highest bidder on those units how much are the new units Dr Alec do you have that information
104handy $394 each oh finance and how much could we get the last time we sold our iPads what did we get per iPad my point to that is I don't recall the answer figuratively but I do know that the sale amount was enough that it covered the first of the three years lease obligations on the new devices okay uh recently the uh 2% cap on homeowners insurance disappeared and I'm pretty sure homeowners insurance for a lot of us went up 30 % this year mine alone went up $800 for one year maybe consider keeping some of these old iPads because I know of Plenty that are almost still brand new and that's a big savings if we could save 30 40 50% of those iPads we're going to save a lot of money maybe enough
105to get some of those trailers uh I have a question for Miss konowitz uh was there recently a meeting about security with Linda Greenstein um we we were supposed to have a meeting with not only Linda Greenstein but uh U Sweeney and venson and D'Angelo and they canceled out on us because of a another commitment in Trenton was that supposed to be at the rec center did you have a meeting at the rec center no who was invited to this meeting that you put together it was the the Board of Education I I believe me and Steve and the administrators and um the our legislators okay and something concerning the budget and contracts do we have a superintendent contract um there is no action on this evening's agenda for superintendent contract the board has not
106appointed um reappointed him for another term and his current contract expires on June 30th okay well if you don't give him a contract if I were him i' take us to court you're going to C this District $2 $300,000 right now he's supposed to get his contract his April 1st with the deadline for the board and they didn't do it all you're doing is costing us money you're you're stalling not only are you stalling this has been going on for quite a while where it's all set up where you want an in super superintendent which will be Dory and you're going to stall that you're going to stall getting a new superintendent and she's going to be the superintendent this is what you want you need to give this man a contract there was 700
107people that signed a signed the petition to keep him so all you're doing is you're holding out and you're going to cost this board a lot of money thank you [Applause] Andy P 16 St James Street I just had to come up and say something um I'm assuming that there are checks and balances in terms of what the is expected of the superintendent it's not the president's prerogative to make a decision about the renewing of the contract is that correct it is the Board of Education the non-conflicted Board of Education who does the evaluation of the superintendent every year thank you and I commend uh Mr groski for the work that he's doing for the township and I know that he's a very honorable person I have dealt with him and I really respect what
108you're doing for the township the last but not least is I think one of my my friends Pros perab suggested that the board members write to the governor's office requesting for more funding while I do encourage that I don't think it's just on the board of education members uh to do that it's it's incumbent on all of us to do that and you know some of us do it publicly and put it in the Facebook and some of us do it privately uh but still I think all of us should be pushing for this collectively together and I really appreciate hope that this meeting is not going to be any walkouts any boycuts at the end of the day we would as the citizens of the of the township we want to see some stuff
109resolved moving forward thank you very much thank [Applause] you hi uh I'm Ira Nelson at 87 Crescent Way um I listened uh with great attention to Mr gosk's presentation um if I'm understanding this correctly over nine years we've had a 30% increase in students and a 30% decrease in state aid does anybody see a problem with that I mean again you're going about it the same old way trying to reach legislators state senators State Assembly people in 9 years I think the results are in it really hasn't worked you have an option which is a legal suit why you folks do not take that as a solution or as a remedy or or to attempt to do something regarding that I don't seem I just cannot seem to follow I just don't understand the reasoning
110and the logic behind continuing to go down the same old path and getting the same old results where we have another another pass another path a legal remedy where we can do something can somebody explain that to me is what is the reluctance of this board to sue as many districts have this is a flawed system we all know that everybody in the world knows that and we're sitting this and just taking it on the chin then you come to the taxpayers and say we have a referendum we need schools everybody agrees we need schools schols the issue isn't that we need the schools the issue is who's going to be paying for it and if it's always the taxpayers you're going to go off for that bond issue again and guess what surprise it
111won't pass it why are we not why can we not take legal action against the state we could take legal action against the state the state says that we are giving our students a thorough and efficient education they also say that um that we we are over adequacy so as long as we're over adequacy and we give our students more than different um districts in New Jersey Kathy this can be challenged legally we could chall I am not a lawyer I am not a lawyer any lawyer can find a million things that they can do we have very solid grounds along with many other districts I think Dr KAC uh had mentioned at a previous meeting that he was doing something with some other districts and um it has to be done legally this whole
112thing has to be overturned we're dealing with something that is flawed is not fair and is not right everybody knows that and yet we're just taking it on the chin and saying hey that's okay we'll see what we could do Mr goosi will work his magic to be honest with you I would hope Mr GOI does not have to work his magic let's get what we do okay it's as simple as that and as soon as possible I would hope I would hope that there would be some consideration of as to some legal form of action that we can take we have looked at that in the past we continue to look at that until we have a a reason to Sue and we don't at this point just to say you're telling me a
113he just gave you the reason according to the attorneys that we have contacted we do not have a reason to sue we do not have cause to Sue I cannot believe that I can't it it defies common sense it defies logic it makes no sense I mean look at Brown versus the Board of Ed they brought a suit and they changed that was the only way that that that whole system could be changed and and when something is unfair and not right you have a legal remedy in this country and basically that's what we should be doing the path that we're on for nine years it's it's it's unbelievable you heard what he said and you know those statistics please look into that let's do something okay thank you okay bye [Applause] ficia Patel 15
114El Dorado Way good evening the teachers contracts are related to the budget and I'm a freshman and I'm here to express the impact these teachers in these districts have had on me I've been in this District since kindergarten and actually my kindergarten teacher was here today and I know the teachers in this District have had an unimaginable impact on me and my classmates let me begin during my pre high school years I had taught I had been inspired and taught well by these teachers but beyond that they became people I could trust with my problems not only those educationally but those personally they took time out of their busy lives to support me and my fellow classmates at non-school related events I worried that when I got to the high school the teachers would be
115too busy to give me the same level of support I was pleasantly surprised to to see that more of my teachers encourag me to tell them about these activities and these events so they could attend and if they couldn't attend they told other other teachers about it many of these teachers have other activities they could run and could be at yet they support these students without contracts these teachers are still supportive of us why have they still not gotten what they deserve these teachers inspired me to to be more active and many of them are the reason I'm here today they take time out of their lives and out of their family's lives I implore you to give these hardworking teachers what they deserve after so long why is there a delay thank you thank
116you anyone else wishing to speak to the budget you've spoken to the budget Mr kleene so we'll wait until then I had some answers gentl do it later well you could do it later thank you okay any um since there's no more we will close the budget public I know and if there's no more comments or questions from the board I know Miss arminia was she's good she's good she'll let us know we'll take a roll call thank you Mrs armeno ask slow your timing is perfect yeah just give yes take your time madam we were just doing a roll call on the final budget adoption correct starting with Mrs armino yes thank you Mr Braverman yes Mr cherella yes Mrs Deo yes couldn't Mrs Lang yes Mrs karino yes Mr Ryback yes Mr Russo
117no Mr rutsky yes and Mrs Kap Pano yes Madam board president motion passes thank you hey thank you very much it's never difficult I mean it's never easy to compile a budget for our district but we we do the best we can with adding all our new students into our district so we go to the student board members reports and I believe they're all out today with different activities that are going on towards the end of the school year so we hope to see them in May and I'll go to the board president's report and um I think this will go over pretty well but I'm very happy to announce that the Board of Education and the Monro Township education ass Association signed a memorandum of agreement yesterday in regard to the settlement of a
118new three-year [Applause] contract and I'd like to thank um the mtea president Beth than osbak I think I pronounced it right this time um for for working with me to get this accomplished uh it is my belief that the MTA will be holding discussions next week and then after 48 hour time hold that they will vote on this on and ratify hopefully ratify the contract and after it's been ratified by the union it will come to the board of education at the next board meeting on May 9th for discussion and approval by the members of the Board of Education while this has taken up much more time than I would have liked or anticipated we can get this over in a couple of weeks and hopefully we can all get back to working together to
119do what we are supposed to be doing educating our children uh it was also very important to get this contract in place before we move on with some of our other priorities in our district and once we get the contract approved we can get on to the next important issue which is getting a referendum on the ballot so that we can address the facility needs of our growing student population so I look forward to ratifying the contract by both parties and then moving on with a with a referendum good news and the second thing I have is as we just heard from the New Jersey school board rep uh it's time to start the superintendent evaluation according to to statute we have to do this every year and this year there's a new requirement that
120it's signed before July 1st or we lose points on our QC score so at this point it's up to Dr KAC to you have to start the process by going into the um school board's website and doing your part and then once that happens uh we will be contacted as board members and all the non-conflicted board members will then have to um the opportunity to continue with our part of the evaluation and as we move forward I'll continue to give updates to the public as to where we stand is that good with you sure okay absolutely great so committee reports are there any committees that need to report this evening Miss arminia misso um the curriculum met today we discussed um we are due for we are due for um new math textbooks and I
121use the word textbook Loosely because we are getting ebooks um Sue Gasco the M math supervisor engaged all the teachers in this process they look decided between they looked at Pearson math book textbooks and McGrill textbooks and the teachers were put into committees they evaluated the pros and the cons they also did a one-month pilot they decided to go with the McGrill textbooks um and they will be um we will be getting a seven-year um contract for that we also went through the summer reading list um and new in the high school grades n through 12 they changed half of the titles um this is a whole process that um our Lal supervisor goes through she looks at the school library Journal she talks to the librarian she looks at books that get get Awards
122and so that the students are not getting the same list every year so that should be coming out in the middle of May the the next thing we talked about is classroom Alexa um there is two teachers in Brookside who no one teacher in Brookside and one teacher in Patty mil Lake I think so okay who are um piloting classroom Alexa that's similar to the Alexa that people have in their house the purpose of classroom Alexa is to help maintain manage um is to help with classroom management um some of the committee members from the curriculum went to see the pilot that was going on because it's really hard to conceptualize how Alexa can manage a classroom and it was really interesting because the teacher can program things into classroom Alexa at certain times that
123can transition the students from one um you know project task to another while the teacher is free to work in small groups it also can um can um well that's basically it it's a little hard to describe unless you see it you bring one here what bring one here for a demonstration for a demonstration okay um it was really interesting to see it to see it in um to see it being used because I had no idea how it could manage the classroom and the kids were very receptive to her when she spoke so when she stopped and asked them to pay attention they all stopped doing what they were doing and they looked up as if looking for more instruction so we are looking to expand that pilot next year for any teachers who
124are interested we also had the last thing we talked talked about was the learning management system we've had parents come up and talk about how their students have different way each teacher has a different way of managing homework and communicating with students um some teachers use Google Classroom some use Wiki Pages some use apple classroom some use EB backpacks so uh Dory and her committee looked at all of these trying to figure out which one would be best to have a uniform classroom management a learning management system for the whole um district and they chose schoology um and this this will be a this will be a phased in approach we'll have half the teachers using it next year and then the year after they'll what at the high school at the high school and
125the next the following year the other half of teachers will will learn the good thing about schoology is that it can also work with our own Genesis um and so they those two programs can speak and that was pretty much it Mr IAC thank you uh first I'd like to uh catch everyone up on a meeting that was held on February 10th New Jersey school board legislative committee uh we had a guest speaker Diane pasculli who who's the uh Department of Ed Chief uh public affairs and she spoke on uh career and uh tech programs and uh basically our County vocational schools overview which was given a task force was formed to look into students who are not College Bound career and tech ed uh today prepares students for college and careers it must integrate
126high level academics students who work on auto mechanics must know how to analyze problems using computers um superintendent of Burlington County uh noted that they have worked with over 400 employers to get uh information and input for programs they also use Virtual Technology in the classrooms and have partnership with colleges um on some other items there was talk on about consolidation of districts as a means of cost cutting there have been some movement in the legislator to remove the cap on superintendent salaries a federal government the federal government which was not it spends less than one uh one cent of every dollar on school aid I guess we could use a little bump in that one um catalac tax was delayed until January uh 2022 uh the Personnel committee met and um as you can
127see in the agenda uh supported bringing uh Dawn graciano before the board tonight for uh a consideration is a principal of uh Apple goth School um I have also uh a note on May 22nd in the evening New Jersey school boards uh is sponsoring a regional advocacy training for all Boe members in districts that are chronically underfunded and that will be hosted right here'll be more information uh coming for that um the bg& committee I chaired that night and with Mr chell's permission I'll summarize the um that meeting uh there's notice regarding property adjacent Barkley Brook School administration provided a copy of a letter from the owner of 352 Buckaloo Avenue the neighboring property to Bar Barkley Brook School he's applying for a New Jersey Department environmental um protection Wetlands delineation to facilitate development upon
128his property an aerial view of the site was reviewed to show the proximity of the existing residents to the school property Administration will inquire further to determine what type type of development the property owner has planned and communicate the same to the committee Brookside HVAC project bid and award schedule Administration noted that due to the demands put upon in-house legal council for Oprah response that uh review of and review of legal uh front-end bid documents has not yet been completed and therefore the bid schedule must be mo uh should be modified the committee agreed with adjusting the bid opening date until May 8th the day before the May 9th board meeting and the board will be notified via email prior to the meeting of the bid results so they can adequately be adequately prepared to
129vote on the matter on May 9th it was also noted that since the president has uh threatened tariffs various manufacturers have issued notices that the cost of materials will be increasing and this will likely have an effect on the bids and project budget alysa's law the assembly Bill a 764 Administration provided a handout with details on the forthcoming bill that requires security upgrades Panic alarms and red emergency lights at the schools the bill on his former Woodcliff Lake teen Alissa Al I'm sorry alhad alhad who died in the mass shooting at marjerie Stoneman Douglas High School administration will provide additional information on specifics as to what is required once the bill is finalized into lore Administration noted that uh with Township walk Township wide walkie-talkie system employed at all schools and in our school buses
130that a direct link to the police department is currently in place cpsi playground inspection Administration provided an overview of the playground inspection process and reviewed reports for the most recent inspections Eric North Safety Grant Administration has completed Grant application a training and has the potential uh to be awarded a grant of $3 to $40,000 for safety upgrades the committee indicated they would support a resolution at the next board meeting authorizing Administration to submit a Grant application and that the priority preference for safety Grant projects are safety film on glazing um at school entrances and safety surfacing improve improvements with special needs playground at Barkley Brook School thank thank you thank you Mr Ryback is there any questions for Mr Ryback okay any other committees Mr rutsky finance committee yes okay so the uh obviously one
131of our main topics at the finance meeting I'm happy to say was our final budget presentation to us for review which obviously we just reviewed here with everybody and uh it was successful so we were uh we were happy committee we were grateful to Mr Gorski and his team for their work um and now that that's been passed um another school year can be had um but we also talked about the iPad one uh to one initiative that we agreed to and uh to give you the numbers it's 2400 that we're Contracting to buy um the cost of each iPad is $394 in and of itself we're getting a really good new cover um a Logitech rugged combo it's called and it has a keyboard on it so the kids are going to finally be
132able to type on a keyboard uh for their iPad and I think all 24 of them hundred of them should uh find it a little easier to use so all in the price tag is$ 1,424 th40 that includes warranties professional development um and as well as the the the cover and keyboard so it's $593 35 per iPad for the next three years um and as was discussed they will be scrubbing cleaning and then putting up for uh bid the old round of iPads and whatever money they can be had from that will go towards the first Year's payment and remember those were used for three years by high school students so realistic expectations as what their value really is um it's helpful we'll find out right we'll find out soon but we'll we'll get whatever
133we can for him um and that's simple that concludes my report Miss armino uh just in the past I have a question about the iPads and I don't know if the finance chair can answer it but in the past I know that there was some discussion about other um other Technologies and when was the iPad technology I can answer if you'd let me sure Mr sure so I have a whole schedule as to how this progressed um and I was at the first the first meeting was October 3rd technology committee meeting here in the library um I'll call it a library um October 4th uh the staff had a chance to talk about what their needs were and uh put that in and they came obviously the top four five needs were internet access of
134course well supported Wi-Fi chip set obviously they want it to be ease of use substantial battery life and then durability which is where the cover came into play um so from there November 14th was a Technology Expo um where everybody was invited but um For Better or Worse only 29 people responded um they had a chance to review the uh HP tablet the iPad um and a back Atlas which I'm not exactly sure what that is but uh 12 people liked it but that wasn't enough on January uh we did have uh they held a teacher pilot of the iPad versus is the HP tablet and um the majority of teachers did end up preferring and staying with the iPad device of choice so that was the process hopefully that helps yep all right okay
135any other committees yes um um do you want to ask a question no okay I'm prepared um we had a uh we've had ongoing uh committees since um April 18th uh committee meetings regarding school security and I can assure you that we have had discussions and like I said ongoing I'm going to also give a quick rundown uh after the February meeting of the uh and a PowerPoint presentation at the high school where the the community was involved uh we had our first meeting on Wednesday April 18th um we asked the administrators and uh our school security officer to um give us something in writing about uh an idea of what policy how the policy should work um on March 6th we had our first policy meeting for this and the and the meeting was
136to discuss originally it was publicized to discuss policy 7440 and 7441 uh what happened at um late in that afternoon on the same day we were given an email that changed the agenda and a new policy proposed of 7446 so at that meeting which was a public meeting by the way there was a member of the public there um we we were just learning about that policy and uh five members of the Board of Education were there and three members were a little disappointed at the language of the policy and we asked for a written uh endorsement and authorization for these things after all this is not really an education policy that we can rely on our um our teachers and administrators and everything this is this is a serious policy and the parents are
137taking it seriously the community is taking seriously the Board of Education the administrators are taking it seriously uh and and the committee as well so as you can imagine we understand the urgency of this policy however we want to make sure we get it right since it's really introducing deadly force into our schools so um we uh we received originally the a policy and again I we we felt we had a lot of questions and we felt that it was inadequate uh because it wasn't really clear uh it talked about uh the type of weapons and handguns uh it also talked about um security functions assigned by the administration and let's see uh they talked about insurance which we really didn't get into a lot of discussion about of of costs because right now we
138want to make sure we have the the priority is the safety of our children and the safety of our schools administrators teachers and anyone who is on our school grounds um so we again we had another policy meeting on the 14th March 14th again uh understanding the urgency we got yet a second report that was put together um and that was called uh armed security RPO carry information um the majority of the board or there there was some discussion as to that carry information not really being again a a procedural or operational operational information in order for us to develop uh an adequate policy we task the uh the security and um Mr Gorski because right now he's in charge of this uh the uh security uh in the in the um School sorry yeah
139school safety specialist I don't think he's considered specialist school safety specialist yeah yeah okay so uh we asked that we would get a authorization from them as to what their recommendations are what their choices are and we ask for it to be signed and delivered at our at our next meeting um again we have not really received a a signed document that gives us operational and um procedural things in our opinion to get a a full policy we we then received on Friday um another we received regulations so it's still in my opinion I mean we put it to the board because everybody is very anxious about getting some kind of policy but um there are members o of the committee that still feel that this needs a lot of work but because of the
140uh the urgency it it's it's on the agenda but I would ask the board to um to consider that we have a lot of work to do on this policy that's it anyone else yeah since I'm also on the on the committee um I just just have to say a little about my background I've done similar work with at at the United Nations for 35 years planning and supporting security roles throughout the world for un field offices and I wasn't um happy to see what what was given to us mainly because the first document that we received the armed security RPO carry information was basically a document that described what took place during the meeting at the at the high school uh when you had I don't know how many people went I hear anywhere
141from 100 to 200 but anyway you had this meeting and and that document all it did was describe that it doesn't say who the document's from it it's not addressed to anybody so I found it to be totally inadequate plus it the format and everything wasn't really sufficient so we asked for a document to justify the decision that was being made because at that meeting you were making a decision to arm the current in-house security staff so we were given another document um which was the school security plan again no name who it's from and no name who it's to so if somebody can't put their name on a document I mean I don't I don't feel very confident in supporting it uh it describes uh some uh meetings that took place it describes who
142who was present at the meetings but in terms of the admin rtion here it says we learned from the following from their meetings but it was actually the administration who conducted the meetings and held the meetings it makes certain promises in the document a lot of them are financial and that was the reason for deciding on uh this option so what we wanted again going back to the accountability like negotiating insurance rates somebody should be accountable at the end of the day not just hear a story The we we drafted a a sample document a sample memo which would come from the administration and it would simply outline the the justification for making the decision they made that you guys made now before this policy was going to be brought to the committee we expected
143to receive that because we were promised at the at the uh policy committee that we would receive this sign and we haven't received it so I'm a little surprised at that because if nobody in the administration will step up no one stepping up to say this is why we made a decision we would like your support and approval of it then I don't think it's ready for the board to approve we received an email U it was a a memo from the chief of police and attached to an email and even in his memo he says at the meeting it was announced that there are nine retired police officers on your security staff you assured the audience of parents and residents the Boe policy to arm our school security Personnel who are retired police officers
144would be expeditiously considered by the board so the decision was made it was already made and that's all we asked for was justification for making that decision based on the promises that we were told and all of those promises will put in that memo that sample memo so that's what we're waiting for and I think the board should want that um I I just like to finish up by saying that again we understand the urgency and it is not a question of whether the board or the members of the committee uh want to arm or not our our security officials I think everyone was in agreement there was a consensus about that but the question um is does the district push through just simply push through any policy or a policy that especially a policy
145that introduces guns in our schools or a thoughtful uh preparation for a crisis event and that is really my biggest concern I I would like that we as a board have thoughtful consideration for moving on with these policies and and get it done and get it done right so again it's not that any me of the committee thought uh not to do it it's just that we wanted the policy to make sense and and be put forward and also because we are getting a recommendation from the administration and people who are in security we would like to know how that is is to be um and the op operational L because once we put a policy together and and there is also a regulation that again the regulation really was not discussed at the meeting
146we only got it on Friday so we had the committee had no opportunity to take a look at the regulation um we would just like it to be right thanks Mr tiella yes so Mr I'm sorry uh is does K under the super superintendent report on the board action is that the policy you're talking about okay so basically what you're saying is what's the the the thing that's giving the policy committee or certain members of the policy committee reservations yeah is that the administration is putting forward this policy through through policy but they're not owning it they refuse to own it yeah yeah I I would like the um the school security program to to be uh given to us in a in a way that we know where it came from we know what
147the actual operational and procedural recommendations are and and the kind of policy that we really want to put through and and we need someone to take ownership of it because it's not something the board can create or the or the committee can create something we can approve and we want to approve it in the language that I think is um appropriate so um during all the meetings we had a lot of promises were made some of them were put on the document they provided us but again there's no name so there's no accountability here at the end of the day like the iPad project of a number of years ago when we lost so much money nobody's accountable nobody can get can you can't point the finger at anybody like Mecca when we lost so
148much money nobody's accountable the the board voted on it we want the same thing here promises were made a lot of them are Financial basically they're saying that the solution that they chose beats all others by far because it's less expensive right there are a lot of things they put in here as promis which are not real either because I give you an example um they talk about psychological test that every police officer will every security officer will be will have a psychological test and what we find out is that when you start working at the police department you have a psychological exam and that's when you start and you never get another one since when you retire you don't have one you come into the school because you were a former retired police office
149officer so for example our director uh said that the last one he had was in 1987 so you know this thing really needs to be done more professionally and that was one of the things we also considered that since we don't have in-house experience that maybe we should look outside but if they're selling us on the price if that's the promise they're making then we want an in writing that's the way we look at it can I ask a question Mr retsky yes all right CU I'm I'm I'm maybe a little not as familiar but on policies as a whole just talk general policies let's talk about a homework policy is there is dory's name is the curriculum or the one that's running the homework assessment does her name end up on the policy itself
150when it gets made official well I I'm just curious because I don't think any policies I don't think you can people's names associated with them because people change presidents change superintendent change someday Board of Ed members change I don't understand your your direction there so I'm just curious well F first of all um this is different as I mentioned in the beginning this is different than an education policy so I think this Rises to a different level again we're putting our names to it when we approve approve a policy of this nature and again I think it rises to a different level it is not like an educational policy but to your point there are some things that I've learned over the last three and a half years that I think sometimes when we get
151recommendations people should should put their names to the policy we should know where it comes from we should know why the recommendation was made but that's a discussion for another time yeah and I don't disagree with understanding some of the information this is this as chair I felt that this Rose to to the to the level a different level and that when we're talking about guns in our school which we've never had before and arming uh security officers which again I no one was opposed to um I think we have to be very I think it's very important and it needs thoughtful consideration and we're trying and policy can be tweaked I mean that's that's what we were trying to do I know everybody wants an instant an instant situation to occur but just putting
152a gun in a holster does not make necessarily good policy and and to to I couldn't agree more that to to a point um the policy suggested that the security functions um and the use um putting a gun in uh you know putting guns on our security officers um would go by would they and they named uh different New Jersey statutes and one of the stat statutes and said well a an officer would be um eligible to carry a gun if they met the New Jersey state um State Police regulations and one of those regulations was uh a psychological report now it turns out that ju Just from you know talking to people a psychological report in this case that would satisfy the state police regulations is a form that a police officer retired police
153officer fills out saying they don't have a report it's not really another psychological test we thought maybe perhaps after you retire after 25 years before you go into a school system with children and carry a gun maybe we should have another actual uh psychological exam again uh to really make sure that our children are safe um so it so just saying that we we satisfy the New Jersey State Police standard then when you really look into it a little bit the standard was and I and I have a copy of the application if not really what we would want not really what we would want so that was that was part of our concern that just satisfying that limited standard might not be fully you know vet people and also um so so can I
154ask another question if we approve a tonight can it go back can can it get approved and then still go back for because this is only the first reading one second Paul yeah um we're not asking for names on the policy that's not what we're asking sounded like no no no we're asking for a memo that justifies the decision they made it's like for example uh who decided to buy iPads there has to be a paper trail somebody has to be accountable we can't do business like we did in the past so we're saying the same thing here somebody's making a decision because because if you look at the the um the um the argument that they made it's less expensive in every way but doesn't put any prices there we don't really know so
155there are a lot of things that are left maybe out of convenience we don't know so we're say I understand I I I think also if you listen to what this the Maran Friedman said from Schoolboard she also talked about that word of micromanagement right so it's one thing to oversee it's another thing to micromanage and when administrators and business administrators and I get your your your I get your perspective of not taking everything at face value and I could appreciate that on a certain level but on another level we have to make sure we're not micromanaging well putting a gun in someone's hand is one thing that's for the board to decide we want it or not right who has the gun that's a management decision we want it on on a document that's
156what that's it can Lang can I ask for a clarification please so we receive the policy which is the and we receive the regulation and the regulation seems to have it much more detailed that's what a regulation does okay so that that helped me with like help me with that absolutely okay agree so first I would like to say um to Mr Russo uh you you're what your request is and your questions I I understand this is a very important policy it this is it rises to a different level and I would say that I I appreciate your background coming in from Private Industry which I would assume the UN is priv considered Private Industry but your years of experience with that and I certainly and and I've said this to you several times in
157the education world we can always do a little bit better in how we present and provide background information corporations have been doing these type of things for years and years with that being said um because of the concern of the community and because we wanted to address that we brought forth a policy that was given to us by through uh stra sesme who is uh who is actually a lawyer who who looks at State guidelines and we had our board attorney review it as well and during our discussions you presented some very excellent points and we try to address them which is explains why we kept on sending different material back the um the regulation was one attempt to try to provide more detail in answer to some of the requests that you had the
158written memo that God bless you the document uh we absolutely absolutely have and we be have begun work on that and we broke it out into different people uh myself Mr Gorski and uh Mr pero or pyro God bless you thank you whatever he would prefer I've heard it both ways now um so we're we're looking to address some of the the questions that you have brought up and um I did give you my word that when you have brought these things up that some of these things take a little time to compile and I've been out and researching and pulling up material that supports uh the arming of police officers from National organizations different research studies as well as the importance of the relationship of having our own security as opposed to perhaps bringing
159in an outside officer through an srr program or the um tier three or type three I forget the exact term for that so I we are compiling that that does take a quite a bit of time and I would like to be more than happy to bring that back to the policy committee our goal was to try to get it up for a first reading and then between the first reading and the second reading continue that work as far as some in a document or assigning a memo every uh board meeting all the agenda items are read for personnel and board action with this board the superintendent recommends for the business administrator the business administrator recommends so I'm not sure where the legality is with actually signing something but that certainly speaks to the superintendent
160owning the uh or taking ownership if you will for those recommendations so that's why I take those things very seriously with let's say Personnel hirings you know there was there was many places where somebody hands it something to the superintendent they rubber stamp it and take it to the board I don't do that I want to make sure that I follow the process through because I look at that recommendation every month as my name being on that agenda so I I would hope that that would speak to actually owning that recommendation well it it doesn't it doesn't I'll tell you why there are a lot of details that are mentioned here whoever wrote this as the promise of what we'll get are not in not in the policy it says a simple stien so um
161a simple stien sidewalk with the mdaa to um pay for the for the off to hold a gun we don't know how much that's going to cost what's what's a simp simple stle we we how much is that the the policy in order before we could go to the MTA and try to come up with an agreement we felt like we could uh at least get the board to approve but we wouldn't we wouldn't be buying iPads first and find out what the price is later these things should be done first and and we've waited for this this uh memo for two months now and I I just can't imagine why you want to put a gun in somebody's hand and nobody's willing to step up to the plate and sign I mean back Pete
162why doesn't the administration back him up well I do I do back Pete actually well then let let's put it in writing all the other things that are mentioned here the background check the mental health check all these things are thrown at us and none of them are reality when we well the mental health check that's something also that we discussed at length yeah that when you brought up that that might not be something or it's could be something that was done maybe years ago and you did once we went back and thought okay valid point so why don't we put in the job description that they would have to undergo a new psychological evaluation in order to be approved well youve you guys had two months to do it if it was a serious
163thing you back the guy uh get everything together but to to to sign the policy and approve it on a decision that you guys are making with no other uh background information and documentation I don't see how anybody would go along with that I me some buing a computer it's you're giving somebody a gun and you're choosing who's getting that gun right I mean some of the items such as the psychological that wasn't really two months but In fairness when we brought up because we brought it up yeah it wasn't it had we had it not been brought up it wouldn't have been addressed yeah Mr Chella I is it possible if we can get everybody on the record tonight to to just get this through the past the first reading because then I think
164if we can get it past that then we can go back to to the policy committee can because I'm not on the policy committee and then they can hash it all out I'll promise you that if there's no if there if we don't have administrative support across the board for this I won't vote for it the next time and and and uh and you know it's up to everybody else to do what they're going to do but I would also suggest that number I that's on your recommendation that we keep that Safety and Security specialist the same as it is now to ensure that we have that buy in across the administration so that we're not changing that that that hat and causing A disruption to that so that we could see it through and
165give the added by into this whole process and to uh Mr pero proo I I will tell you also that um in a conversation and I mentioned it a couple of times I think on this board a conversation that I had with the mayor going back a couple of months um this is costing the taxpayers $24,000 a week to have um armed Township armed police police in our district so so at it's also the police I I understand work four days on and four days off and then they're four days off they're working in our school system so they're draining their not just their their their people they're draining their resources because it takes cars because the police are in the cars and coming here and money so after after um around the beginning of
166um May we're not going to have them anymore for a lot of reason so it's something that we we really need to look at and and I understand all your concerns a policy and a regulation is different the policy just says that we're going to have armed security the regulations says how we're going to utilize that security no that policy doesn't say we're going to have armed security it says who's going to be armed that's what it says and then the other thing is you know when Greenstein came here for the fair funding she wanted the full board approval for her for her uh efforts she wanted the mayor's approval and everybody gave it to her and we got crumbs and now now you guys want to put guns in the in the hands of
167the guys that are on staff and nobody wants to write put their name to it I'm really surprised you could still we still have another policy meeting be scheduled before the next board meeting well I think and and I know that we had the discussion of create making that policy meeting longer than an hour so that you can get all the information you need to get my experience here that the policies have always dragged out the nepotism policy is still I mean it's been going on for the last eight years it's never been completed and this will go the same way it'll you know the same thing I mean I I really cannot believe that a memo can't be drafted saying that we made this decision for these reasons and here's the Mr Ryback uh
168I just as long as we're bringing out our thoughts I I I'm inclined to agree with what Mr Chella said I think it's a very sensible solution um we need to protect the students and staff in our schools unfortunately we and many other school boards have to have this kind of a conversation um I know uh I worked uh in a building we had a uh SRO in the building for years never had a problem what I see in the news is uh school shootings mass shootings whether school you know not only in schools but mass shootings in schools and um I'm sure these schools have security guards and some of them may have already been uh armed um but I've never seen anything happen where a school security guard there was a an accident
169and somebody got hurt because of the school security guard's mistake we're very fortunate here that our school security guards I think seven of them out of nine are retired policemen policemen have training they have instincts that we don't necessarily have you can't predict every little thing that's going to happen in a school and I guarantee you there isn't a teacher or administrator here that would disagree with that you never know what's going to happen sometimes you can't sit and legislate everything that can happen you just have to be aware and and use your uh experiences and and and um training that we we're all we all have to the best of your ability uh but I think overall what we need to do is consider passing this getting extra security in the school and then
170working on it for a second reading to alleviate some of the problems that and I and I appreciate some of you know the things you've been saying think you're making my point actually if they feel that strong about it justify and Mr Rybeck I would just like to say that I don't disagree with your position however it that it really wasn't the issue as to whether we have high regard for our security guards or not that is the question like I said everybody on the committee is interested in the policy we just want to make the policy right and you made that clear and I didn't dispute that I don't that okay good take over okay because we're still on committee reports I think any more questions or comments committee reports then we were going
171to go on to the public forum for the agenda items only so you have four minutes if there's anything on the agenda please state your name and address for the record you'll have four minute time limit Mark line 7 crore based on what went on tonight the discussion it really opens up the door on a lot of things but I just want to finish what I have to say um I warned this board members of this board prior to you meeting with Greenstein Benson and D'Angelo that you were being used again as they did with that fake phony hearing that we had at the budget and Appropriations Committee that led to the problem we had at the ad hoc committee because supposedly people were angry that I was on the attack against the three and
172what' you get nothing you got a big when they when uh Christy came out with another I forgot how many hundred some million dollars to distribute to all the schools we got a big $400,000 Freehold burrow with 1700 students that already gets 9.7 million got hpy to have the state pay for the to enlarge all their schools $33 million they already get 9 $7 million and our so-called elected officials do absolutely nothing for us I warned you and that's exactly what happened um as far as the referendum goes this is more a question when you say that the middle school is going to cost $68 million that doesn't count or does it count the new staff the equipment the furniture um health insurance insurance for the building uh electric gas isn't that all above the
17368 million no some of that is in the would be in the referendum Furnishing that school would be in the referendum the the staff would be coming from out of the trailers that we would where next year we have eight classroom trailers those classrooms would be moved with the staff into the a new Middle School what is not covered is additional staff like you would need um administr there a nurse there um don't use my time this doesn't count towards my time I'm watching gski go ahead I appreciate the answer no a and it also it would come up that those things would come under C come under the operating budget Okay now what's going to happen that unfortunately the um the residents voted down your referendum first of all it was at the a
174bad time because many people like myself were down in Florida not everybody got absentee ballots so it was a bad time but what's going to happen and it's happened in this state time and time again is that the residents vote down the referendum and maybe I'll let you go a second time because that's what happened at Freehold burrow when it's voted down a second time then the state's going to come to you and order you to sell bonds to build those schools with total disregard for the taxpayers and if you remember when Christie came up with that deal that if you stay within 2% of the budget it doesn't have to go to the public and I was probably the only one on the board who spoke against it and and uh Ken Chilla we
175said that the taxpayers have a right to voice their opinion everything is going to go the way the board wants and the way the township wants but the residents have a right to vote on it um another email that I was forwarded to me through Oprah was um concerning 14 districts that want to sue they're getting together and they're going to sue the state in the emails it stated that we don't comply or we don't qualify well let me tell you something I'm the one who started crying to get us more money uh another gentleman here he's still here said well we ought to write letters to our legislators don't waste your time I had letters to Christie I had letters to Corine I had letters to uh uh Christopher surf who was de I
176had letters to everybody they did absolutely nothing I sat down with with the governor Governor Christie like we're talking now right out the door nothing happened they don't give a damn about us um thank you Mr Klein your four minutes is up just one more more fast think please how fast okay um well actually it's two things um the let us no actually one thing let us to oh we have another public forum coming I understand property value per student M Mr clein I really have to ask okay Mike if you can answer that what does that count is that all the homes including the adult homes or is it it should be then I'm I'm finished it should be just the home that have children then it's fair but if you have and we're
177getting down low if you have 40% that are adults over 55 why should they count into the equation thank you you're welcome thanks for the extra time you're quite welcome good evening Mike Costello 22 Garvey Drive um like to get back to the discussion of the Armed people in the schools uh we had a situation here and the Florida thing kind of said things off there was a reaction um things were done we now have police officers here on a regular basis the town is paying for that the monies my biggest concern is not the monies my concern is I think we made a mistake we should not have guns in the schools we need to increase our security we need to do many other things but we do not need guns in the schools
178we do not need guns in the schools we have to work on other Solutions we had a meeting two nights ago at the senior center which was well attended Mr Gorski uh was there uh we had some really good points made by by everyone uh I I think it was a good discussion we had four very very bright young people on the panel up there and four people uh two police officers Mr Gorski and the other fellow the legislative that's Mr Gorski sorry uh and the other fellow on the end the legislative fellow that was was there talking when we talk to each of the four students individually three out of the four students do not want guns in the school three out of the four people that are affected these are the people that
179are in in danger or whatever and uh the other uh gentleman over here and Mr armino they they they spoke um it looks like they want watch what they're doing and be very careful with the policy but I'm afraid it sounds almost like we are already committed that we're going to do this and it's just how we're going to do it and what are we going to control and are the people going to be tested and psychoed psychoanalyzed and everything I think we have to take a step back we have a major problem in our society this never happened when we were growing up I remember when Jack Kennedy got killed it was the first guy since I guess McKinley that we tried to assassinate this stuff didn't go on it does go on now
180it's a fact Act of life and if they don't shoot them in schools they they may go other places yes we have to do everything we can to protect but we do not have to put extra danger more weapons in the schools I'm very much opposed to it I think you should go very very cautiously before you go down that road right now in in this building and other buildings of Monroe as we discussed the other night the security is not what it could be we need to keep guns out of the schools from perpetrators and also we do not need need to have armed people in here thank you thank you pres way to question way that fellow just said that there was a meeting for security at the rec center I I don't
181know of any meeting well Mr Gorski was there were you at this meeting no there was a meeting at the um uh the senior center on Monday and that was about what security school security were you there I I attended as a member of the public and Mr gski attended as he did not attend Dr kosak attended yeah I I was I was asked to be on the panel along with the police chief and a few and some of our students and other people and stuff okay all right thank you about control in general prash 33 D drive still I request for the fair funding the Boe members please write okay I have I was there with Mr Dr kak for two two meetings I have seen what's going on there there are new commissioner
182who's going to get hired he said Governor is ready to change the formula Governor is ready to he heard different districts he's going to remove the caps and all so they are thinking so here we don't back off okay in the past you guys not might have not done correctly but strategically I'm going to request the residents and The Bu members write to the speaker of the house senate president governor send one letter or call them okay Monro has to be heard okay and it is not just now the legislators are elected they are going to be here for another 2 or 3 years so let us work with legislators not just bang them let us work with them secondly this is again I said this is 9 what is 9:45 still we have public
183forum we could only fix to the agenda this is I'm requesting you all I'm going to ask I want parents can come here and talk ask questions they cannot stay here before 930 now if want actually officially parents talk they have to stay here till 11:00 so do you agree that you'll take this into consideration please it's part of our policy or bylaws on how we how the agenda is is done so we would have to go look at that again yes please do so because that is what I'm hearing from the public okay okay so second question I'm following with the dialogue already had okay Dr kak's contract now I heard that can you just brief me his contract is over in June or whatever it is so board has unanimously taken a decision
184how how I'm not sure can you explain to me since it's a confidential matter between the Board of Education and the superintendent I could just say that there is nothing on the agenda to um support or or for to vote on a contract and Dr kak's contract expires on June 30th so what the policy and the law says well it it has to do with the contract and some statutes I don't have either one of them in front of me so I don't wish to make any kind of statement without having that information available right at this point okay so my request is is can because you don't have it today at this can can I have it can you can you all email or find the process I'm ready to come and listen to
185it well I believe you have he has the right to OA right contract yes you have the the the right to Oprah Dr kac's contract the policy don't I just help me here I want to know as a public I'll okay I'll see Dr contract but what the policy says what the contract say it's not a policy it's a it's a state statute so what the state statute says so give me the document give us the document we'll read it you can you can go online and look at that document okay if I don't find it I will ask the district office to show me that contract so those are the thank you very much so please consider about the agenda so the parents can come and speak okay thank you hi there Deborah Pella
18615 Louise Lane I actually don't know the man who just went other than the meetings but I actually have heard from several parents that including some of my friends they don't come to meetings because when the time for public it is so late and it's very difficult as you know yourselves as parents and working parents it would be great if there was any sort of looking into policy change of moving the public Forum perhaps to an earlier time in the meeting if possible I understand it may not happen right away but it definitely was a great idea and I've heard it myself around town um regarding what was said earlier about the suing of the state for funding um I just want to say that a few years ago so three schools ago prior to
187redistricting I was one of hundreds of parents that went down to treaton held up our signs saying Fair funding Fair funding um I feel that nothing was done as we all know reason looking for this lawsuit I think is the fact that our students are not valued as high as other students in the state our students are valued at the dollar amount we are given by the state which is let's say $337 East Brunswick students are valued at 2250 Oldbridge 3350 Newark 18,000 Red Bank 22,000 whatever the numbers are that were in the home news that alone appears to be a bias against our town and what we are comprised of and if it's a bias because we have a larger senior population whatever it is I do hope that there is truth behind that
188the new Administration in perhaps Trenton is going to look at this but I'm not going to hold my breath I've been here coming to these meetings for almost N9 years now and we keep doing the same efforts and I do not think there they working and to be honest the efforts that we put the board or Administration put behind trying to get the referendum passed if that information was instead about how we're not funded properly you would have so many more parents aware of what the real situation is because many are not able to come to these meetings they don't know the facts of how underfunded we are other than their taxes keep going up but the fact is we if we could get more money from the state we'd have more money for all
189of these items we're trying to get push through today that we can't because of budgetary constraints so if that much effort was put into letting these parents be aware of not even just parents everyone in our town know about something that wasn't the referendum but the fact that we could try to get more money and had to do it I think it would just be a really better way to get these things Senator Ruiz said to G Linda Greenstein when we were there she turned around she goes why would I vote for this someone in my district is going to want more money too in their schools why would I give it to you those were her words I heard it out of her mouth it was an obvious you scratch my back I scratch
190yours nothing is going to change in Trenton we as Monroe need to do something about it because that one thing I heard out of ruiz's mouth is going to come out of another one whoever's voted in against Greenstein because she's for us and it's not their part of the state we have to care about us nobody else's that's it thank you thank [Applause] you good even even Christy scurby 21 pness Drive um I just had a couple questions um with the security meeting was that open to the public yes I believe it was how come the district didn't send out some sort of information to the parents or or did you that we didn't that no parents that I I've spoken to here this evening from the district it came from the township but if
191our superintendent is participating on a panel to discuss safety in our schools shouldn't the district parents be invited to that we had one already at we had a panel discussion with hundreds of parents that attended that came out and voiced their concerns I'm just concerned I'm just curious why nobody no no no information came from the district that yet another security panel was happening um actually I think it was run by a group a new fairly new group called indivisible and and they're looking for um voter registration and they put on a a presentation on but if our superintendent in our district is going to H participate in a panel discussion on school safety in our schools I think that next time the parents of our district should be invited to that or or informs
192of that so that we can attend as well if it's open to the public um secondly I know it was said in the budget presentation that we're expecting 450 students into the district next year do we know where um the concentration of those students are going to what schools those students are going to be going to do we have any idea how to tell it's cross 12 yeah the I was just looking up for the enrollment um here it is the enrollment as it stands right now as you know I mean it's on the agenda has G has gone up uh the difference the uh the largest difference really is occurring at the high school with 134 students Applegarth with a difference of 39 students right we're saying 450 new students into the district next
193year was what was presented correct where are we expecting that cuz you're right that's my that's exactly my point Dr kak that the biggest increase has been at the high school and I think that you lost a lot of support amongst the parents for the referendum because the high school addition was not on the referendum and that's exactly my point of asking these questions is we are seeing the largest grow largest growth and we are seeing the most student impact at the high school over it currently now for incoming freshman next year uh students have to try out now for a percussion class that they currently do not have to try out for and I think six or seven spots are only going to be available incoming freshmen are no longer from what was presented
194at the freshman orientation are going to be allowed to take um require graduation requirements in their freshman year uh one of those classes is a cooking class if you're going into culinary arts and you want to focus have that focus in high school you have to take cooking one as early as you can to get the advanced level classes well now that's not going to be offered to the Freshman so there is a direct impact on the students at the high school with the increase enrollment and that was a lot of the concern that the parents had with the referendum so I'm hoping I know we're talking about going back to the drawing board and coming up with a referendum I'm hoping that this will seriously be looked at what's going on at the high
195school and the curriculum and the courses and who's being allowed to take classes what's not being offered anymore to incoming freshmen and address that with the referendum thank you thank you anyone else from the public wish to speak then at this time I'll close public forum and we'll go to the superintendent report Dr kak okay thank you Madame President the uh as been mentioned a couple times tonight I just wanted to reiterate there was a state aid rally in Trenton uh this past Monday and Dr Bros uh pron uh and I attended that rally uh we we really got late notice of this rally we have been going to assembly hearings and Senate hearings uh at where they had public portions where we were allowed to speak and we have been going and uh presenting
196our case for the need for more funding from Monro Township this was a the group of superintendant that I've been working with their superintendent for fair funding throughout Central North Jersey and South Jersey uh coming together and we put a we got a press release or press a media meeting I guess on the State House steps and we all got up and spoke and we we said everything we had to say and I know it's frustrating for the people in the town who have been fighting for years and years and years to get additional State funding and I'm hopeful with the new governor and some of the comments that I'm hearing from the legislators as they've been hearing from many many people across the state who are becoming better organized at combining townships and districts
197so it's not just one District or another the two years ago was 458,000 for this coming year it's another 300 and some thousand again really a drop in the bucket but it's more than we've gotten before so we're hoping that that'll that Trend will continue the Senate President uh Sweeney Senate President Sweeney has again said said that he is going to with withhold his support for the state budget until more money is given to the underfunded districts and for our district in particular this is the first time that I've heard it where the the legislators are starting to talk about enrollment caps about removing the enrollment caps so I know that's something that's been pushed for many years and I hope they're not just giving his lip service but I hope that maybe that is
198a serious consideration because we're not alone Monroe is not alone in being a district that is severely underfunded due to student enrollment growth so that is something that touches on a number of districts Monday evening as been stated I was asked to sit on a panel for Monroe indivisible uh I was joined by the police chief Michael Lloyd Lieutenant Robinson four of our high school students represent a representative from Mom's demand action and others to speak about school safety the mayor Town Council Members Senator Greenstein uh board president Kathy K panovich and board Vice President Steve ryck and our director of security Pete pero were in attendance along with many members of the senior community this seemed I think the League of Women Voters were involved it seemed to really be addressed toward the members
199of the senior uh community and we did have an open discussion and there was a question in an answer period at that at the end of that uh just to talk about concerns that people have about security things that we have done and um there were questions about law that were directed to the police chief as well proud to say in addition to all the other academic Awards and Honors that our students are getting and are achieving and really doing wonderful things and our teachers are doing wonderful things I also think it's important to also bring up that there were mult multiple events in our schools to honor Autism Awareness Month and many of our schools or different areas have found ways to light it up blue to show their support this is an annual
200event so in addition to everything else uh that was nice to see that recognition on our agenda on the Personnel section I would like to bring your attention to letters a through let letters a through e letters a through e are members of our staff who have submitted their um retirement the resignation due to retirement and I would just I know in June we recognize f um sorry a through F okay that uh they that we um recognize the Personnel uh you know people who are retiring but I just wanted to give it a quick where is it at sorry I just want to give a a quick mention to these people who have devoted so many years of service so the first is Joan Kofi 16 years of service to the students and staff
201in the community Mrs Linda Kora 25 years Mrs Deborah Stoler 11 years Mrs Miss Jerry Sullivan 11 years and Mrs mirina Klein nine years you missed one Susan Lowry and Mrs low I missed that one that's the update uh and I'm sorry I don't have the number of years for Mrs Lowry that was an update but we'll recognize these people in in June um but again for that number of years for each of those people that devoted I just think I wanted to bring mention to those devoted and dedicated uh staff members on the board agenda tonight has as been mentioned already is uh this is letter BK under Personnel if you want to check is the recommendation for Dawn gratiano to be the uh recommended for the principal position at Apple gar School and
202I just wanted to um you know I went through this with the Personnel committee but I just wanted to mention what the the competition how difficult a decision that was the competition was fierce we had 90 people apply we narrowed that number down to 11 candidates who were brought before a committee of myself Dr alvik two teachers three administrators two parents um I believe I got everybody on that and that was the first round and out of those 11 candidates we took uh we had a a a rubric that I used and the 11 the people in the committee Miss gratiano was the top rated in the first round and we brought her to a second round along with three other uh uh candidates it's freezing here three other candidates it's uh maybe it's cuz
203I'm sitting here but I know I'm looking over it is it's cold in here and uh again in the second round questions multiple questions writing samples um all different things that we we put these candidates through and I have to give kudos to the three other candidates who were not selected they were all excellent any one of them could have walked in and have really filled the position but I you know I can't say enough that uh don't gratiano just in the first and the second round was the top rated candidate and we of course saw her in as she did her interim work uh in the schools both at the middle school jumped in a year ago and also at our at our elementary schools and um you know it was not only seeing
204that but was really the interview process if we took the interim workout the interview process alone she really shown through that so I see that she's hiding back there and I would like her to stand up and be recognized and um don't say anything yet they haven't voted okay wait till they get done voted but I just wanted to commend uh Miss gratiano and what an excellent job that she did and and that uh her name is on the uh agenda tonight for recommendation under board action I also wanted to bring you to your attention is on letter e is the revised school calendar and the last inclement school day that has to be made up uh inclement weather day will be is being recommended for June 22nd it'll take the school calendar to a
205Friday the end of that week and we did get a letter from the county superintendent uh okaying that even though that our high school gra even though our high school graduation is uh Tuesday evening I believe right so the seniors will still be responsible to coming into school School through Friday I said they'll be responsible I didn't say they were going to show up I said they're going to be responsible um and letter uh K again we had talked about that that's the uh policy to allow the armed security officers in our school and I think there was an excellent discussion tonight and hopefully I'll be able to fulfill the request did I give you the wrong letter you're right right right you're right I told you talking about the other one oh okay yeah
206but hopefully we'll be able to to supply all the information that the policy committee is looking for and again something else this is actually more soris but I do want to speak to this that uh instructional technology the iPads that was a I was determined this year to not have it go I really wanted to to to be fully vetted so after we had the night meeting here and we only had a handful of people we asked that the companies come in and present to the to the the entire school and they set up for we we selected two companies they select they spent the entire day here high school students staff could come in and out and speak to them we also got them the pilot they give us uh 30 units each to
207Pilot for I believe a month so we really took it through a process to what I believe was a very stringent process to really narrow it down and to come with up with that final recommendation so I hope the board will consider that recommendation as well with that Madame President I would like to recommend under um letters here under Personnel items uh a through BN so move second Mr Chella Mr Ry that that's a through b is in boy BN second so uh motion by Mr cherel a second by Mr Rybeck any comments or questions for Dr kak okay seeing n we'll have a roll call I don't our men um yes but no on b as in boy M as in Mary yes but no as in b as and boy em as and
208Mary so noted Mr Braverman correct yes on everything uh except b k no no on B and K BK B BK BK beg your pardon soed Mr cherella yes Mrs Deo yes Mrs Lang yes Mrs Karo yes I am so honored to vote for Miss Graziano um my daughter was lucky enough to have her twice the best Mr Rybeck yes Mr Russo Yes except for BM I just have a question if I can ask well now is the time for the vote not the question well then it's yes and BM Mary no so noted Mr rutsky yes to all Mrs colan yes Madam board president Personnel items a through b and has passed can I ask my question sure um when a when a staff member moves from a part-time position to a full-time position
209is there a need for them to apply on Apple track if if a if a staff member is transferred if you're asking like they're applying for a position they're a part-time person right and they have moved to a full-time position do they have to apply for that position uh unless we're asking unless we're transferring them yes we WE Post all the positions so you can transfer somebody from part-time to full-time uh we would have to go to a board vote on that because it would be a difference in Pay I believe Mr that's what's happening here in in uh in BM yeah that's what's happening here and I think that should be looked into further if that's the case because B BM is is a number of people are you talking about Mary no it's
210uh well there's a few of them but I think it needs to be looked into justed not a transfer right but well it says transfer okay but you know if someone's moving from part-time to full-time is that a transfer or a new job I the only thing that I'm uh there's an answer to your question if you want to I mean I don't know if it's considered a new job but in certain situations and certainly with power professionals when we move people to different positions it could depend on either training that they've had the need it's usually they follow the child right the needs of the child so well are you familiar with these cases I'm familiar with I believe all of them I mean I'm not can can I ask that they be looked
211into sure absolutely yeah I just like to congratulate Miss gratiano who's not paying any attention in following Mr V's footsteps into Applegarth school yeah because it's my understanding that new job all right I will look I I thought we always we agreed sometime in the past that any uh full-time job uh had to be posted yeah we do and everything on app TR we did discuss that and that's what we do okay so if it did not occur that way I will look into that but I do want to I would appreciate can you get back to us on that too absolutely yeah okay thanks should be oh should we go to board action I guess sorry I was for you WR down I'm sorry okay okay and uh inter up to rodsky oh you
212vot no I did already okay so uh I recommend to the board items a through R under board action so move Mr cherella Mr Ryback again any questions for Dr kosac Mr cherel I'm I'm just going to just make a statement if I may I'm going to I'm going to not vote on I'm going to vote no on I because I think we need to preserve that continuity um especially going through a transition I will vote Yes for k for the first reading but then I'm going to you know rely on the on the policy committee obviously to let us know if they got what they that that they were satisfied and that'll determine my next vote okay thanks anyone else okay I'm we'll have a roll call then yes Mrs armeno yes on uh
213all except I and K where you vote I vote no I'm sorry I and K thank you Mr Braverman yes Mr cherella yes on all except I where you vote excuse me where your vote wait what do you oh I vote no on I I'm sorry so noted Mrs Deo yes Mrs Lang yes Mrs Karo yes to all except for I will you vote I vote no so noted Mr Ryback yes Mr Russo yes for all except I and K I vote no on those so noted Mr rutsky yes to all Mrs K panovich yes ad on board president board action items a through R has passed okay thank you very much that concludes your report that might concludes my report and we will go to the business administrator's Report with Mr Gorski thank you
214madam Madam board president and members of the Monro Township Board of Education it is recommended that board action items a through Q be approved by consent roll call Mr Rybeck Mrs Lane comments or questions for Mr Gorski seeing no we'll have a roll call Mrs armeno yes Mr Braverman yes Mr Chella yes Mrs Deo yes Mrs Lang yes Mrs Corino yes Mr Rybeck yes Mr Russo yes Mr rutsky yes to all Mrs Colo yes madame board president board action items a through Q has passed unanimously thank you that concludes my report okay then we go to number 13 on the agenda Other Board of Education business is there any other business from any member of the Board of Education Mr Ryback thank you uh just two fast things I have the pleasure of attending the
215academic recognition dinner forsgate and um I can't tell you how impressive it is to see our students and what they intend to major in and um certainly changed a lot from when I was in high school uh certainly credit to their their families their teachers administrators and and and certainly to those students I also on the 18th I attended Falcon Pals at the high school which is a wonderful program headed by Kathleen Dylan who does a great job every year with these students and and uh it's really um enlightening uh to see how our students just gel regular Ed and special ed students just gel together and um um the positive results that it has on all of them and their families thank you anyone else Miss armeno yes on I just like to notify
216the members of the board um and I that on June 1 New Jersey school boards Association is having a workshop for school security it's a Friday I think it starts at about 8:30 and it does go till 3: um I will be attending I uh hopefully um I do have to get out of work for that but um I would encourage anybody in the on the board to go and if some of the administrators can go and perhaps our school security uh director um I don't know we can't mandate anybody to go but I thought if it's if it's possible to voluntarily uh get to this um it's yes it's going to be at Mercer County College and we have to register through school boards but through the business administrator because I I I believe
217there may be a fee and the fee is paid for by the district and it's June 1st what time uh well they start I think they start like 8 8:30 and it goes till about 3 o' so it's an all day program yeah it's on school boards and they have sent it through our emails so if you just go to the school boards um events or agendas you'll see it can I ask you a question sure okay of course so I do have the county Roundtable meeting uh with the county superintendent I might be able to get out of that and and attend but did you say it is open to others besides Schoolboard me school board members like you I think when I read it it said anybody in the I think District people
218can go there so Pete possibly could possibly yeah I mean we'd have to just read it I just you know I picked up on it recently and I just yeah I didn't didn't pull it out so it has to be on yeah I believe so because a lot of times uh there are like all kinds of district U members that go to these meetings sure okay so if do you have the information I do not of hand okay yeah if I'm sorry I'm sorry oh so Mr Pi is already registered as I'm told oh okay so so we'll get the information in yeah uh we'll ask Nancy to to get that along so we can get other people registered thank you anyone else Kathy Mrs Lang so I just have to report out that I
219attended a school board's training this weekend with over a hundred other school board members across the state and we talked about um working effectively as a board um it was a it was an awesome training and I just wanted to share that they the my favorite part is always on advancing student achievement and at some point when we're looking into um um what our other training should be I would really love if we could have the representative Mr Duca from school boards coming and talk about student achievement and all the different ways that we as a school board would work work toward it okay Madam president miss AR to that uh actually um Miss Lang reminded me that in the past I've asked if we could get a report on our board members and our
220credits and in training because I thought that one of our goals again I'm repeating myself that one of our goals was to get additional training other than what's required in the year so I was hoping that perhaps you could Supply that so no for the whole board though oh okay because you can get your own yes I understand that but we were talk we did it as a school boards on training for our district no um we one of our one of our goals for the Board of Education and I think Miss Lang actually brought it up originally was that we get additional training other than what is required on a on an annual basis for each member okay and I think we had agreed that we would all try to get additional training and
221so my question and I know that the board rep uh the New Jersey school board representative said it's possible to give you an update on how we're all doing if we've gotten extra training so who's had training and what they've had training in is or the amount of no not not what we've had training it's just the credits if we've gotten more than we are required on an annual basis okay Madam if it pleases the board um my secretary and I keep track of board member training and I'll be happy to to follow up with school boards and send that out in the weekly update okay that's great that would be fine yeah thanks thank you because that'll go towards our board goals exactly thank you thank you anyone else oh Mr Ryback yeah I
222forgot I'm sorry U one one item I know um in a discussion I don't know if it was at a board meeting or a committee meeting I had uh was curious as to because I know the question came up from the public numerous times about students getting closed out of classes at the high school and uh I had um brought that up and I think we said we want to ask Guidance the guidance Department if they had any report and I just wondered if that was still in the process or or yeah I did and I I thought I had sent you the answer because I did uh get reach out to Dr Celli on that uh who handles a lot with the guidance and with classes and she said it's it's a very difficult
223thing to to know students put in multiple choices and it's hard to come up with an exact answer did somebody actually get shut out of a class or uh another class certainly it's a concern we have as the enrollment goes up and students aren't able to get into some classes but she said it was very hard to to come up with a specific number because kids may put multiple choices sometimes they even when they're doing their scheduling they might put it on there and then later change so she she didn't she couldn't really come up and quantize and say and say yes 10 students 100 students you know um weren't able to get their their courses that they wanted to get but students are able to get into the AP courses as far as I
224know um I've heard from parents that have brought up that maybe said that they somebody can't get into this section or or another section and uh that's certainly very believable but she wasn't able to come back and say definitively yes because again they do the multiple uh choices on that thank you a tough anyone else I just want to make sure that um everyone at this table exactly puts their phones away throughout the meeting um I think that that needs to be a board policy to texting and stuff during board meetings needs to end um I'd like to I'd just like to make sure that we're not we're we're not communicating with members of the public that we're not communicating to boyfriends girlfriends or whatever during the meetings so I just good to put on
225the agenda too awes reminders that so that we could put that on no cell phones on or all cell phones off okay anyone else if not then we'll go to another public forum and you get to speak for four minutes I never had so much fun in all my life this gives you a total of more than 12 tonight surprising yeah well um talking about the iPads why can't the students pay for them at least pay half maybe they'll take care of them as you know those of you who were on the board when I was on the board I was probably the only one at voted against it so I'm hoping that they're using it but everything that we were told by uh assistant superintendent Gorman turned out to be misleading for lack of
226a better word as far as security the new schools that are being built by the state see they don't build schools for us they have cameras in every hallway every door and they have a security guard that has all these on a screen and he's able to monitor that and then go off bet there's a problem students fighting whatever it may be they can respond to it we have an opportunity you have plenty of retired police officers who are qualified to use weapons they know what to do I was in Florida when Parklands happened my cousins two daughters went to Parkland High School and they wind up coming back they're working now but they came back to be with the families and and you had two or three sheriffs that responded right away and they
227stayed outside it was only until a police officer showed up from I guess that would be I think that's still Broward County when he showed up then he went in and I guess I don't know whether they followed him or not but if you have a gentleman like this that has the experience and you ask have him monitor all those hallways and all those doors and he can respond right away that's what we need a regular police officer no it's too expensive uh this position could be part-time as long as it's under 40 hours I'm sorry but you have the other job um so that takes care of that um my last thing there was one other thing I was going to bring up but we'll do that in private I saw on the Oprah
228emails the excuses of why we can't sue and I'll be honest with you I was the one that brought up suing back in 2010 2011 I stuck with my guns I knew this would happen and I did everything in my power contacting the people in Trenton and having talks with them and all after seeing this in the email I give up you will never see me at a Bard ofed meeting again as I told you at the ad hoc committee I will never be back at this meeting I will never voice any anything no great loss you don't need me I only wish that whoever is on the board whether it be people that are on now or people who come back every year we have free seats up that we get qualified people that
229try to do the best they can Dr kak you're a Class Act I loved everything that you did again I don't know what goes on behind closed doors but you've handled yourself as a professional to my knowledge and everything that I've read you've done what was best for our students and what's best for our taxpayers you willing to fight so that's the way I close oh the last thing by the way is the incident that happened here with our past superintendent and myself that went viral my friend's daughter is uh assistant superintendent up in Wayne or some area there and she went to a conference or training you may have even gone for superintendence and guess what video they showed how not so uh I'll have pict members gone wild I'll be more than happy
230to autograph them for you the point is I'm I'm not making fun of it what happened there is you I can say whatever the hell I want respectfully but the superintendent or anybody on the board has to has to I won't say answer but has to respond in a professional manner and those of you were here that were here or saw it on YouTube know that that's probably why they're showing it is because he did not handle himself properly Dr kak you're a Class Act the others thank you thank you for giving me the time to speak thank you for the years that I've been involved both on the board and as a loudmouth resident and I I was hoping I I would make a difference but I can't take it anymore I give up
231and we appreciate all you done I toally give up thank you and we will miss you Anthony preso a questioning way Mark you forgot to add Dr kak on the website I saw that uh Monroe Township moves up 304 spots in all high school rankings in the United States from last year so that's because of your leadership uh and I want to thank you for that I have a question for either Michael or Kathy in the superintendent's contract his contract ended will end June uh July 1st June 30th June 30th okay April 1st is the deadline for him to get 90 days notice yes what happens after that what is your responsibility as a as a board and I know know there's a law there that says you have to give him the 90 90-day
232notice or else you have to give him a new contract two years or three years so what is the delay he did receive his required statutory notice excuse me he did receive the required statutory notice you didn't make a announcement here no no I I I did not make make an announcement that it that is usually between the board and the superintendent well I think some of the board members should question that you're only going to cost us a lot of money that's what you're going to cost us thank you anyone else okay seeing no one we'll close the public forum and go to close session resolution be it resolved that the Board of Education of the township of Monroe hereby moves to go into Clos session in accordance with the Sunshine Law chapter 231
233of the public laws of 1975 njsa 10 colum 4-6 through 10 colum 4-21 to discuss the following subjects harassment intimidation and bullying negotiations with the MTP we'll just leave it following close session action may be taken the discussion conducted in Clos session can be disclosed to the public at such time as the need for confidentiality no longer exists I need a motion in a second who's first is it mtea or not no MTA is no longer on on here it's on there I could just no I thought it was removed this afternoon REM it was removed all right then we'll remove it I make a motion you so she's the Patty Mrs Lang second first and Miss armeno is the second all in favor I opposed then this shouldn't take much more than 10 15
234minutes at this at this time the board will move back into public session and I think we have a public forum anybody wishing to speak okay seeing none we will close public forum and our next scheduled Board of Education meeting is scheduled for May 9th 2018 7:00 p.m. at the Monro TP High School where we will recognize the teachers of the Year motion to journ so move Mr Mayo Mr Ryback all in favor opposed then the meeting is adjourned