Monroe Township Board of Education 05.09.18 Regular Meeting

001good evening everyone the meeting of the Monroe Township Board of Education will come to order please stand as our student board member leads us in the Pledge of Allegiance I pledge of aliance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible liberty and justice for all may we have a roll call Mr Gorski certainly Mrs armeno here Mr Braverman Mr Chella here Mrs Deo here Mrs Kap panowich here Mrs Lang here Mrs Corino here Mr Ryback here Mr Russo here Mr rutsky here Madame board president you have a quarum present this evening in accordance with the provisions of the New Jersey open public meetings law the Monro Township Board of Education has caused notice of this this meeting to be published by

002having the date time and place thereof posted May 4th 2018 at all schools the home News Tribune the cranberry press and filed with the clerk of the municipality thank you we have two presentations on our agenda this evening the first is the teacher of the year and the educational services professional of the Year Awards um this is a special day for the Board of Education it's some one of those days we get to honor the phenomenal staff that we have and we have some some very outstanding staff that we are are going to be announcing this evening and this is even more special to those people who are being honored because you are being um nominated by your peers which is an honor on its own um every day you make a difference in the

003lives of students and sometimes you don't know until maybe years later but students always grow up and they remember their teachers I remember our my teachers I'm sure the board remembers their teachers so you are always special to the students you have so um we're very happy that we have this opportunity today um we had a dinner to honor our staff um before this meeting tonight and it was by our Culinary Arts students who created made and serve dinner and dessert to us and it was a fantastic dinner I think everybody had a great time our principles introduce the teachers and the Professionals of the year and it really is uh very heartwarming and brings tears to your eyes when you hear all the phenomenal things that the teachers do and Professionals of the year

004do they're not just staff members or teachers but they are all-encompassing and and more than just staff members so um I certainly enjoy this night and I'm sure that the board and the administration does too so at this time I'm going to ask Dr kosak Dr alvik and Mr Gorski to come to the front and we will give out plaques to our staff members so as Mrs kapovich just said it gives us great honor and uh pleasure to introduce and to honor some of our finest uh teachers of the year and Educational Service Professionals of the year and these are people who are nominated by their colleagues we just had an opportunity for each of the principles to get up and to speak about the teacher in their building that was nominated and receiv received

005the award and the Educational Service professional who received the award so unfortunately we won't go through all that but they are amazing they've done amazing things and when they get out to speak some of the uh stories that they told of how they worked with the children and what the children mean to them were really uh you know heartwarming and inspiring to all of us so without further Ado we're going to start with the high school and I would ask when I uh for each school that the principal come up and we have two people for the high school as as for each of our schools the first is Elena Blake Weber our teacher of uh teacher of the year teacher of social studies [Applause] we do both together both together okay all right and

006our education uh specialist of the year is Miss Erica Freeman for our transition [Applause] special you can tell this is a very well planned event here you know Mr coopy you're stepping up once again for us thank you next we have our Middle School Miss Shanley the first person we want to bring up is the teacher of the year from our Middle School Miss Alisa bauko teacher [Applause] Ma and uh our middle school nurse Miss Alicia r r Ruto sorry Alicia Mr vollo for Applegarth School our teacher of the year is a teacher of Music Miss Lauren sorich [Applause] [Music] and our instructional power professional or Educational Service professional person of the year is miss Patricia dezos [Applause] for oak tree Miss Dunes our teacher of the year for Miss dunmor is Mr John [Applause]

007Uka and our Educational Service person of the year is Michelle be [Applause] Miss Mahoney please come up for Barkley Brook for Barkley Brook our teacher of the year is Bethany Duo teacher of first grade [Applause] and our Educational Service person of the year is Miss Brenda agin [Applause] Mr Bey one up for Brookside please and our teacher of the year for Brookside is Miss Victoria De [Applause] Carlo and our education uh uh service profession of the year is Miss Cori Collins [Applause] Miss MCN coming up for mil Lake and our teacher of the year for mil lake is Miss Jessica myori [Applause] and our Educational Service professional of the year for mil lake is Miss jod leol [Applause] and Mr Adam Layman please come up for Woodland School and our teacher of the year from

008Woodland School is Miss Trisha Rutherford [Applause] and our Educational Service professional of the year is Miss Maryanne procopio [Applause] thank you to everyone and thank you to their families as well thank you like to thank all of our award winners this evening and um thank you for everything that you do for our students and um this goes to all of our staff um we we're just very proud of what you what you do and where our children end up and it's a nice cohesive group thank you um another hand a round of applause for our [Applause] staff oh here's my glasses um at this time we're going to have a presentation from Barkley Brook Dr alic good evening and continuing with our mtea pride grants tonight we have Barkley Brook School our first graders in

009Mrs duett's class worked with Caroline etch one of our local farmers to learn about planting and they are going to share with us their experience Mrs duet it on good evening Dr kak Dr alvic board members supervisors principles colleagues parents and students my name is Christine duet and I have been a first grade teacher at Barkley Brook School for the past 14 years a few years ago I was awarded a school garding Grant from the New Jersey Agricultural Society to use for teaching curriculum content while incorporating agricultural concepts for the past few years I have worked with Carolyn etch a local Farmer on a P plant unit that addresses all core subjects such as Reading Writing math science a stem activity social studies and health uh let me introduce Mrs ET to say a few

010[Applause] words hi thank you um I think it's really important that um Christine reached out to me about this to help all the children understand things that happen in the garden because they get very excited about it the average person now is two generations are moved from the farm and the way that we can um help everybody understand where their food comes from as opposed to seeing a cucumber on the Shelf they need to know what comes from the plant um is to start with these children she does a phenomenal job with these kids they're really excited I'm pleased to be able to be a part of it um and so I'll turn it back to you thank you um students are going to just say a few words about what we did and then

011we'll see a short video this is Rita Miss Edge read us a story about the first piece of table contest then we did a project about the Pea life cycle next we painted I mean planted PE seeds in the soil in the classroom we watered them and waited them for them to grow this is Riley then we worked together to make the Tris for the pea plants we use the sticks and yarn to make it and this is Matthew last we measured the pea plants to see how tall they grew we wrote a about it in our journals and now for our video [Applause] so I put them the seed and S the Sprout now I added the soil because that's the part we're not going to sink underneath then you have the seedling the

012pond The Blossom and this is the eat a little bit more what uh it would be really dry in your mouth what do you think it would taste like I a little so you like to touch everything use all your senses you like I don't know [Music] done oops [Music] that Bo s that s [Music] you know I this [Music] are you going to eat the peas when you're done with [Music] them guys [Music] help [Music] your take the purple so I planned it out on the planner but then what I did was I I like so I so I planed it and then but then everyone else had an idea and I thought that it was really good so then so then we put all all our ideas together and then we started making

013it and now we're doing now we're working on taping it together and we're going to vote two different things to [Applause] so how many of the students ate the peas that they grew well they're still growing oh they're still growing and we have some future farmers in the making great so thank you for coming to our meeting and showing us about farming and how we get food for for plant from Plants thank you okay at this time we will move on to our agenda um student board member report um the Mona Township drama club had another successful year with the musical they put on the production of Legally Blonde also Thea students attended the international career and development conference in Atlanta at the end of April to compete in business related events one student got

014awarded the top 10 written test AP exam exams began this week and will continue until the 18th also boy State and girl State delegates were chosen the National Honor Society will be holding inductions soon and students and community members are participating in the 5K run and one mile walk to help raise funds for early detection and prevention of Childhood Cancer this event is being held on May 20th in loving memory of om perik okay thank you very much we will move on to committee reports are there any committees that need to report this evening nobody Miss go ahead you go first M armeno okay I I [Music] defer the ongoing um uh security policy number 7446 um the in the last committee meeting I just want to inform the public that the committee did not

015reach total consensus and I thought about this for a long time so I'm just going to uh mention some of my thoughts and why isn't the policy finalized this is the policy to arm security guards it is on the agenda tonight for a second reading but um as chair I feel compelled to have this discussion um again why isn't this policy finalized and perhaps it is a matter of expectations what are the expectations that this policy is meant to to fulfill who are those who have deliberated and discussed the use of armed security guards uh first and foremost the public and the parents of the school children who came out and discussed the ne the their concerns for school security we had the mayor and the police chief uh District uh director of security school

016safety specialist policy committee and the board uh there are many I think part of the the on ongoing deliberations is because there are many different expectations of what this policy is supposed to do and we haven't again reach consensus we have very good ideas but it is a very important policy again in my opinion this is not to delay an important decision this is to try to get it right uh for example is the policy merely a firearm carrying policy are there um are the gun carrying security guards expected to be crisis or incident First Responders none of these questions have really been definitively answered we've discussed it but not fully addressed again expectations and I don't think there's any one flaw or fault of this I just think it's a very important policy concern

017I also don't agree that it's micromanaging I believe it's the responsibility of the board to do the best we can we still have Security in this school thank goodness um uh while we're still deliberating again I'd like to remind uh the board that we have a school uh New Jersey school board uh on J on June 1st a full day of discussion about this very policy so while it is on as a second I don't think um having the policy on the agenda just to put it through to satis y our fears I think we need to um satisfy our our expectations and to try to get our expectations in line so we can have a policy that fulfills the expectations and the most important aspect of that is Safety and Security again um just

018putting a gun in a holster doesn't make us safe I I'm just wondering our um again our expectations uh still I think are are open and that that we've had and everyone has participated in discussion um I'd like to thank the committee members because we have we have gone over and over again and we're trying to make this right for our community uh and again it's not always and it's frustrating not to have it resolved yet but it is it's not choosing colors for uniforms um it's a serious uh policy thank you are there any questions from Mr armino Mr Russo or do you want to talk about it later during policy when we wanted to make one comment sure just to underscore what Miss armeno says is is correct I think what's happened here

019is there was a reaction to Parkland in Florida and um suddenly there was this need to arm the security in the schools and and to protect the to protect the students and the staff however in Parkland there was armed security so simply given somebody a weapon is basically doing what they already did in Florida and we see how that turned out I think what's happening here because I've been through experiences like this before is we are beginning to build a police um Department within the school my personal preference would be to have the police do the policing which is what they do best have the school do educating which is what they do best and I think that we would have a better result at the end of the day uh once we give the

020green light and we go this route I don't think we're going to be able to turn it back we have asked the administration for justification for why they made the decision that they made and we yet to get that from from them with promises over the last 3 months I even wrote the document which is the letter of justification the memor of justification which kind of points out everything that they told us and they simply uh have not delivered and that's what has taken everything so long so I think I again I agree with Miss armeno I think what we need to do is spend more time and do this thing right I think there are some other people here that have other information maybe more experiences or from people that they've spoken to about

021these type of things where there are other options and uh that's what I that's all I have to say give it I think we need to give it more time thank you Mr tiella yeah I just I I I have a question I guess and a comment but um I'd like to know why if I don't know if anyone in the from the administration would like to speak to it but I'd like to know why they're hesitant to give that just to give that documentation over assign it just just assigning ownership and I'm going to tell you because of through because of history but let me just go back for a second I'm for the policy the reason that I'm for the policy because as a taxpayer from what I understand it's costing us about

022$25,000 a week to have the police officers police our schools and while I I agree that having the police officers um is is a good thing you know and I like having them as a taxpayer $25,000 a week week is a steep price um but what's the price for the safety of our children right so so but I think that we could have a happy medium where we could we could have our security force uh armed uh there are former police officers retired police officers we could train them properly so I understand what they're saying and I and I agree with it to the extent that I think we need to have a strong policy that uh gives you know specifies exactly what happens when certain things happen What happens if there's an accident what

023happens if the gun is discharged uh what do we do the police department has rules for that you know the state comes in and they do all kinds of things what do we do if those kind of things happen and I think those things are important um but I also think it's important to have the Buy in from the administration to the level where we could say that our Administration is backing this what we don't want to have happen is for one of those incidents to occur and then the administration turns around and says well we weren't really for it the board member push board members pushed this or policy pushed this I am going to vote for this but I also would like to hear from the administration tonight to find out why we

024we won't do these simple things it almost seems to me that we want certain board members to not vote for it and I and and I I happen to know and have spoken to uh both board members that are on policy and who are expressing concerns and I do believe that they're for this policy but they want to have assurances and they want things in place to ensure that we're doing it the right way and I and I just want to understand like what the holdup is so that we could get their Buy in also Dr kosak would you like to respond yeah I would like to respond to Mr R I just want to just to add on what he said I just because I want everybody to keep this in mind that what

025when no one doubts the the ability and the competence of the current uh staff to U handle the gun nobody doubts that what we're doing here is we're building a police department within the school that's what's happening and nobody here has that experience including the staff you have on on on duty now or on the on the on the job now you guys don't have it none of you have it and I think that's what we're missing and um like I said I don't think that you thoroughly vetted it's my opinion because nobody's willing to sign a document I don't think that you fully vetted U an option to use the uh police department I mean even like you said like Mr cherella said we all we're all residents of the town we all pay

026taxes even if the police department had a hire 10 more police officers to fulfill this need it wouldn't be the $24,000 a week that keeps that we keep quoting it would be a different price and maybe a different Arrangement can be made and um it would be a lot less expensive and you would be relieved of having that burden of providing armed security officers in the school and all the things that can go wrong with that it would be the police department's responsibility which is what they do best yeah so um I will say that the document that you asked for s that we did put together uh I researched it I went online and and looked at all different uh a variety of research to support the idea of either an SRO an armed

027security officer or a class three or tier three officer uh I got input from Mr Puro who's the director of security uh Mr Gorski was involved I also spoke to the chief U Michael Lloyd and part of what I was looking for were some of the things you asked for like procedure suppose that this doesn't occur or that doesn't occur and some sort of policy in place and uh I didn't find uh an online like there wasn't a manual I was hoping that maybe I could borrow something from the police that would speak to that um that is what the police have and probably in most cities and towns is years and years of having that buildt up and you're correct that that's what they do best right that's their police department they work with

028the prosecutor's office our rules for security come from the state and we follow all those rules we Implement all those policies and procedures granted uh things in the private sector sometimes there are more resources available and they have things uh that are better able to support that but we did put the document together we checked with our the board attorney as far as signing the document I have no problem with signing a document the attorney gave us legal advice and said to be careful if we sign one document one policy that also speaks to the fact that we didn't sign other policies and that that could become an a legal entanglement so that was that's just our board attorney and I'm not speaking for she's not here I'm just saying not recalling the best from

029what I remember from our conversation so I want to rely on the legal Authority as well as far as whether I signed something or not uh she did concur with what I said the last board meeting that when I put down anything on a board agenda and it says the superintendent recommends that that is in fact me soliciting or not soliciting me putting forth my approval on my recommendation um I'm as far as recommending officer is armed or or arming our uh security I as a superintendent has have to take in into account the input of the Board of Education the the input of the community and I have to make a recommendation to the board and the board has to accept that or to not accept that arming security officers in a school is

030not something I ever thought I would be in favor of 10 years ago a little bit more five years years ago recently and especially after hearing many many community members speak about the security and I start thinking of how all of our lives have changed and when we go through an airport as an example of the security measures that we all have to go through that it's it's an unfortunate way of life so I do support um putting the armed security officers in in the schools and based on the security officers that we have because they have the training as retired police officers and they've built relationships where students feel comfortable sometimes giving them uh uh you know information about an impending problem and I know we've just talked about that at length and I

031understand your side of that as well uh I also understand and fully agree with you that as with most things we can always improve upon uh the documentation the supporting documentation I feel that we did compile a decent amount uh but certainly that's all relative I I know it's it's relative uh certainly this is something new a new Avenue for us and is certainly is an important uh policy and an important position that the district is going in in the Board of Education of course whether to vote for it or or against it but I do feel that coming up with a supporting documentation and and I did provide charts with comparing the the SRO and the class three and and you know and what other District I solicited information from what all the other

032districts in Middle sex County are doing and we compared all that information um I just feel that to address the security now especially now through the end of the year is Paramount and I would I give you my word to continue working on U to support what you and the rest of the board would want as far as supporting documentation realizing that what a an important decision this is for for the board of education but we um we we're not asking you to sign a policy this is not something new this is signing a justification document for making the decision that you guys are making the administration is making that's what we're asking for sure and I'll sign it tonight I mean I like I said I have no problem with signing I but I

033you know when when we're talking about signing things I did want to talk to the board attorney and say I have no problem with signing it what do you recommend from a legal point of view because the other part of what I have to do as a superintendent is to look out for the best interest of the district in a legal Manner and and of course I'm not a lawyer so I have to rely on the advice of the board attorney for that I agree and but this document is basically uh the same thing that you would you know when you created your paperwork to justify why you went with iPads versus uh Android for example um it's it's the same thing B you're you're saying that we we're choosing this option yeah do the

034policy is about arming um security and the decision to make that you're making as to who to arm is a decision that was made by the administration it is made by the administration with the input of and and a very quick very quickly it was done really without proper vetting we cannot deny that nobody went around and asked other um schools um what type of security they have no actually I do have that you have it so absolutely where is that documentation it's I had it with me at the policy committee meeting we had all that information at the policy committee I talked about it that the policy committee meeting well there were other members uh that are here now that we at the policy committee meeting are they aware of it but I'd be

035happy to share that with you absolutely Miss Gino I just wanted to know I was talking to someone that works for the Franklin Township Police Department and they're telling me that the police department hired 13 class three the new class of Officer for schools um and I feel like when we started this whole policy like everything was evolving and we didn't they didn't have that when we first started to discuss it so this is like a moving Target and not that you know you're not doing a lot of vetting but you know it scares me just to hear you say I Googled and I tried to find like how we would manage police officers like that's I don't but I don't think that that's what we do like we educate that's what you know that's

036like you know when I say Google let me clarify that what I meant was I use the internet Google happened to be the search engine but I use the internet to look at different research policies out there and just the fact that we don't already know that means this is not our thing we don't do this right so I don't understand why if other townships are using their Police Department they're hiring the class three and then those class three are going into the schools and then when you just said before taking the legal you know problems away from the school and the Board of Ed like wouldn't that satisfy that where they can police and we can educate and from what I'm told they were going to be paid $25 an hour with no benefits

037no stiens no anything else and I you know I just think that that might be a better way to go I don't know if you spoke with them I don't know if you went down that road to look into that I I don't know yeah I mean I I I did look into class three and that is an option um but do you know any other schools that did do that like Franklin I mean did any other school say they let the police department hire the police and then can you reach out to Frank there was a variety of responses to how the uh districts responded in what they did so um I don't have Franklin on this particular chart from middle sex County but I do have a number of other someone said they

038believe East Brunswick did it that way too I I can't verify that but um and then the only other thing I just wanted to say was like we are reacting emotionally because of what happened in Florida and around 200 people came out and demanded you know guns in the school but we have 7,000 students parents of students and we also have teachers you know who I don't know what their opinion is if they want to have the guns in the school I don't know what the students feel and so for what like 4% of just you know just the amount of students we have we're doing all this and I'm just afraid that once we have a police department then oh my goodness they might need cars to go you know between schools or whatever

039it's just it just seems like it you know and I don't really believe from everything I've seen that we have the skills to manage a little mini Police Department here like from an administrative perspective and who's going to keep track of when they qualify who's going to keep track that the guns are clean I don't know I don't even know enough to even you know but that's where I rely on the our director of security who does have many years as a police officer uh has that experience and also with our Police Department I will say Chief Lloyd is has been terrific uh anytime that I've ever had a question or we have ever had any kind of um anything at all that we needed to discuss he's always made himself available and so we

040never discussed like with our police department whether they could hire the those class three police officers and then put one in each school and then obviously they would bill us you know we never discussed thaty you want to weigh on on that after the uh tragic Parkland shooting we had uh a great Outreach from the community to the central office via emails and telephone calls expressing the need to improve the security in our schools and just Lobby guard systems and locks on doors uh was was unsatisfactory to the folks that we were hearing from Mrs kapano um having been reported to the the volume of calls and emails that we've received asked me me to immediately put together a security information meeting with the public and we put together a very intelligently planned agenda where

041we didn't just talk about guns and we didn't just talk about bulletproof glass we talked about the best ways that that as a district we can Safeguard students that begins with counseling services we have the director of guidance present we had two principles one from the middle school and one from the high school present who talked about counseling and intervention methods we spoke with the director of special services who again talked about uh numerous different um initiatives to identify um students who had a propensity toward uh violence and we have dozens of programs here to intervene and ward off the problem before it becomes a problem the chief Lloyd and at least four or six detectives from Monroe Township with there was there Dr uh Pete Piro was there and um we had an incredible

042turnout there was to my recollection over 400 residents at that meeting maybe more and the message that we received loud and clear from the public was times have changed we need a stronger deterrent to preventing a tragedy like this from happening to our school we want an armed officer in every school and that was that was the starting point of a security process which as I mentioned before is evolutionary and every everchanging that point of arming a security person in every school was made loud and clear and it was the number one note that I believe all of us took from that meeting so when we went back to policy we Dr kak uh Pete Piro Mary Smith our board attorney representatives from Strauss Esme other numerous other school districts Chief Lloyd mayor Jerry tamboro

043all of us collaborated on this very important issue on the best way to safeguard students and in my opinion we put together a very fine policy from the very first meeting that was Superior to what other districts had done in arming dist in arming staff right off the bat and then at policy committee there was additional requests made on top of a policy uh there was requests for action plans what have you done we we want to see uh more information about uh uh if then scenarios like traffic stops what happens if uh if somebody comes into the school what is the uh steps that would be taken in order to deal with a threatening circumstance I believe and again in my opinion Dr kak Pete Piro and many other administrators and many other law

044enforcement officers and our policy service put together a compilation of information that is is more than satisfactory in this regard and it's not so much arming our security staff but rearming our security staff Pete Piro and I interviewed every single retired police officers that that's in our school district from the standpoint of making sure that not only are they a uh you know a decorated officer after 20 or 25 years but that they have the grade level sensitivity to be in an elementary school that they can handle Middle School uh adolescence and the different grade levels and all the different changes that students go through through the years High School how would they handle difficult parents who came into the school um how would they handle bullying and um and I I believe we hired

045very fine officers who are retired who don't need health benefits who don't need pension who are being rearmed they're simply being rearmed to carry their own weapon to campus a weapon that's delineated in the policy what it's to be and everything that we presented past the um the approval of the police chief whose ultimate Authority is not only you know to keep the township safe but inclusive of that is the schools so that that in my opinion is the authority on on uh the arming issue but you didn't answer my question I asked you if you spoke to our Police Department to see if they would hire the class three officers yes and put them in our school I specifically remember a meeting with Dr kak and chief Lloyd and Pete pero in the conference

046room of the administrative building we went through every single option of of armed officers so that was an option they would hire some class three officers we talked about every option and the and by uh by let me just finish by uh unanimous consensus we all determined that the best option here being that we have retired police officers on our staff already was to arm the existing officers who are eligible and licensed to carry a gun in the school but that's not the issue the issue is m managing them and managing the you know the whole processes and making sure that what a police department does what a police chief does yes ma'am to make sure that so like at this we're not we're not we're not a mini Police Department here by any means

047we're armed security officers who at best are going to be a deterrent to stopping somebody immediate charge into the building and wouldn't they fall under the director of security they they Not only would fall under the director of security but the permit to carry the gun is is is licensed and controlled by the New Jersey State Police and and all of the requirements to carry and all of the training and everything is stipulated by the police to to have the license see so we're not we're not a redundant uh Department here that's going to have to manage everything to that regard um and and in my opinion our policy and everything else that we put together with it all of the ancillary information gives the people what they want what we heard clearly from that

048security informational meeting and armed deterrent in every school to prevent an intrusion from coming in to to stop and and buy time as opposed to someone just going from classroom to classroom okay so since we weren't at any of those meetings that you had with the police chief or with Peter pero or any of that and we asked for you guys to give us the options that you looked at and the reasons why you didn't choose those which I don't believe I ever saw what did the police chief say as to why he would want to just have you handle it and not have his Police Department hire them make sure everything is followed the way of police department you know all the regul things that I don't even know what to ask because that's

049not our thing for them to control it and put one into each school what was his reason why he thought that wasn't a good idea I have no specific recollection to that question but I will tell you that he was because you said they the consensus was that we should control it we should we should arm our retired officers here of which who the police chief knows most of them individually has worked with them individually has a communication Network very clearly defined with everybody and and uh ultimately the police chief said in order to get the endorsement of the police it's going to have to be an arming of officers that that the township and the police department feel comfortable with they don't want XYZ security detail with guns swinging in the schools they want

050to be able to coordinate whatever re off isn't it class three a retired officer yes that's one and they train with our staff with memorandum of agreement that we have with the police so so again in conclusion you know my opinion uh Administration is is taking a hit here but I believe we've done our job we've we've put forth a a reasonable policy that I believe is better than what other districts have far better than some that we heard of I believe we've gone through every extent to to furnish the policy committee with our rationale and the reason and the methodology and the why and um and I hope the policy and the sidebar agreement that's related passes this evening may not be perfect and it could be again security is an evolutionary process over

051time if we find something that needs to be tweaked we could certainly work on it but this is a wonderful first step and that's on behalf of of everybody who I this question to you because you know the past as well as I do a lot of talk the board votes and the board at the end of the day is always responsible and the reason why we ask for justification is because we know that the administration doesn't have the experience to build a police department in the school which is what they're doing and we know there are other options which haven't been explored and the costs haven't been examined we keep throwing around that figure of $24,000 and it's Mr Russo it's not right so just let me give an analogy one second so what

052we did was we asked some questions one question I asked which alarmed me was do you have a current threat assessment for each of the buildings and nobody could answer that so it shows me that the people we have don't have the experience to create a police department and they haven't done it already you you have nothing prepared so the idea is give them guns and then we'll as Mr Gorski always says we'll evolve we we'll work our way through it I don't think it's the right way to do it Mr Roso I not a financial adviser yet I refunded $60 Million worth of bond saving this District over $8 million you don't have to be an expert in everything that you research vet bring in professional expertise and recommend to the policy committee and

053again we're not building a police force we're rearming security officers on our employment already who have had at least 20 years of of Public Service as a police officer have been particular L vetted for the school application where they serve get reviewed annually have impeccable service records with the Monroe Township Board of Education who the police chief is ultimately comfortable with in carrying a gun in the schools and we believe that is the best deterrent to um to stop someone from going classroom to classroom to classroom to classroom when they intrude in school with the weapon that's all we ask okay I'm just going to intercede for one minute as the prerogative of the chair um again I think this is a clear indication that expectations are still all over the place um I respect

054um uh Frank and Dawn's perspective but that's not necessarily again the consensus of of the committee um every everyone has their position that we're all trying to to to understand but I just heard something now that I do want clarification for and I don't want to put words into your mouth Mr Gorski but it's it I understood and correct me if I'm wrong and this is the first time I'm hearing it that when we do hire additional police officers will they only be from Monroe and they will also and and the the chief will be involved in the hiring process by reviewing the our higher e no that that is certainly not what I said they we have police officers on our staff now who are retired who were not from Monroe no no I'm

055not talking about those we have presently cuz that's that's what I think we understood the policy to cover what I thought you just said about the chief being comfortable with the people I mean going forward is the chief of police like who's going to do the hiring is it going to be the bo if if we if we pass this policy as such are we are we taking into consideration uh recommendations from the police chief in Monroe is that what we're saying are we getting are we going to have J Monroe retired policeman or he you know it I just thought you mentioned the police chief in in the hiring process and I and that's the first that I'm hearing and that again goes to what the expectations are that we're all not clear about

056I'm happy I'm happy to comment on that again we do not just hire Monroe police we that's clear we hired uh we have fine officers from other departments that are on our staff who have retired from there the police chief will not be involved in the hiring pract uh the the hiring screening of of future officers For Hire uh that responsibility Falls initially with the security director Pete Piro who is a sergeant with the Monroe Township Police Department and me uh because on the district flow chart I I am Pete Superior and I recommend the person after interviews and reference checks uh to Dr kak for ultimate hire to the board um the police chief's point that I reference was that have the coordination of the Monroe Township police work best with the Monroe Township

057security detail they should be retired police officers so that the uh the police can be comfortable in their background their training their mental state as as we talked about at committees it's not XYZ security detail coming in here with God knows what temperament carrying guns in the schools right these are these are the very finest of the off officers who have retired who are have particularly vetted for the grade level applications where they're being presented and um like the other eight that I believe that I interviewed and recommended Dr kak into to the board they they will serve very well this community Mr Rybeck Lo were commenting now I might as well give my comments um first I as long as we're commenting now might as well give my comments um I agree with Mr

058Chella and thank Mr Gorski for his answers and I I also feel it's necessary to uh thank the policy committee uh for their work uh in this I know they're very sincere in in their beliefs and everything they've been saying and doing however I think that um I'm going to be voting yes on this because uh you know we mentioned Florida Florida was um it's certainly an emotional uh incident but it's also a rude awakening for all of us here that this is something that can happen in any school in any Community personally I'm not willing to jeopardize the safety and well-being of any children or any staff member in our school while we're deliberating and taking weeks or months to deliberate I think we have to get these officers in the schools as soon

059as possible um and we could certainly work out things after that for myself I have the utmost confidence on our director uh Pete Pio and his staff you're talking about retired policemen with years of experience these aren't rookies they've been around the block many times and they faced situations that we probably couldn't imagine they have my confidence and I think that we have to get these offices in these schools yesterday anyone else cuz we're still on the policy committee so this is really all I yeah this is not we want more committees no we have we probably have more committees but we're we're this was a conversation for policy you can go first let me do this Mr retsky let's do the F let's let's take this to the finance committee for just a brief

060second so we're taking the policy committee to the finance committee exactly okay um we spent this last meeting getting an update from Mr Gorski on Falcon care and early childhood enrichment programs and good news is is they are roughly on track um for the same progress and profits that they showed last year currently we're at about $361,000 of profit for the 9-month period which if you extrapolate that out over the year that should be close to the 500,000 number that we brought in last year um and to remind everybody we put that to good use putting it towards uh redirecting it in the budget towards the uh upcoming trailers so those programs running very smoothly very well um for all those interested parties out there there are open spots Falcon care has roughly 80 spots

061still available and early childhood enrichment has roughly 20 spots still open um for what it's worth the numbers are slightly down this year um that's believed to be temporary uh based on just uh just the es and flows of the population in town so good news all around on that $500,000 should be our profit we'll put it to good use once again uh when we're making decisions on next year's budget so um that's that on to lunch so the state believe it or not is requiring us going to lunch states are requiring us to raise lunch prices by a dime hopefully that's not uh anything too detrimental to change anybody's plans um we we try to keep the lunch prices as low as possible raising in a dime again should be peaceful it meets the

062state standards um and uh good news that that always comes out of the back of that is always um any additional profits or increases in our profits will go to uh upgrading equipment such as Steamers walk-in refrigerators uh other equipment which will be a group decision by Miss Mitek and Mr Gorski uh as that time comes and last we just got a quick update on the budget from Mr Gorski um it's been submitted to the county it's been advertised and the userfriendly budget uh along with all additional information has been posted on the district website that concludes my finance committee notes thank you thank you and anyone else Mr tiella I do and for the next two hours I'm going to go through this I'm just kidding um I don't know if I can can

063I am I allowed to say the student's name for the Seagle Scout project are you allowed to use the the student we have the students's name in the report I didn't know if could I yeah because that was a public meeting so the public couldn't come in to that meeting I just want to I didn't want to say the name and then uh okay so we had an Eagle Scout presentation so Devon van duen is doing an eag he's an eagle scout candidate and he presented a proposal to paint the United States uh on asphalt uh at wood at Woodland School so um the our committee is recommending that we approve that and allow him to do that uh it was very it was it was nice and we thought it would it would be

064good for uh we've had other students do similar things and that it was uh a good geography lesson too for for for our students to be able to see that and see where the states are located and I I thought it was laudable to have a uh a young a young person uh not only trying to be become an eagle scout but you know looking to paint the United States on a on a uh you know and and do a geography uh project I thought that was pretty awesome um we also looked at our turfield replacement project so the our current uh turfield at the middle school has outlived its life um and if anyone knows about Turf uh astr Turf and the the stuff that we currently use it's made out of crushed up

065tires and uh if you've ever played on that in the summer you know that it gets hot uh so the so we were looking at a thing called a cool play infield mix so that it'll it has a has the durability and a long life but it doesn't heat up the way those the truck tires do it also doesn't have uh an environmental impact uh so that it's made of non-toxic materials so we're not looking at uh poisoning the water or anything like that uh I don't know how safe the the you know having shredded tires are out there but but having that removed I think makes me feel a little better and having it have a having a cooler uh place for our children to play I think is also important um so we

066were the administration was able to negotiate uh a standard 8-year warranty and we were looking at um putting in some uh damages and things like that for lateness and things so hopefully that will go our committee is recommending that we move forward with that also um we also had an update on the transportation routing system so our uh director Kathy McDonald or Transportation director Kathy McDonald uh put a routing system in place or asked for a routing system we put in place when she first arrived here we obliged and she was able to work out some efficiencies using that new system which caused a reduction in contracted bus routes which is always a good thing so uh you know not our own bus our own bus routes our own bus drivers and our own buses

067but the contracted ones and those are usually the ones where we have issues with um uh uh for whatever reasons but we always you know we always do have our problems are primarily with the contracted routes but anyway that reduction in uh in those routes will save the district about $385,000 so that's a good thing so uh we we we uh went through that we also have a number of vehicles uh buses and maintenance vehicle that are have also outlived their usefulness and through State Statute we no longer allowed to use on those the new The Replacements were in our budget but uh what we've recommended to the board is to go forward with govdeals.com and to liquidate those uh buses to sell those buses so that we could take that money and then uh

068put it into the general fund and then then we had two additions to our uh to our meeting uh the first was the uh it was that our committee asked for a status on the acquisition of the uh golf site for the middle school and uh that'll be forthcoming I believe and then the second was that Dr kak asked our committee to U entertain helping uh the 5K run uh in uh honoring om Peri and uh and for us to look for ways so that we could help uh with busing a transportation Depot kind of thing so that we could shutle and we're in the midst of doing that so I reached out to the board president uh and we're going to we're looking at how we could help with that so sure if you

069want to Dr kak yeah I'm sorry didn't mean to interrupt but n that's fine uh I did reach out to the uh person who I believe is chairing the Education Foundation uh only because those little time you know it's time sensitive and they agreed today would be about I think it's 350 or 375 hours 350 hours to provide a a shuttle bus and the Education Foundation said that they would support that oh great so I did send a note to the the one of our parents who's uh involved in that organization and and I plan to be there that morning as well Sunday uh anybody in the audience Sunday May 20th it's a um 5K run or 1K walk and uh the money being used uh by the way there were questions asked all the

070money goes to charity they do have a I think 501c3 and there was another question asked um but all the um the uh money is going back to either help cancer research there's they want to uh the group wants to put a scholarship uh in place for the class of 2022 I think which would have been U 's uh graduating year so they want to put a scholarship there as well and also money to help families of uh that have children who have children that are dealing with Childhood Cancer I think that's wonderful so thank you for that followup I think that that was that's great thank you you know also uh to the board president uh because I know she's a member of the uh MEF Monro Education Foundation so I appreciate that and

071thank you for I know we had a lot of questions so I'm glad that you followed up on those and you gave us an answer tonight and that's all that was that's end of my report I have Miss armeno question for um did we get an update on the land he did that was the other I don't have one unless Mr Gori has one I don't have any I think you had said that you know are we gonna wait till the next Comm I sent the update on the land home with the weekly confidential as requested on Friday okay I didn't get to read that yet thank okay is there any other committee reports no seeing none we will go to the public forum anyone from the public wishing to speak to the agenda please

072come to the microphone and give your name and address address for the record and we will adhere to our 4 minute time limit Anthony froo a equestrian way Kathy what is the status of the superintendent's contract that's not on the agenda uh we're talking about contracts today on the agenda that's not on the agenda contracts are not on the agenda the superintendent's contract is not on the agenda okay okay I have a uh question to ask the committee the cular committee wants to have uh Alexa brought into the school school rooms is that correct that's not on the agenda either well committee meetings sure want to speak to it um yeah there we have a pilot going on where two classrooms are using classroom Alexa to um manage help manage the classroom and they're going

073to expand that okay uh Michael and Michael gski and Dr kosak came up with a budget and they're just about squeak out getting it done and they did a good job and now we're introducing another payment for technology I don't remember there's no cost there's no cost that not at the moment no not at the moment but there will be a course down the road I can't speak to that okay do you remember what thank you do you want me answer if you would like the right now there's no cost um if it if it expands and if other teachers want to do it then it would be something that we would have to budget for in future okay thank you prash pup 33 our Drive uh thank you very much for providing shuttle service

074for 5K for home we are organizing that and thanks for explaining it is very good um just regarding the policies I don't know it was stated that homework policy will be discussing in month of May if I recollect and that is true so I didn't hear about where where we stand on homework policy on the homework policy I think think that will be coming out in June June so the May okay you know better than me what is she knows I don't know I'm don't want to direct the question to whom you know Dr alich knows more than us so she can thank you as I had reported a couple months ago the homework policy was continuing to work okay I will be recommending um to add it to the policy agenda and the curriculum

075agenda in June okay um to share the research presentation from the committee as well as the revised policy okay thank you very much now regarding the discussion on the security of the students you know this has been happening for Last 5 Years or 10 years shooting is going on at the random place so thinking has changed and we are not having a police department in the school I request that when this happen happened there were more than 500 people came to that meeting in high school and I wish all the Board of Education members would have been there now questioning those again here is not good and the mayor came to the board of education and said we will give Police Department you know help for next 5 months after that come up with the

076policy just arming the current security officer which are police off ex police officers so that is the thinking I'm surprised we spent one hour on that I have said that the parents are tired the parents have issues and they want to come before 8 and talk to the Board of Education by the time we get to that it is 10:30 so I respect if you all have communication do the communication before the meeting I worked in corporation I didn't wait till the president came we talked to each other and res the issue I request you all to talk to each other talk to the administration and Boe not to the Boe members should talk to the administration re remove the miss the phone there are policies you cannot talk you have to talk in group

077do it have the meetings not spend here 1 hour okay so that is my request and I have not heard where we stand on the referendum we voted the referendum on March 13th now it is May so you know we have schools are overcrowded there that is the most important thing to do when we are going to have referendum decision what what when the referendum will be and what will be taken into consideration is the Boe discussing on that President we hope to have a steering committee to meet within the next week so we could discuss where we're going with the referendum um I I think we've had a couple of issues that we've been working on one is the contract for the teacher so that is my priority before we go to the referendum

078but I have asked to um have a meeting with the steering committee so that we can discuss just have another conversation about the referendum yeah I I will request you all at least in the next meeting please tell a public is waiting you know to hear where we stand on that what is the Board of Education plan so we'll request you all to next meeting at least give us the update okay I'll appreciate that um thank you very much my time anyone else wishing to speak to the agenda hi you have agenda question yes I do and I know all the rules no I know formerly Sweeny that's most of you know me as uh Las Vegas Nevada now do I need to give an exact address good anyway the first thing I not unless

079you have a residency at one of the hotel else that we can come to I have rooms in my house for you C okay anyway I know the bill is because I've been up online for the agendas and there's all the backup except for billis which I know in 2015 there was a controversial there was a court case that was decided that it did not have to be printed to the public because it's so large however from a transparency point of view to the public who is paying the bills I know that you're already already scanning the bill list as a file why can that not be put online so if the public wants to they can line item by line item see what's being approved that's just one issue um item P under the

080business administrator's report about the Synthetic Turf states that it's referencing a um a November 8th proposal however the backup for that is dated May 7th not mentioning anywhere November 8th so has the proposal changed at all or is it possible that there have been changes but not noted that's question is this a business administrator's report number b p as in pet oh P I can say that we had a bid opening for the uh the turf project and um and we got a proposal that is significantly under what was in the budget I'm not familiar with the specifics of the date issue that you bring up I'll be happy to look into it and uh well it's your report so you should have seen it when it was done mik thank you you're right I

081don't know the discrepancy between November 8th was that an initial proposal or the letter date at May 7th with dollars and things what what is the exact amount being approved I guess that's my question what was November 8th or what was in the letter but that's neither here nor there and then as far as the guns in the school you have an armed guard up here somebody down there with a gun same thing happens like in Parkland issue maybe do not allow any of the doors other than these doors to open at all put cameras by the door so if any kids try to open them to allow people in at least you know who is is doing it and you can deal with it but loaded guns in a school is asking for trouble

082thank you that's it anyone else wishing to speak to the agenda good evening to the Board of Education First of all I want to congratulate all the teachers on the teacher appreciation week and thank you very much for your patience for waiting for over 300 days Cas to get the contract I've been coming to this board for the last 2 years and I have seen the way board has been functioning and every time I came up here I offered my help directly or indirectly and today I'm not going to take this anymore what I see is a dysfunctional Board of Education that's at odds with each other compromising the security of our kids and I can't tell you how much of unnecessary stuff that's being focused on taking our eye away from what we really

083need to focus on the referendum has been defeated kudos to those who really supported the the referendum to be defeated now after two months later we got absolutely nothing and it's going to cost us money for that we don't have the superintendent's contract renewed we don't know where that's going the teachers finally hopefully today they're going to get their contract and there bunch of other things the freeholders uh the the security discussion that I heard I completely agree with prash for an hour you're discussing I asked those people who are not voting on this today do you have your kids in that school if you do if you care for them you would not even have a discussion 84 days have passed since February 14th when the Parkland has happened you're sitting here and discussing

084it still shame on you guys for doing that the god should have been armed right away I'm sorry to be vocal about this but I'm telling you what I see is with all these issues sitting here we get on the Facebook to say who call whom goofy that's not what we are here about we want to sit here to talk about resolving the issues our our district faces here I'm not looking for Applause guys we're all responsible for the for promoting this stuff let's try to solve the problems in front of us that needs to be solved rather than personally attacking people and unnecessarily spending our energy and time on things that really don't matter what matters is taking care of our kids and our schools and our teachers thank you [Applause] anyone else wishing

085to speak to the agenda uh Christine Patterson I'm at forb edinberg um I'd just like to comment briefly about the security discussion that was had here there's a a saying that hard cases make bad law hard cases can also make bad policy and the horror of Parkland added to the horror of all of the other school shootings that have taken place around our country has created an emotional tidal wave pushing towards putting guns in our schools now maybe that is the answer I don't know but I do know that 84 days is not too long to take to make a decision of that Monumental size we are talking about putting guns in our schools I'm I'm amazed that I'm standing here even saying those words and take the time it takes to get it right

086don't rush into it because a lot of people are emotional about it I don't want my grandchildren to be in danger in school any more than I want anybody else's children to be in danger in school but I also don't want you to rush into it because people stand up and yell at you thank you thank you anyone else okay seeing no one we will close public forum and go to the superintendent report Dr KAC thank you mad president this [Music] week is recognized as teacher appreciation week and we recognized our teachers of the year in our educational support person uh people Personnel of the Year tonight and they certainly deserve that appreciation but uh again I would like to also offer our appreciation for all of our Educators throughout the district and it is

087teacher appreciation week and it does represent our teachers and they do deserve the the praise for taking on such a difficult job and and for what they're doing and day in and day out and I would like to also just add that I consider all of our staff members to be Educators so that includes our bus drivers and our power professionals and our custodians uh and our administrators and everyone else and that is certainly not to take away from our teachers they deserve they they are the in the Forefront with our students but I just wanted to applaud all of our educators ERS um and our teachers throughout the district during this week they've done a great job uh during this week our parent groups and our administrators certainly showed their appreciation for our teachers

088they've arranged for special culinary treats and other nities and um again I just want to recognize the work that they do throughout today and throughout the year on uh Thursday tomorrow night the department for the applied arts and career technology with presenting their semiannual Jazz and percussion concert at the Monroe Township middle school and this year the Monroe Township Middle School percussion Ensemble under the direction of Mr Yale Snider and we heard his work with some of our younger students our fifth graders and a sixth grader earlier tonight um they were going to be premiering uh a world premere performance of a brand new piece luminesence which was commissioned by and composed specifically for the Monroe Township middle Middle School percussion Ensemble by the internationally renowned composer Dr Nathan doy if you cannot attend the

089concert tomorrow night they're doing something a little different which I thought was great they're um it's going to be on Facebook live so anybody with access to Facebook will be able to view this concert and my understanding is the composer is in Chicago attending to either a concert he's conducting he's doing something on a professional level but he'll be able to watched the premiere of this from Chicago through Facebook so I thought that was pretty Innovative for what our percussion Ensemble is doing our music department certainly under Zach marado and Mr uh Yale Snider in particular uh as well as all of our music teachers we put out a Falcon Express with some of our upcoming music performances anybody that saw the legally blunt or any of the other performances recently or in the past

090years knows the level of expertise that our students bring forth to the stage we are so fortunate of outstanding students who who Excel academically uh artistically uh and you know athletically and in many other ways but uh please take some time if you're available uh tonight there's actually a musical theater performance in the pack uh tomorrow night I mentioned a jazz and percussion show Thursday May 17th is the high school evening of the Arts and spring concert there's a gallery walk to look at the artwork that the students produce tremendous and then you could go and hear the chorus Tuesday May 22nd is the Middle School chorus concert Wednesday the 23rd is the High School chorus concert Thursday May 24th is the Applegarth concert and uh just two more if you if I may uh

091June 5th the Woodland Elementary Spring Concert and Wednesday June six 6th the um Brookside Elementary Spring Concert as I mentioned our students and our staff today Mr buers Greg buers our athletic director sent out an email stating that at the GMC sportsmanship banquet our Athletic program was awarded the 2017 2018 GMC Red Division sportsmanship award W that certainly speaks to the character of our students um and their parents I guess that and then they're teachers right they get that from somewhere so congratulation to all of our students and to our staff for the Board of Education I would like to bring your attention to a couple items under the Personnel section of the agenda the first is letter A I think I can speak on behalf of the Board of Education to thank Miss Beth

092Goldstein teacher of mathematics at the at the high school for 36 years of service to the students Staffing community of Monroe Town [Applause] TR so not to be outdone we also have letter b a thank you to Mr Lara green a maintenance mechanic for the district for his 36 years of service so we we we will invite I I'm not sure if they here tonight but we we invite all of our retirees to the June board me meeting so they will all be invited at that meeting uh just another note on letter P of your agenda the agenda online agenda was corrected uh but if you have the paper copy from a couple days ago there is a there was a um a power professional um that was removed uh due to the uh the

093the she was put on there previously pending successful completion of pre-employment requirements and to date those requirements have not been met so the online version is correct but we did remove um the person from the agenda so letter P it's one of the people in that chart that is removed also I want to state that letters L m0 and P these are re appointments that the salaries and steps listed are based on the old guide and once the new guides and steps are in place reapprovals the board to approve items a through Q in the Personnel section of the agenda so move second Mr Chella Mr Ryback any comments or questions for Dr kosak I just I just have one comment overall on his report and I just want to say that you know if

094you look at the if you look at enrollment the high school from 33118 through 43018 had an increase of 134 students so although I understand and I agree with the need for the middle school for a middle school to be built we need a new Middle School badly we also need a new high school you add the addition to the high school and we can't you know I I it I think that when we over the next week when you call the committee together that that has to be something that we look at too because that's just it's that's it's just a glaring problem that we need to fix and that's that's all I have anyone else just can you just repeat the letters again I'm sorry from Dr K sure for anything particular no

095no no just from where to where a through okay Q like page 48 Q yes okay oh the letters oh for the whole thing I'm sorry 8 Q yes I'm sorry okay so I just I just want to get the section okay the letters are cut off yeah that's why the letters are cut off anyone else oh my problem no problem okay seeing none we'll have a roll call Personnel items a through Q Mrs Armenia yes Mr cherella yes Mrs Deo yes Mrs Lang yes Mrs Corino yes reuse on Nancy Dempsey thank you so noted Mr Ryback yes Mr Russo recuse on all recuse on all thank you so noted Mr retsky yes to all Mrs K Pano yes madame board president Personnel items a through Q has passed thank you board action yes for

096board action I recommend to the board approval of items a through l so move second Mr Chella Mr Ryback again comments or questions for Dr KAC I I did have a question on E and because it's a two 200 2017 2018 school year so that's correct uh yes it is I didn't know if that was for the next month or was for something next year no I believe that is for the 2017 18 school year okay anyone else have a question comment uh comment on F and L uh my comment is I take exception to Mr Ryback's comment about keeping the students safe uh the implication is that they are not safe with the ongoing police presence it seems to me and that if a board member votes know that they're making the students unsafe

097so I take exception to that and to the comment of some people in the public which is related to this a deliberation in a public form is the responsibility of an elected government body it promotes transparency and the alternative is to have no discussion and approve everything and anything and if that's what the P I don't think that's what the public at large really wants to go back to that thank you okay anyone else would this be the time to speak about the policy sure okay if I may yes you may thank you because uh I I haven't spoken my thoughts yet and I think there may be some confusion as to where I stand and and what I represent with regard to the security policy so I wanted to just make a brief statement

098so as a repres representative from Jamesburg I should let it be known that we voted to not hire armed police officers for our two schools and that was based on the board's review and decision about where two small schools were K through 8 and we felt it unnecessary um as a representative to the students in high school I do see that as a very different story um and so I look at that differently and and based on the people that I've spoken to parents with children at the high school as well as I'm friends with a lot of Monroe parents and and their thoughts so what I've heard from Monroe residents is their desire to put the guns in the hands of the trained police officers that we already have employed here in the district

099and while it's understood that it's not going to solve all problems while there's other training that should go into place for the school district the teachers and so on this is what's been asked for in response to what's out in society and so I I would say that director pyro who's in charge of the current eight member staff that is employed through the school district is well equipped to do his job um from what I've seen from what I've heard he's more than qualified being a sergeant with the Monroe Township Police Department and correct me if I'm wrong he oversaw us uh a group a staff of more than eight people during his career so to to manage eight people that he's already managing simply giving them guns and arming them for everybody's protection I

100don't I I vote for that I will be voting for that um again just to separate what I voted for in Jamesburg versus what I'm voting for in Monroe different reasons different scenarios um honestly different responses from the communities and so for that um I will be voting for that policy just wanted that to be cleared up okay thank you anyone else Mrs Lang I also had something that I wanted to say about the school security program policy um when I started teaching in 1982 I never thought 1986 I take that back never thought that there'd be a time where you really felt that you needed to have armed security guard in school so since the beginning of this discussion I have said very clearly I am not thrilled with the idea I don't think

101any of us are I think it's heartbreaking to think that we have to take such stringent measures to keep our children and our teachers and our staff's safe but I support the policy I support the policy I believe that we have to take every opportunity to support our our students and our teachers and our staff but I also know that within our policy guide we have over 15 different security policies addressing different points of it and I really hope that this is the beginning of a conversation and not the end of a conversation and that we will continue to look at all different measures to keep our students safe I know that the government um at the legislative meeting that I attended this past weekend they are going to shortly be announcing another very large

102Grant opportunity for school districts to improve Security in their schools I hope that we take advant AG of that I know I personally like to see vestibules in all of our schools where we limit the access but I think it's important that we look at we can't shut our doors to one particular policy and then to me this is really the beginning of a fuller discussion so thank you actually can I come back can I sure I got I forgot to add one thing I'm sorry so a I absolutely that was one of the things I was going to mention was hopefully this was a living breathing policy that can be adjusted over time like everything else um budgetarily and or policy-wise can always be reviewed could always be adjusted for what it's worth as

103the finance chair um from what I've seen on the recommendations the additional expense to arm our current nine officers would be less than what it would have cost us to hire two full-time officers in Jamesburg so and it's certainly less than what the township is paying right now to put their overtime off officers in our schools so from as the finance chair I I just wanted to make that clear as well I think it's fiscally sound thank you if we're goingon to go that route no thank you sorry um Mr Mayo I would just like to uh I totally support what Patty has said um I support the policy I just want to say that I have the utmost confidence in Pete purau and his staff to know what they're doing to handle this appropriately

104feel totally confident in their abilities and I do think that we need to start talking about um physical barriers in school so that it's just one of multiple ways that we protect the students thank you Mr Russo the whole thing started with Parkland and I would like to challenge everyone to Google uh the promise program and Parkland promise program in Parkland um pretty interesting Parkland at Parkland they had armed security officers in the school and still they had a problem so putting a gun in the school is not a 100% guarantee that we won't experience something like that I believe the intervention Mr Gorski mentioned that earlier is probably the best approach to stay on top of it that was the mistake that they made at Parkland and it was due to this promise program

105uh I don't have my personally and I've had a lot of experience with this and also uh Mr Ryback we do worry about students in the school my wife works in the school so we are concerned about security I'm a veteran I was in the military okay you don't put yourself out more than that I worry about security I never said you didn't and I don't think I don't have confidence in the administration creating a police department in school and that's what I'm that's my point I think more work needs to be done there anyone else okay seeing no one we we'll have a roll call on board action items board action items a through L Mrs armeno um yes on everything abstain on F and l f and L in Larry thank you or

106is in licorice or is in what else Larry sounds like G I like Licor Mr Chella yes Mrs Deo yes Mrs Lang yes Mrs karino re's on K and l no on F and yes for the rest did you get that yes ma'am okay thank you Mr Rybeck yes Mr Russo uh recuse on K and L no for f and yes for the other items thank you Mr rutsky yes to all Mrs K Pano yes bear with me a second Madame board president board action items a through L has passed thank you okay so we will go to the business administrator's report Mr Gorski Madame board president and members of the Monroe Township Board of Education it is recommended that board action items a through Q be approved by consent roll call so move second

107Mr Ryback and Mr Ry that's who I heard first okay comments or questions M for um Mr Gorski Mr tiella yeah I just have a a comment because it was this was brought up in uh buildings grounds and transportation at our meeting so the NP um the kpn kpn with the dates actually refers back to when we joined that Cooperative that those were the dates for that for the Cooperative that we um submitted for the bids for the for the for the new turf field so that's why the dates seem off but that was our joining of the cooperative and that was part of our thank you for the clarification thank you and I just question I'm sorry I didn't see this sooner on two a uh recommendation regarding Brinker Brinkerhoff Environmental Services is is

108that still for the 655 acres are we still using that for the 65 acres or is this just that we're accepting them for for the year the next year if we need them it's the latter it's accepting them for any environmental needs that may arise we have an approved uh licensed uh professional okay so we'll go they're the go-to people and and the same for the civil engineer of record Edwards Engineering Group are they Ono are they still looking into both Parcels at this point or again they're stopped right now and we're just hiring them for next year it is my understanding that all Appropriations into the 65 acres has all but ceased it hasn't ceased entirely um I haven't seen a purchase order or requisition for anything for that for the longest time and

109so it is ongoing uh as needed okay thank you anyone else seeing no one we will have have a roll call Mr gki thank you board action items a through Q Mrs armino yes Mr cherella yes Mrs Deo yes Mrs Lang yes Mrs Keno yes Mr Ryback yes Mr Russo yes I was going to ask you about three item number three on the a but considering uh is this is this related to security or just for staff and en that need this treatment because in that case I'd vote Yes um Mr Russo under professional appointments number three it is related to security uh you may recall the policy committee wanted to go beyond the state police requirements and have psychological test performed for competency on all armed officers so this um this professional will provide

110psychological examination Services as per the policy at a rate of I think $500 per exam okay how are you voting does that change your vote yeah no I I voted yes on everything I just wanted to know what it was okay thank you I thought it was for other staff member as well other staff as well which I thought would be a good idea joking um we we have uh we have another Outlet to send staff if we need psycho Val yeah it happened this this the intent of this was specifically for the officers okay Mr rutsky uh yes to all and Mrs kopan yes madame board president board action items a through Q has passed uh thank you Mr cherella for that clarification and includes my report thank you okay uh board president's report

111I'm going to forego that today because I'd like to take the time to use to talk about the memorandum of agreement in closed session so um I I I'm not going to have a report so we can go to Other Board of Education business Mrs Lang thank you um I I've done I've attended a bunch of different things over the last two months that I just wanted to share I don't remember the exact date but at about 4:30 in the afternoon on a Monday I got word that the midex County Board of Elections was meeting to discuss whether or not they should move the polling places out of the Monroe Township Schools so I hopped in my car and I drove to East Brunswick and I got there as they were finishing their discussion to

112say no that they didn't feel that they needed to even consider it I stayed for the meeting to continue to listen and then when the public was given an opportunity to speak I with my full disclosure as a board member but speaking as a parent and a member of the community I did express my concerns that it would be really wonderful if they would remove the polling places from our schools their response was the school should shut down I don't believe that I do not support that position I think it's hard enough to find days that we can make up and with calendars and crazy weathers um I did ask what can parents do or what can the community do to get their voices heard because no one knew that this meeting was taking place

113and I was told that if if if the parents are interested if the school is interested you can request through the your Township Clerk to have the Board of Elections come in to look at the polling place and to address some of those concerns and I would say if parents are truly concerned about it that would be something that I would encourage you to do is to reach out and do that but as I said their initial response was that it's too hard for them to find someplace else to move the polls to um I also wanted to congratulate our students for um at the middle school for the back to the 80s production and Legally Blonde here at the high school they were both fantastic Productions um always amazed at the level of professionalism

114and just off struck by the talent of our students and I think it's real important that we not only acknowledge the actors and the actresses but the students that were stage hands the students that helped with the costumes all the teachers the school staff and especially the parents and I know D was there working at Legally Blonde and it's and other parents and I just think they were great shows um on April 17th I attended the first annual Multicultural Festival sponsored by the Monroe Township human relations commission I was absolutely Blown Away by the incredible dancing that was exhibited getting to talk to the different community group tables and we actually had two of our high school groups that were represented there and it was a great opportunity and it was nice to be welcomed

115in and getting to be part of that that day to go and and you know observe everything and my daughter enjoyed it too which she's 13 and to have her have fun with her mom is really a struggle so I also attended the New Jersey school boards Association Visionary leadership training which was a weekend training opportunity to um build better Boards of education and one thing that I took away from it is the need for Boards of EDS to have an opportunity to become a team by having what they are calling um oh my goodness my brain Retreats and they really recommended a Saturday morning retreat with breakfast together and having that opportunity and I would like that to be something that we as a board could talk about because I think that it would

116be wonderful if we could come back together to be a more cohesive board um I also attended the middlex county school boards meeting I've been I I've been avoiding my house now so at the middlex county school boards meeting um one of the greatest things one of the the that I really enjoyed was um La stroll from Jamesburg asked the United Way of central New Jersey to come in and talk about the opportunities for grants that they they have and different things that they're doing within Jamesburg to help build stronger families and I know they're very focused right now on the prek in Jamesburg but I think as I spoke to the woman from the United Way She said there's ways that we can carry that over for when the jamesb students join us in

117the high school so I have um their handout if anybody's interested in it I'd be more than happy to share that with you I attended with Jill Deo the student oh and Steve was there at the middle County board meeting with me um which was great at the student achievement conference we got to hear from school districts around the state I one of my favorites was um Vernon New Jersey who is doing a Cooperative with their County College they actually they're a district that is really going down in enrollment so they have opened up their school actually to have college courses in their schools and they're talk they the gentleman spoke at length about the way that um they've been a to able to open opportunities for the student students that might not be going

118on to colleges and giving them job sampling and things so that that was that was probably my favorite part of that thing I attended the legislative committee meeting in for um this past Saturday be for in Steve's place and I just wanted to share that there were a couple big things um that they talked about we had a presentation by Mark Meer whose Senate majority office he works for Sweeney and he said and I wrote this down so that I would have it that if we if a school district got money last year you should expect that money to double this year so that he said that Senator Sweeney and his office is really working on having the school funding formula fully funded and ran and they want to get rid of the hold harmless

119provision and they want to take away the growth caps those are the two things that are hurting Monroe Township the most so they really seeing that as ASAC comes about that they should be able to in the next four to five years fund school districts appropriately which doesn't make the districts that are going to be losing money happy but it is what it is and um you know to get our fair share of the funding would be wonderful along with that on May 22nd at Brookside School New Jersey school boards Association is holding a meeting for advocating for fair funding for all school boards in the central region so so if any of you who can join that on and I think it's the 22nd I think I had the right date so we have

120that and then next week I think it's 6:30 6:30 or 7:00 yeah something 9:30 and I know they the um women from Chesterfield are very instrumental in running this this meeting and then my final thing is um delegate assembly is next week I was supposed to have gotten the packet already but I haven't gotten the packet but if you go on to the New Jersey school boards Association delegate assembly website and I can email it to you if you have any comments or any input that you want to give to me prior to the meeting please do um I would appreciate your feedback but I know they're going to be talking about school security and they're going to be talking about I don't remember the second one so I tried to remember everything but I

121couldn't do it I tried well you haven't been doing much Patty so U Mr Ryback first I just like to uh say that Mrs Lang's being very humble because at that meeting New Jersey school board both she and Mr Mayo were honored for their uh work the professional development that they've been doing uh with New Jersey school boards I know they both received certificates congratulations congratulations both um also last Saturday I was honored to be able to attend the community awareness seminar sponsored by India us us Forum of Monroe it was at the senior center and there were really two topics there one was domestic violence and substance abuse they had experts the presentations we had our two of our own police officers uh talk about uh uh domestic violence and uh we had town

122uh Council two Town Council women there as well as state senator Greenstein so it it was well attended by the community and we had representatives there and um I I'd like to see more of this kind of work and um I I credit the uh the organization I think Andy is uh one of the heads of it and i' certainly like to credit him for the work that they all do that's it thank you thank you Mr May um I would just like to say congratulations to all our teachers of the year and Educational Service Professionals of the year it was an honor to share your special moment tonight I could see how much all of you love your jobs and the children you serve our district is so lucky to have you here congratulations

123[Applause] thanks Miss Miss Armenia I just to quickly re what Jill said congratulations to all the teachers of the year and the staff to the year and to the children who served at the dinner um it's extraordinary just as as we with the plays and the music um it's extraordinary the skill of the culinary arts and the the kids were wonderful and and thank you for the little serenade we got as we walked out of there so thank you to the students parents and of course the teachers who um got uh teachers of the Year thank you Mr retsky all right so real quick I just wanted to thank Patty for attending everything that you do um wonderful that you make yourself available for all that so thank you I wanted to just tell you

124that with the United Way because they have been wonderful wonderfully supportive of of Jamesburg they're really focused on early early childhood education they did have a meeting at the Monroe Library sorry maybe two weeks ago they're coming back to do another second round uh meeting next Monday night in Jamesburg at the library to just further discussions on how they could be more involved they're just very open willing and able and happy to help and so they're going to come back uh next month to see what else they can do and where they could lend more resources um so it's they're they're they're a great great facilitator of of resources they sort of quarterback from different corporations Johnson and Johnson or certainty windows or whatever the company is and they they go to United Way and

125say listen we have $10,000 that we'd like to get out into the community please help us and United Way Then directs it and so it's it's great to apply to them for Grants and things of that nature and meeting going to be the Jamesburg Library Monday I think also 6:30 I could double check that um and I just wanted to thank Miss armino for signing up to go to the June 1st school boards um about school security and and I look forward to whatever information you could bring back from that well I just so you know I I do have a scheduled oh closing that I may have to attend but I'm going to try to at least go if if that if that doesn't get rescheduled I will be there from to end if

126not and I have to be with my clients then I will go as soon as it's over I may actually upset myself from the from my job to do this but it's tough because they do it on a Friday and it's an all day class at Mercer County College if they did it on a Saturday you well Saturdays I work too but but the point is I have gone to several of the Fridays and generally they are um I'm available I make myself available but I my schedule is not my own when it comes to that kind of thank you for signing up and it's important hopefully you if you make it you'll bring back some great information I hope to thank you very much sure Mr tiella yeah I just wanted to kind of

127reiterate what everyone said about the the teachers and the professionals that were honored the award winners that were honored tonight and then our Culinary Arts students who I think did a f phenomenal job um cooking and serving and and just the level of professionalism was amazing um and every every year that I've attended um I've I've enjoyed it and learned a lot about our our our staff so one thing I will and I don't want to go negative but I will one thing I'm going to ask is just that um in the future if we could have invite um the mtea president I think that would be nice to do I you know considering that those th those teachers belong to the union and I think it would be nice for her uh or whoever's

128the president at the time to be able to also uh celebrate with us and that's it thank you it's a great great great suggestion okay anyone else okay so at this time we will go to the public forum anyone wishing to speak about anything please come to the microphone give your name and address for the record and we will adhere to our 4minute time limit uh Doug po excuse me Doug poy I live at for tamarak um I I want to share with you an observation uh of this evening uh during the first public forum uh supposedly comments or questions are supposed to be restricted to what is on the agenda uh one of the speakers approached and wanted to speak of the superintendent's contract but but was denied being asked uh being able to

129ask any question or make any comment on that because it was not on the agenda uh but yet another speaker came up and asked a question about the homework policy as well as the building referendum uh neither one of those items are on the agenda either and all I'm saying is it sends a mixed message in terms of what is going to be answered and not answered during the first public War so I'm I'm sure that that was not intentional but I I think uh the Board needs to be very very careful uh about being consistent during that P that first public uh Forum uh also I was a bit disturbed um during the lengthy discussion about the security uh I felt that um a a and I do commend you Mr Gorski for for

130providing all of the information that you provided and yet you are the business administrator and I felt that you were being called upon and question to answer uh items of concern to members of the board that should have been correctly addressed to either the the superintendent or the assistant superintendent and yet you were very willing to provide those answers uh once again I think we just have to be careful how much we burden uh our uh our business administrator with because some of those things are not actually in his domain of responsibility these a security specialist then I just a couple of other things that I noted here oh the sidebar agreement that was approved tonight item L the sidebar agreement between the uh mtea and the board uh could you disclose what the nature

131of that sidebar was Madam yes Mr Po that sidebar um has to do with security and changing the compensation designed for armed security as opposed to non-armed security it it um affords Advanced step on the guide to the top step of the night shift pay schedule plus a dollar an hour for all Arm Security thank you it has an annual cost by the way of about $90,000 just for the labor component okay I I appreciate that additional information uh in connection with the ly discussion of the security uh policy uh I have mentioned this in Prior board meetings in fact I even mentioned it when I was a member of the board I think it might have been in my first year when Dr Hamilton was the superintendent uh I strongly encourage the administration to

132consider uh having a district crisis counselor uh to help students uh with deaths with uh thoughts of suicide with uh death of parents or siblings or uh whatever the situation might be because a lot of our students do face those I I believe that currently here in Monroe they are handled by individual counselors but I think there is a benefit in having a crisis counselor uh that is skilled in dealing with those issues uh that is someone that students can feel comfortable turning to uh and can also feel comfortable going to uh and possibly mentioning the have a friend who is uh talking about having guns or talking about uh possibly wanting to hurt somebody uh other school systems do have a crisis counselor they work uh in the district uh they go from building

133to building and they have found it extremely beneficial I think Monroe has been blessed with the fact that we have had a few if any I'm not aware but we possibly have had some student suicides because they are extremely disruptive to the learning environment as well as to uh the surviving students thank you Mr Po your your time is up okay thank you I'm finished any that's okay I but I think I'll have Dr Alvi answer that question about the crisis counselors um Mr Po yes we actually do have a behavioral support team in the district and um M Miss Irene barata is actually our counselor um our one of our school psychologist that works with every District every school in the district so she is um kind of leads that and as part of

134one of the Committees I've worked with closely with this year is the whole uh supporting the whole child committee we are working with all of our child study teams and guidance counselors to ensure that they're getting the training that they need Anthony preso at a question way back to my question about what is the status of the superintendent contract as I said at the last Board of Education meeting the superintendent received a statutory notice okay when did he receive that I do not have the date off off well give me an idea I mean you must know he did it in a time we the board did that in a timely manner Kathy yes sir don't go around the question you know when you gave it to him when did you give it to I

135do not have the date off of me I do not have you don't have to give me a date you know why you could give me at the end of the month beginning of the it was the end of March the end of March the end of March okay were the other um board members notified about this yes they were all they were every single board member yes they were you know I commend some of the board members that walked out on the last couple of board meetings you know it took courage to do it and I know you did it because there was a lot of wrong things going on and inappropriate things are going on and I just feel that a superintendant getting the bad end of the stick here but uh you

136know when you ask a question you get skated around that's not the that's not being open so I commend the people that walked out you had your courage to do it and I would consider you asking some of the questions at the other board member other board business asking some of these questions thank you anyone else from the public prakash per 33 daa Drive uh prakash parab 33 did Drive okay I've been told to be soft today because I very become emotional so I'm very soft today um lot of good discussion and uh thanks for those who are lobbing for funding Fair funding so I request you know like last meeting I requested that uh please write letter to governor Senate President and the speaker of the house so I appreciate if the Board of

137Education president can write a letter can you please do that I can write on behalf of the board if the board requests me to do that okay please ask the board I requesting the board to write a letter because they these three guys are going to make a decision so I have you'll not believe from my community we drafted a letter I drafted letter and we mon Indians for civic action sent out about 7 20 letters so please uh do that I appreciate okay that's the request okay do it within next s days because they're going to take decision in June so Governor is looking at that so more letters more prominent letters mayor wrote and some of the council people went so I appreciate that okay so that's the one and then uh regarding

138the another one thing is again I'm not last time I requested youall parents should be allowed give us time splot you know just 15 minutes or something of that so the parents can speak come and speak at 7:30 and the meeting if you all want move it to 6:30 so the parents can come so look into the policy what you all can do okay yeah well at at at this point it has to go through policy and make changes but there is a whole list of policies that are mandated that we have to go through before we can even get to that one correct so it's probably not going to be done before the end of this school year you know just think of I know that policy takes 6 seven months some some of

139the policies to do that so please uh we've been working on the security policy so a lot of the policies have been on hold until we get this one accomplished another one thing I went for the legally blunt that show so great uh I think we don't announce it to the public because the children have to see it first and a few parents but the student practice so well so maybe that in summer or something they can repeat the show it will be great so it was a very good uh performance so thank you very much thank you Joyce Oliva formerly Sweeney Las Vegas and I do know the rules now I can talk about anything yes you can so okay first of all quickly for regarding the referendum and it going down I was

140part of the district when the initial referendum years ago went down when Dr Ferry was here the idea was we have to commit to have the rest of the community involved and certain things have always been done um in an effort to gain Goodwill with the community one of them which I understand has since been cancelled is the adult ed program which I had been part of at one point and that is such a good community relations and that's why it was originally established and to just shut it down um it's not going to help you gain favor with the public um I was going through the minutes I've been going through them periodically I realized that when I was doing them because I was Mike secretary prior to Nancy um I was taught by

141Wayne holiday the best of the best start with July as the first of the year work through to June start it with page one work it to the end where Mike signs it next one you pick up with whatever that number was and continue it should be sequential there is no Rhyme or Reason I can see if you don't want to put numbers don't put any numbers but when I look at it and I see 171 171 171 171 then you go to another one and it's 190 it it's sloppy and for anybody from the public that might look at it it's really a reflection on the district as a whole and Mike specifically um for those who knew me you know that I retired after being out on a medical leave for some heart

142issues due to stress um I am now stress free um I was wondering that there are certain things that I can now say um and I'm hoping that certain things are now being done such as any mail that comes in addressed to the Board of Education members indeed gets distributed to all the Board of Education members without you or in the one case I know of the um superintendent deciding to keep mail from the board that I already had in envelopes addressed ready to be sent by messenger and I was told pull it this was not with you this was back with just wanted to clarify was no no no I never worked with you no this was back when I was working I know but when you said superint that was no no that

143was uh Dr Hamilton okay um initially I mean I'm hoping that petty cash from different departments such as transportation and now being used exclusively for things regarding the transportation department which it was not always done the past and and finally I when I left here I totally felt oh one more when I was out on leave Mike had asked his my fill in to box all of my personal effects including a little refrigerator and take it to the basement without my knowledge and I happened to find out one evening when I stopped by the board office um and then by the time I returned home three miles away and went to check my email which I had been staying on top of Mike had had Reggie shut my email down and when I went in

144the next day spoke with Dr Hamilton and Mike it was agreed upon that since I was a technically I am an employee and I guarantee you there are people that have retired 15 years ago who still still have their email active um so I wondered when I was going to get the little money for the refrigerator that went to the basement and then disappeared your your your four minutes are up yeah I know and since he got 30 seconds more all I need is 30 seconds Mike I do hope because I felt terribly harassed and bullied and other people that I worked with felt the same way but needed the job more than I did so so I hope that there is more peace in that office there is less harassment and less bullying because

145there'll be less productivity that's all anyone else from the public oh look who's here uh L Masters and I'm Aela court but I think everybody has my address and phone number now just in case um tonight at the middle school was the tag Expo I don't know if this was mentioned I just wanted to bring it up um really excellent program great seeing the kids there they were doing Robotics and somebody had a robotic hand and something for therapy with people in hospitals I just wanted to recognize some of the teachers give me I'm not going to read the whole thing don't worry uh bernardette chin Stephanie aens uh Tanya deoo Pat mccurnin Daniel fields and laurine Wright Sher Holmes and Andrew chawa karesa cromby and Scott messenger uh Michael palado and Jody Hy Autumn

146Dawson and Parker Schmidt Alysa Moralo and Holly jertz Ashley berer and Kathleen wood Francis bant and krie ker again it was a great program I love this I think this is the second year uh the kids get a kick out of it and it really does showcase some of our uh more advanced skills so thank you everybody for that next year I hope it's not on the same day as a board meeting or they have it at where the board meeting is so that we could attend and and see that also loud yeah thank you anyone else from the public seeing none will close 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 close session in accordance with

147the Sunshine Law chapter 231 of the public laws of 1975 njsa 10 col 4-6 through 10 col 4-21 to discuss the following subjects harassment IM intimidation and bullying discussion regarding the memorandum of agreement in connection with a new Collective negotiations agreement between the board and the Monroe Township Education Association following Clos 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 Mr Mr Chella Mr Mayo all in favor I opposed I'm not even sure how long this could possibly take anybody have an idea I'm thinking 45 minutes to an hour at this time the board will move back into public session and I have a resolution to read it is recommended that the Board of Education approve

148the previously submitted memorandum of agreement between the Board of Education and the mono Township Education Association for the period from July 1st 2017 through June 30th 2020 MOA the board president and the business administrator board secretary as the attesting witness are hereby authorized and directed to sign a collective negotiations agreement which incorporates the terms of the Moa the business administrator board secretary is hereby further authorized and directed to take all necessary steps to implement this action by the board of education so move second moved uh uh Mr Chella and Mr Ryback any comments or questions Miss armino okay here I go um my statement prior to to the to the vote is in a democ democracy there needs to be more than one voice at the table and as an elected official we're not only

149speaking uh of our own selves or our own interest we represent various Community Voices we ask all residents to support our budgets so sometimes we have to listen to again their voices I've attended hours and hours of Schoolboard training over the years training from New Jersey school boards about our obligations of oversight I know I'm not popular and some of my votes are not popular but I feel out of necessity and again sometimes the democracy is not is is cumbersome I am compelled my vote will will be um I am compelled comp compelled to vote no due to procedural issue and one aspect of the memorandum of agreement so I just need to say that before I vote I want to be transparent and take my medicine when it comes Mr T yeah I just

150like to I just want to say that I uh and I and I respect what your your your what your your thoughts Michelle I would just like to say that I'm voting for this uh because I think that this agreement this contract um does what we set out for it to do uh you know the some of the things that we wanted to do was to um be able to attract uh new teachers and retain the teachers that we have and I think that that's important for us to do as a district I think it's important whether you have children in the district or not to have a strong school system that's attractive not only to students and parents but also to teachers so that that for that reason I'm voting I'm going to vote

151for it but I also want to you know take the time to thank the all the board members and the administration uh our committee for the time that they put in and the the our uh the mtea committee for the time that they put in because there's always two sides to to to you know two sides to every argument or two sides to every side I don't it doesn't even matter it's late but we but but uh but I but they worked hard also and I think we met in the middle and and so I'm voting for this thank you Mr Rybeck uh I too uh would just like to say I think this contract uh benefits both sides benefits everybody but um I want to just um give out a shout of thank you

152to both negotiating teams throughout uh throughout the whole process it was a long process over a year uh we all maintained the level of professionalism it was NE never any negative statements being made never any yelling it was it was civil and uh I was proud of uh both negotiating teams I really appreciate everyone and no food poisoning no no yay I think that's the best thing no food poisoning um and I would I would also like to reiterate what kenon and Steve said because um this went way longer than I had anticipated it would go and um I I just like to not just thank the negotiating teams but the mtea itself and the membership for being so respectful I know you had to do what you needed to do um but I I

153I think you were all really gracious about how you were handling everything and um like I said this this did go a lot longer but I think um it's a good negotiation and a good contract for everybody if one side is very happy and the other side isn't that's not good if both sides come out of this and neither feel like they got everything they wanted that's a good contract and I and I just want to thank everybody for um working together through that throughout the process and I will be voting in support of the contract so if there's no other um comments or questions we'll have a roll call yes ma'am Mrs armeno regretfully no Mr Chella yes Mrs Deo yes Mrs Lang yes Mr Rybeck yes Mr rutsky yes and Mrs kapano yes

154Madam board president of course Jamesburg representative representative is eligible to vote that is six y the memorandum of agreement has passed thank you very very [Applause] much so at this time we'll go to public forum and since we have public maybe somebody wants to talk and so anybody who wishes to come to the microphone please uh state your name and address for the record and we will adhere to our time limit Doug poy for tamarak Road uh I very much uh appreciate uh the fact that the contract has finally been settled uh and I'm just wondering uh if uh you are at Liberty to uh somewhat outline the major accomplishments of this contract not at this time we will do so after the contract has been signed by both parties all right thank you you're

155welcome anyone else okay seeing no one our next scheduled Board of Education meeting congratulations on approving the contract well needed could you please state your name yeah you know we still have to do that I forgot uh Joyce Oliva previously Sweeney Las Vegas anyway thanks to all the teachers I must say I loved working in this school district It's a Wonderful District wonderful people um by the time I left it was getting a little bit too political um and hopefully everything can resolve itself um I don't know how to really bring this up um I still am a member of on Facebook some of the websites that Monroe Township voice and I read something recently between two people um discussing something and it was with a lot of disrespect I'm sorry but this public forum

156is only on the closed session resolution oh doesn't say that on the um it should because I don't they didn't say that we have the agenda no because that's usually we always do is that the last public forum there usually there used to only be two we have somewhere along the line there's three but it didn't say it just said open public forum okay that that's um normally what we have is the last public forum is for the closed session okay okay I will then speak to some of the people privately after to the other thing that add an ethical violation okay okay our next schedule Board of Education meeting is scheduled for June 13 2018 7 o'clock p.m. at the Monro Township High School motion to adjourn motion second M Mrs Lang Mrs Mr

157Mayo all in favor I I oppose then the meeting is adjourned